How do I scan a document to open in Immersive Reader now?

Question

How do I scan a document to open in Immersive Reader now?

Kim Cing 0

Now that Microsoft is retiring Microsoft Lens and suggesting that we scan into OneDrive, is there an easy way to scan and open text in Immersive Reader? I work with students with reading disabilities, and Microsoft Lens has been a lifesaver for our students for years because they could scan a text and immediately open it with Immersive Reader for text-to-speech accommodations. Now, when they scan it into OneDrive (as the Lens app now suggests) it saves as a PDF or JPG, which doesn't open in Immersive Reader. Now they are having to save it as a PDF, then open it in Word to convert it to a Word document in order to access Immersive Reader. This is a convoluted way to have to do this and many of our students can't do it. It's so frustrating when Microsoft has a great tool and then retires it without replacing its functionality!!

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2 answers

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Answer 1

To scan a document and open it in Immersive Reader after Microsoft Lens has been retired, you can follow these steps:

Scan the Document: Use your device to scan the document using the new suggested method, which is to save it directly into OneDrive. This will typically save the document as a PDF or JPG.
Convert the Document: Since Immersive Reader does not support opening PDFs or JPGs directly, you will need to convert the scanned document into a format that Immersive Reader can process. This can be done by opening the PDF in Microsoft Word, which will convert the document into an editable Word format.
Open in Immersive Reader: Once the document is in Word format, you can then use Immersive Reader to access the text-to-speech features and other reading accommodations.

While this process may seem convoluted, it is currently the method available to ensure that students can still access the benefits of Immersive Reader after the retirement of Microsoft Lens. It is understandable that this change can be frustrating, especially for those who rely on these tools for support in reading disabilities.

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Answer 2

Hi @Kim Cing,

Thank you for sharing your experience. I apologize for any inconvenience caused by the retirement of Microsoft Lens.

From your post, I understand that the discontinuation of Microsoft Lens has resulted in a less-than-ideal experience for you, especially as your students are currently facing significant difficulties due to having to go through a rather complicated process to access their learning materials.

In this situation, I would recommend that you share your story and experience with the Microsoft development team through one of the following two methods:

Option 1: Send feedback directly in the Word application Please click on: Help > Feedback

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Option 2: Create a post on Microsoft’s official Feedback portal:

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When a feedback post receives a high level of engagement, it helps the Microsoft development team better understand the real user experience of your students. Based on that input, they may consider developing and providing a similar feature in the future.

I understand that losing such a useful feature can have a significant impact on your students’ learning process. Please understand that, as a moderator, I do not have access to or influence over the internal development roadmap of the application.

Once again, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to share your experience.

If you have any questions, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.