Question about software for scanning documents

I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. I have a scanner and want to use it to scan in my old college notes so I can throw out all the boxes of papers that are cluttering my house. Is there some kind of special software that I should use? I want it set up where I make a file for each class and can page through the pages, rather than having every page set up as a separate file. I really don't know where to begin on this, so any advice will be helpful!

Thanks!

 

Ok, if these pages are typed you need an OCR program - then you'd scan them as text and make a single Word document.
If you have handwritten, I'd say scan them as images, but be careful, the higher the dpi for quality the bigger the file size. Then Bring all the images into Word and maybe print to PDF with one of those freeware printers...
that's my best guess solution.
Usually a scanner comes with all the software you'd need for 'importing' the images/text. So you'd need word or like & PDF software...

 

Thanks. I didn't know if there was any special software for "archival" use, or if I should use something like that if it does exist. I'll try what you suggest--sounds pretty easy to me and I have everything I need to start working on it.

Thanks again!

 

Your scanner probably came with some kind of OCR software. If not, you can use something like PaperPort, ReadIRIS (great little program!), or Adobe Acrobat (not Reader). In fact, you can download a 30-day demo of Acrobat 7 Professional, scan your stuff into Acrobat format, and you're all set!