But there’s a nifty little Microsoft Word trick that can help you to achieve this same feat in a fraction of the time it’ll take you to type it using your phone camera.

In this article, you’ll learn how to add text to a Microsoft Word document using your mobile phone camera.

How to Input Text Into Word Using Your Phone Camera

​​​​​Before we begin, note that you can only add text into Word using your phone camera with the Microsoft Word mobile app.

So, be sure to download the app to use this process.

Download: Microsoft Word for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

Open the Microsoft Word app on your mobile phone and tap on the + sign in the top-right corner of your screen. Tap on Blank document to open a new blank document or pick from other Microsoft Word document templates. Tap on the Menu button (an A with a pen) to the left of the search button. In the far left of the toolbar, tap on Home, then tap on Insert from the menu options and tap on Scan Document. 3 Images Close Grant Microsoft Word permission to take pictures and record videos. Place the document on a flat surface and capture the desired portion of the document. You can use the crop tool to resize your capture, then tap on Confirm. 3 Images Close Alternatively, you can select an image or multiple images from your gallery containing the text(s) you want to import into Word, then tap Done or the blue caret button.

Note that the text to be imported should be printed and not handwritten. You also need to be online for this to work.

Insert Text to Microsoft Word Using Phone Camera

So, go ahead and snap it, but note that the result you get will depend on a few factors such as the legibility of the text, font size, and the physical condition of the paper.

That being said, although adding text to Microsoft Word via your phone camera will still require some additional formatting, it is still faster than reproducing whole documents by typing manually.

This is especially true if the document to be typed contains a lot of complex mathematical or scientific formulas and symbols.