TEXT SELECTION FROM IMAGES OF DOCUMENTS USING AUTO-COMPLETION

A user-interface for selecting text from images of documents using auto-completion is described. The auto-completion process may be used to complete words (or text sequences), phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or other groupings of words. In response to user input, the OCR results for one or more images of documents are searched. The user input may include typing in a partial word (or the initial characters in a text sequence) via an input device or alternatively, annotations made by a user on a hardcopy document prior to scanning the document. One or more word matches are presented to the user for acceptance until the user accepts a word match or until all word matches have been presented to the user. Once a user accepts a word match, the word match is copied into an electronic document such as a word processing document, spreadsheet document, or other electronic document created by an application program. The auto-completion process may be repeated until the selected text region is copied into the electronic document.