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Is there any way to automatically take the data from a particular place in a document and have it insert into a particular field in a form?

All of the documents follow one of two standard formats: and ID card and an invoice. I currently have to hand copy information from the ID and the Invoice onto one form. I have a scanner that comes with ABBYY OCR software. I'm wondering if there's anyway to set up a process where the two documents are scanned in and the appropriate information is automatically inserted into a form that I can print?

I have no idea how this would be accomplished (maybe with some software, maybe macros?) but it seems to me that since all the data fields are standard, there would be a way to create a document map and pre-define certain portions of the document so when, for example, the ID is scanned in, it recognizes the area I have pre-defined as the name and take that field and populates it into the appropriate form field which I have also mapped to "name".

This would be very similar to how business card scanner software works. I wouldn't be surprised if something like this already exists but I don't think I'm using the correct terminology when I search for it.

Any help would be appreciated.

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Why can't you use a macro recorder to automate the steps you are manual doing?

Some macro recorders:

Autohotkey

Automation -> AutoMate 7

iOpus -> iMacros

hitek -> Automize Jitbit

Tethys Solutions -> Automation Anywhere -> 695$ per computer, 7,000$ for the server

Softomotive -> Winautomation

FlashplayerPro -> Easy Macro Recorder

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I'm not sure this would work w/o some way of defining the relevant information points in the scanned/ocr'd doc. Here's where I see it breaking down: I scan the ID in, manually record copying the text "John Anderson" from the Name field of the ID, then paste it into the appropriate place in the form. "John Anderson" is 13 characters long. What's going to happen when I scan in an ID of someone named "Li Wei" or "Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr." Is the macro only going to copy 13 characters of Charles... or over copy onto the next field for Li? Also, what if the alignment is slightly off? – matt Dec 16 '10 at 19:39
It's hard to tell without seeing the scan and the software you use to extract the info. Can you use the mouse to select the text? If so draw the selection box wide enough to cover longer texts. Another Way I would go about it: copy all text to an editor and then work with that (ie, "Full name: John Doe" -> serach for "Full name: " then copy the text until the end of the line.) – Cilvic Dec 17 '10 at 8:06
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