It sounds as though you need an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program.
They often come bundled with your scanner.
Your scanned document is currently an image file-OCR will turn the text
characters into editable text.
There is an interesting looking free web OCR program at:
http://www.expervision.com/webtr6.htm
I've never tried it.

You may get more info at the OCR Resource List at:
http://web3.humboldt1.com/~jiva/ocr/_ocr_resource.htm#shareware
OCR programs vary a lot in their capabilities, so you may want to read the
reviews here.
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How do I edit a document that I have scanned and saved in Word document
format? When I open it and try to edit it, I get four black dots on each
corner, like a giant text box.
Do I need a separate program to do this? I also tried to copy and paste from
my scanner but still cannot edit it.

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