[fatkid2000]

I need to purchase a scanner so that I can transfer hand written documents etc onto a database for my job / appraisals. I've had a brief look in the shops and there seems to be quite a variation in price & other things that they do: i.e Do I but a scanner / copier / printer or as I'm thinking just a scanning device. I already have a printer which works fine, but for some odd reason  dedicated scanners are more expensive than the combined ones. Any advice much appreciated.

[Johnny Brown]

If you've got a digital camera, use that. A half decent flatbed should be sub 100quid though.

[dave]

for scanning docs you don't even need any kind of decent resolution on the scanner, check freecycle! there should also be text recognition software available that can "read" the doc too and convert to text if you need that ability.