Abstract: An apparatus capable of scanning in documents is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a linear scanner is integrated with a portable computing device and exposed to a scanning document. An image is generated when there is a relative motion between the linear scanner and the scanning document. Texts in the image are reproduced by an OCR engine in the apparatus and can be displayed on a display screen of the portable computing device. The reproduced texts can be then filled in appropriate fields on records maintained in the device or transported to another device.