>> I have a substantial quantity of tabulated data presented in JPEG
>> format from scanned hard copies.
>> The data is typed and "clean".
>> Is there a freebie utility out there that will "OCR" this data into
>> .xls format? I appreciate that it will then need careful checking,
>> but it would still be a lot quicker than typing it all in.

> The scanner most always comes with the OCR program.
>
> You cannot "convert" a jpeg to a a text file that Excel could read.

I did an experiment.

Starting with an Excel file containing a rectangular table of random
numbers, I did:

<Alt-Print Screen>

Paste the image into the "Paint" program

Trim off the extraneous stuff in Paint.

Print from Paint to MS-Office ImageWriter. (To replicate OP's situation, I
could've started with a jpeg file and printed to ImageWriter.)

In the resulting "Imaging" window, use
Tools >> Send text to Word
This made an MS-Word document containing a table.

Copy the table and paste it back into a new blank Excel document.

In this round-about round trip, only about 80% of the numbers were correct.
The problems were primarily recognizing the decimal point. Sometimes it was
omitted; other times, a digit next to the decimal point was turned into a
letter.

Draw your own conclusions. My conclusion is not to rely on ImageWriter's
OCR for numerical data. Maybe other OCR programs would be better.