It seems to me that you should be able to import a .tiff file directly into Word, view it and manipulate it there, much like a PDF file.
(But then I've never seen a TIFF file. If there's one easily accessible on the Web, I could check it out, play with it a bit, and see what I come up/out with.)
Every PDF file that I've come across (but especially those with text, such as journal articles) allows me to highlight passages and then cut and paste them into a Word document. That should work with a TIFF file which is tantamount to the same thing (from what I can gather).
