Converting pdf to spreadsheet

Even though the process for converting a PDF file to Excel using Word Online is substantially similar to that I followed when using the desktop version of Word, there are a few small differences.

Once Word online has opened the PDF file, convert it into an editable document by clicking on the Edit in Word button in the upper part of the screen.

Word online displays a dialog box informing you that it will make a copy of the PDF file and convert it into an editable Word document. Confirm by clicking on the Convert button on the lower part of the dialog box. Once Word online has finished the conversion, it displays another dialog box informing you changes in the layout of the PDF file may have occurred. Click on the Edit button on the lower right corner of the dialog box. Once Word online has converted the PDF file to an editable document, the screen looks roughly as follows.

The actual document will most likely be different in your case. Go to the section of the editable document that you want to bring into Excel, and select it. In the screenshot shown below, I select the same table I use for the previous examples within this Excel tutorial:. If you have problems when trying to copy from Word online, you can use the desktop version of Microsoft Word in your computer to continue with the process.

To do this, click on the Open In Word button that appears to the right of the Ribbon tabs. If you choose to open the editable file in Microsoft Word, the desktop version of Word is launched. You can then follow the steps I describe in the previous section to copy the relevant data. Once you've copied the data, go back to Excel and paste it by using among others one of the following methods:.

The following screenshot shows the resulting table in Excel after I've adjusted the column width :. Not surprisingly, the results are almost identical as those obtained by opening the PDF file with a recent version of Microsoft Word explained above.

Just as when opening the PDF file with Microsoft Word, you'll notice that the results aren't always perfect although in some cases they will be. In the case of the example displayed above, for example, all the Mean errors first section of the table are pasted as an image. In order to be able to manipulate those values in Excel, you'll need to bring them using another method such as the other ones explained in this blog post or type them directly in Excel.

If you have to constantly convert PDF files to Excel or want to avoid the shortcomings of the other 2 methods described above, it may be a good idea to use a PDF converter. Even if you don't end up using Able2Extract, you may want to steer clear of online PDF conversion services when converting sensitive or confidential PDF files.

As when explaining the other methods above, I use the table within the European Central Bank Working Paper titled Inflation forecasts: Are market-based and survey-based measures informative?

Once Able2Extract displays the Open dialog box, use it to browse to the folder where the file you want to convert is located. Once you've located the PDF file to be converted, select it and click the Open button on the lower right corner of the Open dialog box. Able2Extract opens the PDF file you want to convert. It also explains how you can select the data you want to convert.

As explained by Able2Extract, you can select data using any of the following methods :. Go to the Edit menu and select any of the following options or use the appropriate keyboard shortcut:. You determine the pages to be converter by typing the relevant range and clicking on the OK button on the lower section of the Select Page Range dialog box. For example, I can use this option to select the table in page 22 of the European Central Bank Working Paper that I use as an example throughout this blog post.

The third way of selecting data with Able2Extract is very similar to using the Select Area option in the Edit menu. Simply use the mouse to select the portion of the PDF document that you want to convert. Once you've clicked on the Excel button of the toolbar, Able2Extract provides you 2 options regarding the way in which you want the conversion to occur:. Option 2: Custom. In the special cases where the Automatic conversion doesn't work properly for example, the resulting Excel table isn't properly aligned , you can use the Custom conversion option to specify the column structure.

This allows you to designate the column structure before Able2Extract carries out the actual conversion into Excel. To use the Custom conversion option, click on the Define button on the lower middle section of the Convert to Excel dialog. For this particular example, I choose Automatic conversion.

I may explain how to use the Custom conversion option in a future blog post. Use this dialog to select the location and filename of the converted Excel file, and click on the Save button on the lower right corner to confirm your choice. Notice how the Save As dialog box is saving the resulting file as an Excel Spreadsheet.

The results I obtain when converting the sample table are shown in the screenshot below. Notice how, among others, Able2Extract was able i to replicate the table structure and ii extract all of the significant values from the source PDF document. There's still some cleaning up work to be done. Notice, for example, how negative numbers have been extracted as text I highlight one such value below.

For example, the negative numbers that are stored as text can easily be converted into actual numbers by using the VALUE function and, if necessary, Excel's text functions. If you're interested in using Able2Extract to convert PDF documents to Excel files, you can download it, and get a 7-day free trial, by following the link below:.

Download Able2Extract affiliate link. In this blog post, you have seen 3 different methods to convert a PDF file to Excel :. You may be wondering which of the 3 methods that I explain in this blog post should you use when converting PDF files to Excel. As a general matter, the results obtained when copying and pasting data from a PDF file to Excel method 1 are in my opinion not particularly good.

Not only is it an incredibly powerful converter in its own right, but this app supports more than 20 languages, including German, French, Italian and Spanish. The software is also fast and easy to get to grips with, letting you convert PDFs with just three clicks.

The software only works with Windows. In a similar way to UniPDF, it tries to keep important elements of a document intact during the conversion process.

For instance, if you have embedded tables in a PDF document, these will be converted into an Excel spreadsheet hopefully without issues. SmallPDF allows you to compress, merge and split documents, as well as add e-signatures.

The one negative is that SmallPDF isn't transparent on its pricing, pushing users to try the software first. However, the cost is fairly reasonable. Brian has over 30 years publishing experience as a writer and editor across a range of computing and technology titles, and has been interviewed multiple times for BBC News and BBC Radio. He is also a science fiction and fantasy author, writing as Brian G Turner. North America. Adobe Acrobat DC. Reasons to avoid - Pricing is high.

Reasons to avoid - Only available on Windows. All files are deleted from our servers after 6h max without a trace. Safe and Secure All data uploaded to our servers will be used for conversion purposes only and deleted promptly after conversion.

No Email There is no need to leave an email address or other identifiable data. Quick and Easy Conversion speed depends on the file size and servers' overload.

Free This service is free to use, without any file conversion limits. Try it out right now. The conversion starts automatically as soon as the file has been uploaded. Wait for PDFtoExcel. Download your.