Convert PDF to Excel (XLSX)
Tables from a PDF are laid into Excel cells, and when there are none, the text lands row by row.
Convert PDF to Excel (XLSX) to find the tables in a document and lay them into the cells of a workbook. Numbers become numbers again, ready for formulas, sorting and pivot tables.
What happens when you convert PDF to Excel
A PDF holds no table as such: it holds text placed by coordinates and lines drawn on top. A person sees a grid; a program sees a pile of strings lying near one another. Copying such a table by hand produces a mush of glued-together values.
The converter takes the pages apart, finds the column boundaries and rebuilds the structure. Every cell of the original table lands in its own cell of the workbook, so a statement or a price list can be worked on with formulas.
- Detected tables are spread across rows and columns.
- Figures arrive as values rather than pictures, so they can be summed.
- When the document holds no tables, its text lands in the workbook row by row.
- Formatting does not carry over: fills, fonts and borders are dropped.
- Scans are detected automatically, though the outcome depends on how sharp the capture is.
How to convert PDF to XLSX
- Upload your PDF file on this page.
- Pick XLSX as the output format.
- Click “Convert”.
- Download the finished workbook.
What people usually pull out of a PDF
- Break down a bank statement to total spending by category.
- Take apart a supplier price list and compare it with your own.
- Gather figures from a report into a combined quarterly sheet.
- Move a register or a list of items into an accounting system.
- Check a contractor’s calculation by recomputing the totals yourself.
Look at the document before uploading
- Select a table row with the mouse: if the text highlights, the structure is read more accurately; if the whole page highlights, you have a scan.
- Judge the grid, since a table with visible rules is parsed more reliably than columns held apart by spaces.
- Check the length: a document over 500 pages has to be split.
Limits
- File size: up to 50 MB as a guest, up to 100 MB with a free account.
- Length: up to 500 pages per PDF.
- Up to 100 tables are parsed from one document.
What to check in the finished workbook
- Merged header cells. Multi-level headings break into separate rows, so the header sometimes has to be rebuilt.
- Number formats. Amounts written with spaces between digit groups can arrive as text, and formulas will not add them up.
- You need a single column of values. For loading into another system the PDF to CSV converter is simpler.
Other directions for PDF
- You need all the text rather than the tables: the PDF to TXT converter extracts it.
- The document has to become editable again: use the PDF to Word (DOCX) converter.
- The data feeds a program: the PDF to JSON converter fits.
FAQ
What if the PDF has no tables?
A workbook is still produced, with the text of the document filling it row by row. For that case the TXT direction is usually more convenient.
Are tables recognised from scans?
Yes, scanned pages are detected automatically and sent to recognition. Accuracy depends on capture quality, and recognition is tuned for the Latin alphabet.
Is the table formatting preserved?
No, only the data carries over. Fills, borders and fonts have to be set again in Excel.
Why will the numbers not add up?
A value may have arrived as text because of digit separators or a label sharing the cell. Convert the column to a numeric format in Excel.