How to extract data from PDF to Excel

PDF files are commonly used to exchange business data, as they can easily be viewed, shared, emailed, or even locally stored. However, it is often difficult to extract data from PDFs into Excel spreadsheets.

This challenge of importing PDF data efficiently into Excel is a common pain point for many professionals.

Data related to businesses is usually shared in PDF files as large tables, despite Excel spreadsheets being better suited for viewing, editing, and manipulating tabular data.

Have you ever spent hours manually copying data from a PDF document into an Excel spreadsheet – or had to try more than one PDF to Excel converter? If yes, you know how crucial it is to find a more efficient method.

In this article, we cover the three most comprehensive and efficient methods of extracting data from PDF to Excel using Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat and Nanonets.

Method 1 - Import data from PDF to Excel directly in Microsoft Excel

Importing the PDF file directly into Excel is the most straightforward way to extraction PDF data into Excel:

1. Open an Excel sheet.
2. Click the Data tab >> Get Data drop-down >> From File > From PDF.
3. Select your PDF file & click Open.
4. You'll now see a Navigator pane displaying the tables & pages in your PDF, along with a preview.
5. Select the tables you wish to import & click Load to view the data directly in the Excel sheet or to see the Import dialog box, select Load > Load To.

If you're not satisfied with data extraction in this method, you might want to work with the data in Power Query first before the final import step.

Clean up data in Power Query

To work with the data in Power Query first, select Transform Data, instead of clicking Load.

This is will open the Power Query Editor with which you can:

1. Turn the first row as the header
2. Set up filters
3. Append results from various tables into a single table
4. Remove unwanted columns or rows
5. Change data types of columns
6. Split or merge columns as needed

Method 2 - Export PDF data to Excel in Adobe Acrobat

Using features available on Adobe Acrobat, users can directly export PDF files to Excel documents:

1. Open a PDF file in Acrobat.
2. Click on the Export PDF tool in the right pane >> Choose spreadsheet as your export format >> select Microsoft Excel Workbook.
3. Click “Export.” If your PDF documents contain scanned text, Acrobat will run text recognition automatically.
4. Save the converted file - Name your new Excel file and click the “Save” button.

Method 3 - Automated PDF to Excel data extraction workflows with Nanonets

Automated document data extraction or IDP software like Nanonets provide the most holistic solution to the problem of extracting data from PDFs into Excel at scale.

You can build completely automated PDF to Excel data extraction workflows with Nanonets:

1. Set up an automatic import of PDF files/data from incoming emails, cloud storage services, support tickets, and just about any data source.
2. Extract data accurately with our advanced AI extractors that don’t rely on predefined templates but understand each document contextually.
3. Leverage decision engines to transform, standardize, flag, review, validate PDF files, or enhance your extracted/missing data.
4. Export as clean structured data in formats such as as XLS, CSV, or XML etc. or export into your CRM, WMS, or database directly!

Wondering how AI-powered workflows can help you?