How to Extract Data from PDF to Excel? (Using 3 Easy Methods)

How to Extract Data from PDF to Excel?

There are 3 different methods to extract data from PDF to Excel, they are mentioned below:

Extract Data using Simple Copy and Paste Command
Extract Data using Microsoft Word
Extract Data using Adobe Reader Software

Now let us discuss each of the methods in detail –

#1 Extract PDF Data using Simple Copy and Paste Method

The following steps are followed to extract the data using simple commands copy and paste.

Step 1: Select the PDF file and open it in Adobe Acrobat reader software as shown in the figure.

Step 2: Select and copy the data presented in the table.

Step 3: Go to Excel and select the drop-down section of the “paste” and click on the “Paste Special”.

It opens the “paste special” dialog box as shown in the figure.

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Step 4: Select paste option as “text” and click on “OK”.

Step 5: The data extracted into the Excel sheet is shown in the below-mentioned screenshot.

As shown in the figure, data is entered into only one column.

Step 6: Select the data and click on the “Text to column” option in excel in the “Data” tab.

It opens the “convert text to columns” wizard as shown in the figure.

Step 7: Choose the file type as “Delimited” and click on the “Next” button and it opens the following screenshot.

Step 8: Choose the Delimiters as “Space” and click on “Next”.

Step 9: After clicking next, the following wizard will be opened.

Step 10: Click on “Finish” to close the wizard and then the text is converted to columns as shown in the figure.

Step 11: Clean up the data to ensure that “blue LED value” into one cell, “green LED value” into one cell”, and “red LED value” into one cell.

#2 Extract PDF Data to Excel Using Microsoft Word

The following steps are followed to extract the data using Microsoft word.

Step 1: Select the PDF file and open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader software.

Step 2: Select and copy the data presented in the table.

Step 3: Open Microsoft Word document and paste data into it as shown in the figure.

Step 4: Again copy the table and paste now it into an Excel sheet and it will be displayed as.

Note: Pasting directly into Excel leads to display data in one column only.

Step 5: Arrange the table headers properly as shown in the PDF file by applying the merging and unmerging on cells.

#3 Extract PDF Data to Excel using Adobe Reader Software

The following steps are followed to extract the data using the Adobe reader

Step 1: Select the PDF file and open it in Adobe Acrobat reader software as shown in the figure.

Step 2: Go to the “File” menu and select the “convert to Excel, word, or PowerPoint” option.

After clicking on the convert option, the following page will be displayed.

Step 3: Select the “convert to” drop-down menu and choose the “Microsoft Excel Document (*.xlsx) format.

Step 4: Then, click on the “Export to Excel” option.

Step 5: The exported data into Excel is displayed as shown in the figure.

Step 6: Apply cleaning to arrange the data properly into the rows and columns to change the design of the table.

Things to Remember

Extracting data from PDF to Excel is possible only when we are able to copy the data in a table in PDF file.
The data directly copy-pasted directly from the PDF to Excel will unwind into an only column or one cell. This requires clean-up activities to arrange the data properly.
To extract data using the Adobe Reader software, a user account is necessary with the adobe.com.

Extract Data from PDF to Excel