How to Extract PDF to Excel Quickly and Easily
Learn how to extract PDF to Excel quickly with zero coding. Extract PDFs in batches, save time and money, and send your table data to any cloud app you want.
Why should I extract a PDF to Excel?
There are many reasons why you might want to convert a PDF to an Excel spreadsheet. These reasons include:
- Editing the PDF to add more data
- Turning your PDF into measurable data sets
- Turning your PDF into a shareable document
- Digitizing your PDF
Whatever your reason is, the process is simple. And like with anything, when you do it once, it’ll be easier the next time.
How do I extract a PDF to Excel without losing formatting?
There are several reasons why converting a PDF file to Excel can be tricky:
- The PDF file is scanned and does not contain any ‘selectable’ text
- Tables spawn over multiple pages
- The table data is nested and not in a simple row format
For all cases listed above, simple copy & paste will fail, and the only viable solution to copy PDF to Excel is specialized tools to get the job done.
Even if copy & paste works with your documents, what do you do if you have hundreds or thousands of PDF files to batch convert to Excel? Again, an automated PDF to Excel converter will save you from hours of manual and tedious copy & paste work.
Docparser provides a set of tools to effortlessly batch convert PDF documents to Excel or other spreadsheet formats (CSV or Google Sheets).
Why should I use Docparser to convert my PDF to Excel?
Convert batches of PDFs
If you have more than one or two documents, then Docparser is your best option. Drag and drop documents from your local disk to upload your files in batches. Save hours of tedious copy & paste work.
Extract data from scanned documents
We use OCR technology to extract data from scanned documents and advanced zonal OCR to extract data from anywhere in your document.
Send your data to thousands of cloud apps
Once your data are parsed, our integration partners allow you to connect Docparser to various cloud applications. In addition, we offer direct integrations with Google Spreadsheets and Salesforce.
If you’re unsure where to start, our Getting Started guide can help with the basics like layout parser creation, integrating your extracted data or favorite cloud platform, and more. Docparser allows you to remove all sorts of data like phone numbers, email addresses, business names, or every populated field in the PDF. Converting PDF forms doesn’t need to be complicated.
How to extract PDF to Excel with Docparser
Docparser is a batch PDF to Excel converter that can convert transactional business documents such as Invoices, Purchase Orders, or Delivery Notes into structured data in real-time. Our flexible parsing engine is also capable of supporting any kind of PDF to Excel conversion.
1.) Create your first PDF to Excel converter (Document Parser)
After signing up for your free account, the first thing to do is to create a Document Parser. Typically, you will make one Document Parser for each ‘type’ of document you want to process. Once configured, a Document Parser can extract tables from PDF documents that have a similar layout. This ability makes Docparser a very efficient tool if you have hundreds of PDFs created routinely, with the same physical layout.
2.) Upload a couple of sample documents
As mentioned above, Docparser is all about batch converting PDF files. However, if you only need to convert a single PDF file, other tools like Tabula.technology might be a better fit for you.
Once you upload a couple of sample files, it’s time to create a table parsing rule.
3.) Create a table extraction parsing rule
A parsing rule is a set of instructions telling our algorithm how to extract tables from your PDF documents. Creating a parsing rule is easy thanks to our visual point & click editor. You simply move the sliders to define the column structure of the PDF file and use the free form selection box to define the table perimeter. Once you are happy with the placement of the sliders, you can accept the layout and preview the data.
In case you get stuck while creating your parsing rule, make sure to check out our knowledge base or contact our support staff.
4.) Download your extracted data in Excel format
Use the download data link from the app interface and select the file export type. Next to Excel format, we also offer the possibility to convert PDFs to XML, CSV, or JSON files.
You can name the file you are downloading and define the range of parsed files you want to include (e.g., “Files uploaded today”). In addition, you can choose which data fields you want to have in your downloaded file.
Setting up Docparser is simple and will take only a couple of minutes. Below are the steps to follow to get data from PDF to Excel. If you prefer watching a video, look at the following screencasts covering the Docparser PDF table extraction tool.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Will my Excel file show content from my original PDF?
Yes. After converting your PDF to an Excel document, Docparser creates a high-quality file available to read on both Mac and Windows. All the PDF contents are transferred right into your Excel spreadsheet, where you can edit all the information in the document in the rows and columns.
You can also try Docparser to edit PDFs with zonal OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, reduce file size, convert to other file formats, and export PDFs right to your computer.
How does Docparser’s PDF to Excel Tool work?
Docparser is a cloud-based document data extraction application that helps your company extract data from PDFs, Word documents, and image files. To use it, you can either upload your document directly, connect to cloud storage (Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive), email your files as attachments, or use the REST API. Then, you’ll train Docparser to extract the data you need, with no coding required. Select preset rules specific to your PDF or image document using options that fit your document type. Finally, you can download directly to Excel, CSV, JSON, and XML formats, or you can connect Docparser to thousands of cloud applications like Zapier, Workato, MS Power Automate, and more.
How do I convert a scanned PDF document to Excel?
With Docparser, converting a PDF to Excel is easy. Your first step is to sign up for an account. Next, you’ll create a Document Parser for a PDF. After this, you need to upload a sample file and generate a table parsing rule to tell the algorithm how to extract tables from your PDF. Finally, you’ll download the file, and you’re all set!
Is extracting a PDF to Excel free?
We have a free version of Docparser that allows you to parse 30-150 pages per month. You can also try one of our paid plans 7 days for free.
How long does it take to extract a PDF file to Excel?
The speed of the extraction process depends on your internet speed and the file size. Typically, this takes a few seconds.
Can I really convert a PDF file to Excel for free without giving away my credit card number?
Yes, you can! We don’t require your credit card number to sign up. All you need to do is give us your email address, name, and choose a nice password, and you can start parsing your documents.
What happens if my PDF is too large when converting to Excel?
Docparser converts PDFs up to 20MB, the default setting for maximum file size. Your local upload speed affects the upload time. Still, regardless, our recommendation for the maximum file size is around 8MB because larger documents are likely to fail to import into our application. We can increase the maximum file size for customers on higher subscription plans.
Can I convert a PDF to Excel offline?
Unfortunately, as Docparser is cloud-based, it doesn’t work offline. Instead, you need an internet connection to send your files to our servers to convert your files.
Extract Your PDFs to Excel Easily
Learn how to extract PDF to Excel easily with Docparser. Extract tables from PDFs and either download your data or send it to a cloud app. Get started today to boost productivity and cut down data entry costs.
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