Opening a PDF in Excel

This method allows you export a multiple page PDF to multiple Tables in an Excel file. It seems to work best on documents which were:

Converted directly to PDF from Excel
Converted using Acrobat (rather than a clone)
Save as Tables works better in Acrobat 9.1
Adobe greatly improved the capability to export to Excel using this method in Acrobat 9.1. Acrobat 9.0 sometimes exported XML tables that Excel could not open. Make sure you update.

How to use it:

Open the PDF you want to convert
OCR the document if it was originally scanned.
Choose Document—> OCR Text Recognition
Choose File—> Save As
From the Type list at the bottom of the window, choose Tables in Excel Spreadsheet
Adjust the file type pop-up
Click Save

Or.........

I’ve had better luck using this method for scanned documents and documents which were not originally spreadsheets.

How to use it:

Open a PDF and OCR if it was originally scanned
Document—> OCR Text Recognition
Select the Select Text tool (cursor)
Acrobat cursor tool
Hold down the ALT (CMD on the Mac) key to make a rectangular selection over a table in the document.
Your cursor will change shape to:
Acrobat area selection tool
With the text still selected, right-click and choose “Open Table in Spreadsheet”
Copy Tables as Spreadsheet
The table data will open in Excel

Unfortunately, I don't have access to Acrobat, only Adobe Reader. I don't really know what OCR is, but I assume you have to have Acrobat for it, right? We are just ont allowed to download anything on our work computers and there's no way they're getting us Acrobat.

Any other options?

Jenny

1. Open your PDF.
2. Look on the right hand side.
3. Press Export PDF
4. Press Convert To Excel.


Hope this helps!

Hmmm, I don't see anything at all on the right hand side of the PDF.
I'm starting to think this can't be done without Adobe Acrobat. I was SO hoping this was possible, because, if I can get the data into Excel, I'll have a really fun macro to create to compare this report to another one!

Jenny

Did you make sure to click on tools on the right side?

There isn't anything at all on the right side. No menu, no tools or anything. Maybe this is just a really crappy (and old) version of Adobe Reader.

Or use this free tool Jenny! http://www.zamzar.com/convert/pdf-to-xlsx/

I checked with the IT department and that would not be allowed, as it would be risking opening private information being seen by someone outside the company.

Thanks for trying, though!

Jenny