How to convert a PDF to Excel and keep the layout
· 5 min read
Turn PDF tables, invoices, statements and CVs into an Excel spreadsheet that looks like the original, with numbers you can add up.
Typing figures from a PDF into Excel is slow and easy to get wrong. A good conversion puts every value in its own cell, keeps the amounts as real numbers so formulas work, and keeps the look of the page so you can still find your way around it.
Convert a PDF to Excel
What you get
- Each sheet looks like its page: text in the same place, font, size and colour.
- Tables with lines become real cells with borders, one value in each cell.
- Photos, logos and icons are pictures in the same place, which you can move or delete.
- Coloured boxes become cell colours, ruled lines become borders, and links stay clickable.
- Each sheet prints on one page, the same size as the PDF.
Make the most of it
What do you want to do with the data?
Select the cells and look at the Sum in Excel’s status bar, or type =SUM( and select them. The amounts are already numbers.
Copy the table’s cells to a new sheet first, then use Sort and Filter there. The converted sheet uses merged cells to keep the page layout, and Excel can’t sort merged cells.
Click a cell and type. Text keeps its font and colour. For long paragraphs, PDF to Word is easier to edit.
Scanned pages are read with OCR automatically. Check the figures against the PDF, as OCR can misread a faint digit.
The PDF is converted on our server and deleted straight after. Nothing is kept.
Questions people ask
Does PDF to Excel keep pictures?
Yes. Photos, logos and icons are placed where they were on the page, as pictures you can move or delete.
Will the numbers work in formulas?
Yes. Amounts such as 1,250.50, (300) and 18% become real numbers, so SUM and other formulas work.
Why are some cells merged?
Merged cells keep each piece of text in the same place and size as on the page. To sort a table, copy its cells to a new sheet first.