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PDF to Excel

PDF to Excel reads the text layout of your PDF and reconstructs its tables into an .xlsx spreadsheet or .csv file, splitting columns where the page shows runs of whitespace.

About PDF to Excel

This saves the tedium of retyping figures from bank statements, invoices, price lists, timesheets and exported reports. Once the numbers are in cells you can sort, filter, total and chart them. The tool works from the PDF's text layer, reading character positions across each line to work out where one column stops and the next begins.

Results depend heavily on how the table was drawn. Ordinary reports with clean column gaps convert accurately. Borderless tables, merged cells, wrapped text inside a cell and multi-line row headers confuse the column detection and will need fixing afterwards. Always check a few rows against the original before you rely on the figures, particularly totals and dates.

How to pdf to excel

  1. Select the PDF containing your table, or drag the file onto this page.
  2. Choose XLSX for a full spreadsheet or CSV for plain comma-separated data.
  3. Click Convert while the text layout is analysed and columns are detected.
  4. Download the spreadsheet and check a few rows against the original PDF.

Why use this tool

Automatic column detection

Whitespace runs in the page's text layout mark the column boundaries, so ordinary tabular reports split into sensible cells without manual configuration.

XLSX or CSV output

Take a ready-to-open Excel workbook, or a plain CSV when you are importing into a database, accounting package or analysis script.

Multi-page tables

Tables spanning many pages are processed together, so a long statement or ledger arrives as continuous rows rather than a dozen separate files.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my spreadsheet come out blank?
The PDF is very likely a scan, which contains only an image of the page with no text layer to read. Run the file through our OCR tool first to create that layer, then convert the result here. Photographed or faxed documents behave the same way.
How accurate is the table extraction?
For standard reports with clearly separated columns, accuracy is high. For borderless tables, merged cells or text that wraps within a cell, expect misplaced values. A PDF has no notion of a table, so the structure is inferred from spacing, and unusual spacing produces unusual results.
Can I convert a bank statement to Excel?
Yes, and it is one of the most common uses. Statements are typically well-structured, single-column-per-field documents that convert cleanly. Check the running balance column against the original, since some banks right-align amounts in ways that shift a column.
Should I choose XLSX or CSV?
Pick XLSX if you want to open it in Excel and keep multiple sheets. Pick CSV when feeding another system, since it is universally readable, though it holds only plain values with no formatting, formulas or sheet structure.
Does the tool keep formulas or cell colours?
No, and no converter can. A PDF is a print-ready snapshot of a spreadsheet's results, not the spreadsheet itself. The original formulas, conditional formatting and hidden columns were discarded when the PDF was created, so only the visible values can be recovered.

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