The best ways to convert PDF to Excel: Do you want to learn how to convert a PDF document to Excel? Many tools can assist you with this conversion, but many of them fail to place the data in the correct columns and rows in Excel. Therefore, even after conversion, the result may not be satisfactory, and you might need to put in manual effort to correct it.
You can use this article to determine which PDF to Excel converter works effectively. PDF files are always useful for sharing documents across different systems, and they facilitate activities like printing and scanning easily. However, when you need to edit documents, you need to convert PDF files into an editable format like Microsoft Excel or Word, etc.
Converting from PDF to Word is easier compared to converting PDF files to spreadsheets. It’s challenging to ensure that the data is properly aligned in an Excel file after converting from a PDF version. Additionally, there’s another time-consuming process of manually matching and correcting the data with the PDF, especially if you are dealing with a massive amount of datasets in the form of numbers and complex formulas.
Best Ways to Convert PDF to Excel
How wonderful it is to have the data we need to analyze available in an editable format! Unfortunately, a lot of valuable data is stored in PDF documents. The good news is that this problem has been addressed; now, many PDF management tools can perform the conversion both online and offline.
1. Online PDF to Excel Converters
Optical Character Recognition tools and a few other programs help easily change the file format online.
We will take a closer look at some online PDF to Excel converters in this section of the article.
1. Use Optical Character Recognition Software
You can convert a PDF file to an Excel file with the help of Optical Character Recognition software, commonly known as OCR tools.
You can follow these steps to convert a file from PDF format to an editable Excel file:
You can download a suitable OCR tool available online, such as OnlineOCR.net. This is a free tool that can be used to upload any file up to 200 MB and then export it in PDF, Word, Excel, or RTF formats as needed.
To convert a PDF file to Excel, you can follow these steps:
You can open the PDF document using the OCR tool.
Then, the OCR software automatically starts the character recognition process by scanning the pages of the PDF document. Furthermore, you can select the table format option to align the data appropriately in rows and columns.
Once the automatic recognition by the software is complete, you can choose to save the file in Excel format (.xls).
Additionally, you can manually check the converted data and format it as needed.
2. SmallPDF
This is a website accessible for converting PDF to Excel online, and it can do this work quickly for you. This versatile tool can be used to convert a PDF file to Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, etc. The site also helps users compress files, merge documents, split them, and more, along with many useful features. The PDF to Excel conversion tool also simplifies the process of encrypting the file, along with the feature of adding an electronic signature to the document.
3. PDFConverter
This is another excellent option for a PDF to Excel conversion tool. The PDFConverter tool is available online for free and can be used to change PDF files to various other file formats. The user simply needs to upload the file and click the "Start" button to allow the tool to convert the file from PDF format to Excel format. Furthermore, the file can be downloaded, and the retrieved data can be analyzed.
2. Offline PDF to Excel Conversion Tools
Offline programs used for PDF to Excel conversions have more features; therefore, it may be beneficial to use them alongside online conversion tools.
1. PDFZilla
PDFZilla is not just a program for converting PDF to Excel, as the tool is widely used for converting PDF files to Word, Text, Rich Text, JPG, GIF, PNG, etc. The tool is available in over 20 languages and can be used to change the PDF file format to other formats with just three clicks.
This tool currently works only on the Windows operating system. PDFZilla can be considered an excellent tool for converting PDF to Excel as it can perform batch conversions very quickly and is available at a reasonable price.
2. Wondershare PDF Converter Pro
This is another convenient option in the list of offline PDF to Excel converters, as this tool comes with an OCR feature that can easily convert a PDF file to an Excel file by scanning it.
The tool provides excellent output quality as it can maintain the layout and formatting of the original document, thus reducing the manual workload on the user. This program can also convert multiple PDF files into a single Excel file with just one click, making it a preferred choice among users who frequently use PDF to Excel converters.
3. UniPDF
This is a user-friendly tool for converting PDF to Excel that allows you to convert a PDF file into Excel format, Word, Image, HTML, and Text just by dragging and dropping the file into the program window. After that, you can use the "Convert" button to allow the tool to perform the conversions in the background and get an Excel file in a short period. The paid version of the tool should be used, as the free version will only allow you to convert three pages of a PDF file.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed the best ways to convert PDF to Excel. The term PDF stands for "Portable Document Format," created for sharing files in a standard format across different operating systems. However, there is often a need for an editable format when processing data for easier analysis. Therefore, we have seen in this article some useful online and offline tools that can be used to easily convert PDF files to Excel formats. Most tools offer superior features, and you can choose the best one according to your daily needs.
