How tables are found
A PDF does not store tables as rows and columns. It stores pieces of text at exact positions on the page. This tool reads those positions, groups text that sits on the same line into a row, and lines up the gaps between words to work out where each column starts. The preview shows exactly what will go into your spreadsheet, page by page, before you download anything.
It works best on PDFs made by software, such as bank statements, invoices, price lists and reports exported from another program. Text above and below a table, like a title or a footnote, comes along as rows of its own, so you can delete it in Excel if you do not need it.
Choosing pages and sheets
Leave the page box empty to convert every page, or type the pages you need, such as 2-4, 7. Choose one sheet per page to keep pages apart, or put every page on one sheet to get a single long table. When a table carries on across pages and repeats its heading row, the repeats are left out so the heading appears only once.
Numbers like 1,250.00 and (300) are stored as real numbers that Excel can add up. Values such as account numbers and postcodes that start with a zero are kept as text, so the zero is not lost. Turn off Store numbers as numbers to keep every cell exactly as written.
Excel or CSV
An Excel workbook opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice, and can hold one tab per page. A CSV file is plain text with commas between the values, which almost any app, database or script can read.
Scanned PDFs
A scanned PDF is a picture of each page, so there is no text to read positions from. If that is the case, the tool tells you, and our scanned PDF to text tool can read the words from the page images instead.
Privacy
Your files never leave this device. The PDF is opened by your browser, the spreadsheet is built in its memory, and the download comes straight from there. Nothing is uploaded.
Questions
What if two columns come out merged?
Columns that sit very close together can be read as one. The values are still there, side by side in one cell, and Excel's Text to Columns feature can split them in a few clicks.
Can it open password-protected PDFs?
Not PDFs that need a password to open. PDFs that open freely but restrict editing usually convert fine.