Participant

Question

Export PDF form data to Excel?

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
September 26, 2012
5 replies
189450 views

Hey guys

I've got a form created with different fields to collect information. Is it possible to export the data to an Excel file? This is because some of the data collected is also used for tracking job progress and the tracking is done in just an excel file.

I could see if I distrbute the form, the data is submitted and collected in Acrobat. Just wondering if it's possible so that I don't have to re-type the data in the form submitted (via email).

Thanks.

Leanne

PDF forms

This topic has been closed for replies.

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tomk71122547

Participant

There are a lot of people that have this "problem". There are a lot of paid and free tools/services that are available outside Adobe.

One that I've been using consistently with success to turn PDF's into Excel, CSV, JSON and XML is here: docparser.com. There are other functions of this software too, but for what you describe it should fit your needs.

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TheSilverSmith

Participating Frequently

Regarding the XFXF2XL utility:

Sorry that it has been unavailable, I used a friend's hosting which was hit by hackers and misused for spamming so I took down the site (definitely nothing to do with not paying for the domain!).

I have had two private messages just recently asking if the utility still exists and it certainly does. I will be too busy to get fresh hosting organised for a while so I have dropped the package here: XFDF2XL.zip - Google Drive.

Feel free to download it. The package includes what I hope is comprehensive guidance on how to use it, but it is intended to be configured by someone who really understands forms well (with the aim of making the day-to-day processing really simple).

Please note... I very rarely log into this forum and am not notified of questions in posts so it is extremely unlikely you'll get an answer from me (of course you might get one from another user)! If you have a question for me, PM me (point at my user name and click "Message").

Cheers, The SilverSmith

A

Anonymous

I have encountered a similar problem and resolved it.

How to Insert a Blank Row After Every Other Row in Excel

Sometimes you may face a situation where in you are given thousands of rows of data and you need to create a blank row after every other row in the excel sheet. In order to do it manually, it will consume lot of time. Learn the following trick to do it in seconds.

1 Since there are 10 rows of data in the given example, write numbers from 1 to 10 in column D starting from row number two.

2 Copy the range from D2:D11 and paste it in D12, so that the numbers from 1 to 10 repeat once again.

3 Select the range A2:D21.

4 Choose Custom Sort from Sort & Filter menu in Home tab.

5 Choose Column D in the Sort by menu, Values in Sort On menu and Smallest to Largest in the Order menu.

6 Delete the numbers in the column D.

7 Blanks rows have been successfully inserted after every other row in the given range.

[link removed... Mod]

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gkaiseril

Inspiring

You are exporting the form data into a database table. This exported data could be imported into an SQL compatible database. Databases expect unique ids or unique data for each entry, duplicate empty rows can cause a lot of problems.

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TheSilverSmith

Participating Frequently

I know this is may be a bit late for you but I have an alternative suggestion. I have just written and published a free utility that simplifies the export. Faced with a PDF form that may force you to go through the Acrobat export process many times I wrote a program that lets you open multiple XFDF files, open one existing Excel spreadsheet and load the lot in one go. Of course, it needs to know how the form fields map to the spreadsheet columns and that takes a bit of work, but you do it once and the process is simple after that (so a technically competent person could do the mapping and leave the day-to-day process in less technical hands).

I'm not saying it'll necessarily be better for you, but I am sure it will be better for some than doing the Acrobat export thing every time. It's all explained at http://www.tarrget.info/XFDF2XL.

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SI_MSD7

Inspiring

@TheSilverSmith...that sounds like a fabulous utility. Thank you for providing the link. I haven't downloaded it yet, but I certainly will, shortly

A few questions...

1. Will the utility allow you to import the entire AcroForm with data, or can the user only import the "data file" portion (XFDF)?

2. Will this work with Livecycle XFA based forms as well, or perhaps XML data if not the entire XFA file... (Although XFDF and XML is just about the same if my understanding is correct).

3. You mentioned it allows the user to open/load "multiple" XFDF files...I presume they can open a singe XFDF file as well, correct?

4. After the user has completed the inital import and the Excel doc is loaded with data, can the user select a "new" group of XFDF data files, and have the "new" XFDF data APPEND to the exisiting/same Excel doc? Perhaps the data gets appended to the end of the exisiting Excel table...Or, will the user have to select a fresh/new Excel doc each time?

Thank again!!!!

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TheSilverSmith

Participating Frequently

Hi SI_MSD7,

The import uses the data file portion in XFDF format. I haven't looked at the spec for the data files out of Livecycle XFA so I don't know how similar they are. The code expects the fields and values in the XFDF file(s) to be in the format:

<field name="fieldname"><value>Test</value></field> ...

</fields>

so if the Livecycle data file's XML looks like that then it should work but my quick trawl through the Livecycle documentation this morning indicates that it may not work as it stands.

Yes, the file open dialogue for the XFDF files will allow you to select only one file... but also more if you need to load several at once.

The code expects an existing Excel file with one row of headers (which are used as column names when mapping between the XFDF field names and Excel) and inserts data into the second row of the first sheet, shifting the existing data down - so: Yes, it does append data to an existing file that can have as much pre-existing data in it as you like. The idea of appending into the second row is to place the new data somewhere easy to find for a quick visual check (or any immediate manipulation you want) as Excel can very easily sort them to your liking once you are happy with the loaded rows.

I hope that this utility can be useful to you but I have a suspicion, purely based on the fact that you're using Livecycle, that your needs might be a bit more complex than it can handle. If it would only need a few tweaks to be made to work for you (like having a configuration option that says where to append the new data rows instead of always inserting them at row two) then let me know and I'll see what I can do.

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George_Johnson

Inspiring

Sure, there's a built-in feature for this:

Acrobat 9: Forms > Manage Form Data > Merge Data Files into Spreadsheet

Acrobat 10: Tools > Forms > More Forms Options > Manage Form Data > Merge Data Files into Spreadsheet

It will prompt you to select one or more forms or data files (FDF/XFDF) and generate a CSV file that contains the form data, which can be imported into Excel or whatever. The first row will give the field names. Note that you don't have direct control over the order of the fields with this option. If processing PDFs, Acrobat 10 will use the tab order.