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A
Anonymous
January 13, 2011
Answered

How to copy/Paste a table from PDF to Excel using AcrobatX

  • January 13, 2011
  • 13 replies
  • 567336 views

How to copy/Paste a table from PDF to Excel using AcrobatX?

I was able to do this easily using acrobat 9 but cannot do it in Acrobat10.

Has the option fgone or am I missing something?

Tomas

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer hughesbl

    I found that both the "export selection as" and the "copy with formatting" functions were able to go directly to Excel without using Word, though that also works. The key in Excel is to simply use ctrl+v to paste, not to right-click and try to use a special paste or the default, which went to 'Keep text only'.

    13 replies

    A
    Anon559999999
    New Participant
    April 26, 2021

    Try 'copy with formatting' BUT if that doesn't work, download this FREE software from this site: https://tabula.technology. Your problems will be solved. It has worked consistently for me instead of trying to fidget around with the pdf files.

     

    J
    java234
    New Participant
    December 7, 2017

    COPY ENTIRE LIST FROM PDF TO XL, THEN USE TEXT TO COLUMN TOOL IN XL UNDER THE DATA TAB.   WITHIN THAT TAB YOU CAN USE THE COLUMN SEPARATORS TO CREATE THE POSITIONING OF THE COLUMNS.  THIS MAY NOT BE PERFECT IF THE ALPHA LINE ARE NOT AN EQUAL LENGTH BUT EASY TO CORRECT BY TYPING IN THE MISPLACED NUMBER IN THE NUMBER COLUMN.   tHIS WORKS WELL WITH BANK, CR CARD STATEMENTS AND THE LIKE.

    H
    hughesblCorrect answer
    New Participant
    October 5, 2016

    I found that both the "export selection as" and the "copy with formatting" functions were able to go directly to Excel without using Word, though that also works. The key in Excel is to simply use ctrl+v to paste, not to right-click and try to use a special paste or the default, which went to 'Keep text only'.

    C
    conniey64176595
    Participating Frequently
    November 7, 2017

    But how can I tweak the settings to export PDF table as Excel in better formatting?

    kimberleeafp
    kimberleeafp
    New Participant
    April 13, 2016

    The easiest fix that worked for me was copying to Word and then copying to Excel. Done. I don't have time to figure all of this out... Thanks for the post. -K

    A
    adwul62
    Inspiring
    August 5, 2016

      Yes, what kimberleeafp suggested works fine, at least with me. thank you kimberleefafp!

    Acrobax XI Pro/Word 2013/Excel 2013.

    =

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    =

    J
    jj1583
    New Participant
    April 8, 2016

    @ApoorvM

    I created a forum name just to answer this as I've found a workaround that works for me.  I work on different networks for our company and have Adobe 9 Pro on one network and Adobe X Pro on the other.  I just came across this problem today as I am constantly copying information from signed PDF forms into excel spreadsheets for database and metrics needs.  The workaround is more complicated that it should be, and it would be nice if Adobe would recognize and bring back the utility and convenience of 'Copy as Table' for those of us that need it.  I've created our own forms in Adobe LiveCycle Designer 8.2, so the documents I need to extract tabled information from are very heavy with formatting and embedded content. If you can select the table as you'd like to copy it rather than individual cells, you may be able to skip the second step.

    The process as it works for me:

         1.  Open the PDF you need to extract table information from.

         2.  File> Print> Print the document as and Adobe PDF and save to a desired location.  This will flatten the file--this step may not be necessary if you can select the entire table rather than individual cells.

         3.  Open the newly saved PDF document.  Next, File> Save As> Spreadsheet> Microsoft Excel Workbook.  Save the spreadsheet to your desired location
         4.  Finally, go to the newly saved excel spreadsheet.  You should be able to view the document and its tabled contents.

         5.  Copy the table and format into your database or primary spreadsheet.

    This process creates one to two unnecessary and unused documents after the fact, but I just structured a folder system that I delete regularly. 

    Hope this works for you until Adobe brings back 'Copy as Table'!

    Cheers,

    JJ

    S
    spacemook
    New Participant
    December 22, 2015

    I haven't followed entire thread so there may be other good or better solutions but for info a bit of an odd trick that seems to work is to print the pdf as a "cutepdf" file and then copy as formatted text or export or whatever from the cutepdf file.  That seems to work perfectly for me.

    A
    Anonymous
    August 2, 2014

    well not sure if you can copy paste, i usually just convert the pdf to excel...

    currently i am using my own program, but before i have been using Excel to PDF & PDF to Excel simple and effective both ways

    hope this helps

    O
    orerockon
    Participating Frequently
    September 26, 2015

    I guess I don't see what the big deal is. The suggestion to export to word then copy and paste to Excel works OK. A little rearranging might be necessary. If you don't like that, go get Able to Extract Pro. For $139 it will OCR and extract anything from any pdf to any Office format, and does it extremely well. I've extracted Excel tables from almost undecipherable old photocopies.

    G
    George_C1
    New Participant
    November 13, 2013

    I too just updated (November 2013) to "Adobe Acrobat XI Pro" and find it disappointing that the Right Click on PDF Table & "Copy as Table" function is Not Available. Very Bummed !  

    A
    Adobe Employee
    ApoorvM
    Adobe Employee
    November 13, 2013

    Hi George,

    Are you using 'Copy with formatting' for copying tables or the normal 'copy' option ?

    If you want to copy a table to excel, you should select the table , rightclick on selection and use the 'Copy with formatting' option. And then paste it to excel . This should paste the table correctly.

    If it doesn't in your case, please let me know.

    L
    LindseyB
    New Participant
    November 15, 2013

    I'm in the same situation as George and I don't see "copy with formatting." I'm using AdobeXI.

    G
    gfh2009xx
    New Participant
    February 1, 2013

    I have discovered a work around.  Select the table you are trying to copy, right click and select "export selection as" and save it as a .docx file.  Open the word document, copy the table again and paste it into an open excel file.  The columns will be maintained and your data will be in seperate cells instead of all of it in one cell.  It's not one easy step like it used to be, but it does work.

      S
      Sanathan5684
      New Participant
      April 4, 2013

      We too work with Insurance documents where we have to pick the tables from the pdf to excel.

      While googling we found the below and helped us a lot.

      Give it a try , i hope this works for you.

      Not the best , but does the work.

      http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/PDF20.html

      S
      sophsterm8656949
      Known Participant
      June 9, 2014

      I have the same problem. I'm running Acrobat Pro X. I'm trying to extract or copy with formatting a beautiful table from a PDF document into Excel OR Word and the table does not export or paste into Word or Excel; with the proper formatting. OCR doesn't read it for some reason. In your instructions you say:

      To check the table in the PDF document:

      1. Advanced > Accessibility > TouchUp Reading Order...

      What Acrobat Pro version are you referencing? I'm not sure where you access "Advanced". Properties, settings, preferences,  what? I try Preferences, then Accessibility, and don't see what you're seeing. I see this. No idea where this Touchup Reading order is.

      I check Touchup further down and see this. Again, nothing about reading order.

      I've tried both these methods after selecting the table.

      But the file format looks like this:

      D
      Dave Merchant
      Brainiac
      February 6, 2012

      It's almost certain that the PDF file isn't tagged (either at all, or properly). Accessible, tagged files will export to spreadsheets as Acrobat can understand what's a table, what's a header cell, etc. whereas in an untagged file it has to make guesses based on the separation of each text block (it can't see the page visually as you do, so what looks like a perfectly-obvious table to a human is actually very difficult to detect in code).

      B
      Bill12
      Inspiring
      February 7, 2012

      The alternative is to do column or block copies. In the past this was done by using the alt key when selecting the area of interest (works in my AA9). That allows you to copy column by column and generally the lines separations will still be used. Hope that does it.

      J
      jstanley5003
      New Participant
      February 7, 2012

      Thanks for the response however I've tried this and it just doesn't work right, after having worked with Acrobat X even more it just isn't as good as 9.0, documents I used to be able to OCR now have more unrecognized or miss recognized items than 9.0 and the only thing I have changed is going from 9.0 to 10.0. This appears to have been nothing but a profit move from Adobe just a few bells and whistles. This is the first time Adobe has failed to deliver a significant improvement by introducing a new version and I started with 4.0

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