Missing columns

Report · Oct 10, 2024

Hi, I m trying to convert a pdf to excel but the first row of each page is missing. Could you help me?

Report · Feb 13, 2025

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for writing in!

In case you are still looking for a solution, you can try the below suggestions:

Ensure Correct OCR Settings (for Scanned PDFs)

If your PDF is scanned or contains images of text (rather than actual text), the first row may be missing due to how the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is being applied during conversion. Acrobat can perform OCR on scanned documents to convert images to text, but sometimes the first row may not be recognized correctly.

Open the PDF in Acrobat.
Go to Tools > Enhance Scans.
Click Recognize Text > In This File.
Select the language of the document and ensure that "Searchable Image" is selected, not "Image" (which could cause issues with extracting text).
Click Recognize Text and let the OCR process complete.
Once OCR is done, try converting to Excel again.

Try the “Export PDF” Feature

If you're not already using this method, try using the Export PDF feature in Acrobat to directly convert the PDF to Excel. This method is more reliable than copy-pasting or simple conversions because it tries to preserve the structure of the table.

Open the PDF in Acrobat.
Go to File > Export To > Spreadsheet > Microsoft Excel Workbook.
Select your preferred settings and export the file.
Check the Excel output to see if the first row is still missing.

Check Table Structure in the PDF

The issue might also be related to how the table is structured in the PDF. If the rows are split across multiple pages and Acrobat doesn't recognize them as part of the same table, it might omit the first row on each page. Try the following:

Check for header rows: Sometimes, header rows might be set as repeated or floating in the PDF, causing issues during conversion. Open the PDF in Acrobat, and use the Edit PDF tool to ensure that the first row is actually part of the table and not floating or separated in another text box.
Flatten the document: Flattening the PDF may help consolidate the layout and text, making it easier for Acrobat to recognize the table structure when converting. You can do this by selecting Print in Acrobat and printing to a PDF file (this creates a flattened version of the document).

Hope this helps.

-Souvik