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cellist_01
Participating Frequently
June 18, 2016
Answered

export to excel result unreadable

  • June 18, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 10366 views

I'm exporting a monthly credit card statement to excel (xlsx) format. Part of the resulting converted file look fine. The part that has the detail transactions appears in the proper column formatting but the actual dates, amounts, and descriptions are not readable. It's as if the underlying data is encoded in a format that excel does not understand...for example, it might be in 2-byte encoding. Any idea whether I can tell the export to use a different encoding OR is it an option that has to be handled within excel OR is it a but in EXPORT?

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Correct answer Claudio González

I've contacted the credit card company (bank). The pdf is created by software from TargetStream StreamEDS. I asked them: What is the character encoding? ans: we don't know. Is the file encrypted? ans: if it is encrypted then you would need a password. (in other words, "we don't know."

I've contacted TargetStream. They disavowed any knowledge of this particular file and suggested I contact the bank.

Looking at the data with a hex editor, it seems that the encoding might be EBCDIC. I'm trying to find a tool that will convert it to ascii, which is what EXCEL needs.


Obviously, the fault is in the specific PDF file, and you are doing all that you can do. Good look.

3 replies

J
jfc-june
New Participant
September 17, 2017

Found a solution,

1 - Open the PDF file you wish to convert

2 - Use File > Print (Using Microsoft Print as PDF instead of your actual printer)

3 - Save a copy of the PDF and name as needed (I just name it 1.pdf for January, 2.pdf for February, etc.)

4 - Open your new file with Adobe Acrobat

5 - Convert to xlsx

This should result in a legible copy of your statement. Using Print as PDF will also allow you convert locked pdfs to Excel format. I had an issue with a statement that was locked or perhaps in a view-only state and using Print as PDF allowed me to convert this to excel for data extraction.

Hope this helps someone!

G
georgee38408526
New Participant
July 18, 2017

After spending an entire day trying to figure this out and thinking there was an issue with my system fonts, I found a work around.

I'm on a mac but I imagine the equivalent steps would work on a PC.

I open my bank statement as a pdf and take a screen shot (command+shift+4) of just the sections I want (my Bank of America statement has sections with logos, etc.) and save those to my desktop. I then open each one in Preview or your image viewer and export them as a pdf, giving each one a name like Feb page1, Feb page 2, etc, so I know the correct order they appeared on the statement. I then combine the new pdfs in Acrobat, making sure pages are turned the same way and in the correct order. Then take the new combined file pdf and export it as an excel file...voila, works like a charm and saved so much time.

Best,

George

    Meenakshi Negi
    Community Manager
    Meenakshi NegiCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 18, 2016

    Hi cellist_01

    Could you please let us know the Adobe service you are using to export PDF to excel format.

    If possible could you please also share the screenshot of the PDF and the excel file you get after exporting PDF.

    Regards,

    Meenakshi

    C
    cellist_01Author
    Participating Frequently
    June 18, 2016

    Meenakshi,

    Thanks for replying.

    The service is called Adobe Export PDF and I am accessing it via Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Tools.

    In my original post, I showed an example of a line from the pdf and the corresponding line from the excel file. I copy-and-pasted the lines into the text of my question. Now that I go back and look, I see that the example lines were lost. (They

    showed while I was composing the text of the question!)

    I won't be able to show the entire pdf, as it contains sensitive information but I can attach a screenshot of some of the problem lines.

    Phil

      Claudio González
      Claudio GonzálezCorrect answer
      Brainiac
      June 22, 2016

      I've contacted the credit card company (bank). The pdf is created by software from TargetStream StreamEDS. I asked them: What is the character encoding? ans: we don't know. Is the file encrypted? ans: if it is encrypted then you would need a password. (in other words, "we don't know."

      I've contacted TargetStream. They disavowed any knowledge of this particular file and suggested I contact the bank.

      Looking at the data with a hex editor, it seems that the encoding might be EBCDIC. I'm trying to find a tool that will convert it to ascii, which is what EXCEL needs.


      Obviously, the fault is in the specific PDF file, and you are doing all that you can do. Good look.

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