Converting a PDF to Microsoft Excel should be an easy job for any computer user. However, you don’t want to lose formatting during the process. So how to convert pdf to excel? In this article, you will learn about the best ways to convert pdf to excel without losing formatting.
PDF files—short for portable document format files—are one of the most commonly used file types today. Whenever you see a file that ends with .pdf, that means it’s a PDF file. PDF files are primarily meant for viewing, not editing. One reason they’re so popular is that PDFs can preserve document formatting, which makes them more shareable and helps them to look the same on any device. Sharing the newsletter as a PDF file would help ensure everyone is able to view it as you intended.
Excel is a spreadsheet application developed and published by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Unlike a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, Excel organizes data in columns and rows. Rows and columns intersect at a space called a cell. Each cell can contain a single of data, such as text, a numerical value, or a formula. Excel is a tool for organizing and performing calculations on data. It can analyze data, calculate statistics, generate pivot tables, and represent data as a chart or graph. For example, you could create an Excel spreadsheet that calculates a monthly budget, tracks associated expenses, and interactively sorts the data by criteria.
This article teaches you how to turn a PDF file into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You can do this for free by using an online converter, or you can use Adobe Acrobat’s “Export PDF” feature if you have the full, paid version of Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Method 1 Using CometDocs
Open the CometDocs web app. Go to https://www.cometdocs.com/file/manager in your browser.
- You’ll most likely be prompted to take a tutorial. You can click Skip on both tutorial windows to skip the tutorial.
Click Upload. It’s a green button in the upper-left side of the page. A File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) window will open.
Select your PDF. Locate the PDF file that you want to convert and select it.
- You can change file locations by clicking a folder name on the left side of the window.
Click Open. It’s in the bottom-right corner of the window. This will upload the PDF to the CometDocs web app. You should see the PDF’s icon in the upper-left side of the web app window.
Click Convert. This tab is at the bottom of the window.
Drag your PDF into the “Convert” window. Click and drag the PDF’s icon onto the “Convert” window, then release the mouse to drop it there. A window will open to the right of the “Convert” window.
Click to Excel (xlsx). It’s the green icon in the window to the right of the “Convert” window.
Enter your email address. Type a working email address into the text field on the right side of the page. This is where you’ll receive the converted PDF, so make sure that you have access to this email address.
- CometDocs won’t spam you, but make sure that you keep the “I’d like to receive more information about PDF news, tips, and offers” box unchecked if you don’t want to receive any emails from them.
Click Convert. It’s a green button below the email address field. Doing so will prompt CometDocs to send the converted file to your email address.
- The document may take a few moments to convert, so there’s no rush.
Open your email account. Go to the website for the email address that you entered on CometDocs and log in if necessary.
Open your file’s email. Click on the “Your file is ready for download” email from the “Cometdocs” sender.
- Again, it may take a few minutes for this email to show up. If you don’t see it after about 10 minutes, check the Spam or Junk folder.
Click your file’s link. You’ll find it below the “Your file (name) has been successfully converted and may be downloaded from the link below:” text in the middle of the email. Doing so takes you to your file’s download page.
Click Click here to download your file. It’s the green button in the middle of the page. Doing so will prompt your Excel document to download onto your computer. You can now open the converted PDF in Excel by double-clicking the downloaded Excel document.
Method 2 Using Adobe Acrobat
Make sure that you have the paid version of Adobe Acrobat. The Adobe Acrobat Reader app that most people have can open PDFs, but not export them; you must have the paid version of Adobe Acrobat in order to convert PDFs into other documents.
- You can also download a free trial of Adobe Acrobat from Adobe’s download page to temporarily use these features for free.
Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat. If Adobe Acrobat is your computer’s default PDF reader, just double-click the PDF that you want to open.
- If Adobe Acrobat isn’t your computer’s default PDF reader, open Adobe Acrobat, click File, click Open…, select your PDF, and click Open.
Click Export PDF. It’s on the right side of the window. Clicking this prompts the “Export PDF” section to open on this side of the window.
Click the “Convert to” drop-down box. This option is at the bottom of the “Export PDF” section. A drop-down menu will appear.
Click Microsoft Excel. It’s in the drop-down menu.
Click Convert. It’s a blue button below the “Export PDF” section. Doing so will prompt a File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) window to open.
Select a save location. Click a folder to which you want to save the converted file. You’ll do this on the left side of the window.
- On a Mac, click the Where drop-down box and then click a location.
- You can also rename the file on this page.
Click Save. It’s at the bottom of the window. This saves the converted PDF file in your selected file location. You can open it in Excel by double-clicking it.
Conclusion
PDF files are actually very easy to convert to Excel format. The tricky part about it is that there is no “one-click” solution to do that (yet). We need to do some manual work first and then we will be able to convert PDF to Excel easily.