By Cooper Temple

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a document conversion format used to save most printable material into a file that may be viewed by anyone with a PDF reading program. Because a variety of source material is used in PDF documents, there may be information or data that may be used in other programs, such as Microsoft Excel. Excel is the spreadsheet program available as part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications. Information from a PDF may be used to populate an Excel spreadsheet. You may convert PDF information to Excel format, with the right software, by following a few steps.

Things You’ll Need

• PDF writing program
• Microsoft Excel

Use a Free PDF Writing Program

Download a free PDF writing program to your computer. Make sure that any PDF writing program you choose has a feature that will allow you to export data, as not all free PDF writing programs will have this option.PDFill, which has the export feature, is used in the following steps. You may download PDFill for free at pdfill.com.

Launch the “PDFill PDF Editor” program. Select the “Open new PDF Project” option from the “File” menu. Locate the folder where the PDF file that you want to convert to Excel format is saved using the “Look in” menu. Highlight the file name and click once on the “Open” button.

Select the “Import/Export Forms Data” option from the “File” menu. This action will open a separate “Import/Export” dialogue box. Click once on the “Export into Text” button. This action will launch a separate “Save As” dialogue box. Choose a folder in which to save the new export file using the “Save in” menu. Use the “Files of type” menu to select the “TXT” option.

Type a name for the export file into the “File name” field and click once on the “Save” button.

Launch Microsoft Excel. Click once on the “File” menu and select the “Open” option. Locate the folder in which the export file from step 3 was saved using the “Look in” menu. Use the “Files of type” menu to select the “Text Files” option. Highlight the export file name and click once on the “Open” button. The data from the PDF that was exported to the text file will populate the Excel spreadsheet.

In Excel, click once on the “File” menu and select the “Save As” option. Select a folder in which to save the Excel spreadsheet using the “Save in” menu. Type a name for the file in the “File name” field and click once on the “Save” button.

Use a Commercial PDF Writing Program

Download a commercial PDF writing program to your computer. Make sure that any PDF writing program you choose has a feature that will allow you to export data, as not all commercial PDF writing programs will have this option. Adobe Acrobat Pro, which has the export feature, is used in the following steps. You may download a free trial of Acrobat Pro from the Adobe Systems site (adobe.com).

Launch the “Adobe Acrobat Pro” program. Select the “Open” option from the “File” menu. Locate the folder in which the PDF file that you want to convert to Excel format is saved using the “Look in” menu. Highlight the file name and click once on the “Open” button.

Click once on the “File” menu, once on “Export,” and select the “Text (Plain)” option.

This action will launch a separate “Save As” dialogue box. Choose a folder in which to save the new export file using the “Save in” menu. Use the “Save as type” menu to select the “TXT” option. Type a name for the export file into the “File name” field and click once on the “Save” button.

Launch Microsoft Excel. Click once on the “File” menu and select the “Open” option. Locate the folder in which the export file from step 3 was saved using the “Look in” menu. Use the “Files of type” menu to select the “Text Files” option. Highlight the export file name and click once on the “Open” button. The data from the PDF that was exported to the text file will populate the Excel spreadsheet.

Click once on the “File” menu and select the “Save As” option. Select a folder in which to save the Excel spreadsheet using the “Save in” menu. Type a name for the file into the “File name” field and click once on the “Save” button.

References & Resources