5 Ways to Copy From PDF to Microsoft Excel

Copying data from a PDF to Excel feels like trying to make mismatched puzzle pieces fit. PDFs aren’t made for easy data extraction while Excel works best with clean, organized datasets. I’ve been stuck before in such a situation, wasting time reformatting or manually entering data, and I know how frustrating it can get. But trust me—once you learn the right steps, it’s a game-changer.

This Microsoft Excel tutorial breaks it all down in a simple way, so you can skip the headaches and get straight to the results. Let’s dive in, and I’ll walk you through all the proven methods step-by-step with real visuals.

Copy and Paste Directly

Whenever you need to import data from a PDF file it heavily depends on the PDF reader. Some won’t let you copy and paste content from the PDF to another app, like Microsoft Excel.

Therefore, try beginning with any of the following PDF readers and editors:

In this tutorial, I’ll show you all the processes using the Foxit PhantomPDF Business edition.

So, open your PDF file in a PDF reader that allows selecting content.

Go to the Home tab and click on the Select Text command.

You can now select the datasets in your PDF file.

Select all dataset
Select all dataset

Top copy the whole dataset into your spreadsheet file, and double-click on the first column header.

Now press Ctrl + A to select the entire dataset.

Copy all dataset
Copy all dataset

Press Ctrl + C to copy.

Paste Special dialog
Paste Special dialog

Navigate to your Excel worksheet and select the destination cell or cell range.

Press Ctrl + Alt + V to bring up the Paste Special dialog.

Select HTML in the list of Paste As and click OK.

You can also use the simple paste command Ctrl + V. It’ll import any custom text, number, and background formatting from the source file.

Copy table from pdf to Excel
Copy table from pdf to Excel

Excel will quickly paste the dataset you need from the reference PDF file.

Export PDF to Excel

Most standard and premium PDF editors offer a PDF exporting feature. This feature lets you transform uneditable PDF datasets into editable and quantifiable datasets suitable for Excel. In Adobe Acrobat, this feature is known as the Export a PDF option which converts a PDF file into Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files. Similarly, the Foxit PDF Editor’s Export menu lets you convert a PDF file into a variety of Microsoft 365 file types, like DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX.

Find below the steps to use the PDF export feature in two most popular PDF editors:

Using Foxit PDF Editor

Foxit backstage
Foxit backstage

Open your source PDF file using Foxit PDF.

Click on the File tab to open the Foxit PDF backstage menu.

Select the Export menu in the left-side navigation panel.

Save As
Save As

All of the options available in the Export menu will open up on the right side.

Click on the To MS Office option and select Excel from the Document File Types table.

Select the Save As option to bring up the Save As dialog.

Choosing a directory
Choosing a directory

Use the dialog box to choose a destination directory for the converted file.

Click Save to complete the conversion process of PDF to Excel.

You get a new Excel workbook containing all the datasets from the source PDF file. You can either start quantifying data in that workbook or copy the contents to a different workbook.

Using Adobe Acrobat Reader

Export to PDF
Export to PDF

Use Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the source PDF file.

Click on the All Tools tab in the top menubar of Adobe Acrobat.

The All Tools navigation panel will open on the left side.

Click on the Export to PDF option.

Convert to MS Excel
Convert to MS Excel

The Convert menu will open. It shows all the options to choose from, like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc.

Select the Microsoft Excel option and hit the Convert button.

Export to PDF online
Export to PDF online

Adobe Acrobat will open your Adobe subscription Home screen in a web browser.

Again click on the Export a PDF option in the website that opens.

If you own a paid subscription package, you’ll see the Convert PDF interface where you can simply drag and drop the source PDF file and hit Convert.

A Download icon will show up in the top right corner of the file upload field.

Click on the Download icon to get a converted copy of the PDF file into an Excel workbook.

After getting the Excel file, you can start your data analysis work in the new workbook or copy the content to an existing workbook.

Use Power Query in Excel

You can also use Power Query to copy from a PDF file into an Excel worksheet especially if the source PDF file contains hundreds of thousands of data rows in raw format. Obviously, you can’t put raw datasets to any use until you transform them and extract exactly the data columns you need.

So, the Power Query Editor allows you to import and further transform the raw dataset in a structured format, and then you can export it to an Excel worksheet. If you see the Data tab in your Excel desktop app, you’re good to go with the steps outlined below.

From PDF
From PDF

Go to the destination worksheet and click on the Get Data command in the Data tab.

Hover the mouse over the From File menu and choose the From PDF option in the overflow menu.

Import data file explorer
Import data file explorer

The Import Data dialog box will open. Use it to find and select the source PDF file from local or network storage.

Click on the Import button to load the contents of the PDF file in the Navigator Preview dialog box.

Transform Data
Transform Data

The source PDF file will show as a folder, like the test pdf.pdf in the screenshot given above.

Within this folder, you might see multiple worksheets and tables.

The Navigator tool automatically reads, analyzes, and structures the source data to best suit it for the Power Query Editor.

Mostly, Tables are better than Pages if you’re looking for an organized dataset.

Click on the Table to create a preview on the right side.

Sometimes, Navigator might not be able to appropriately record the column header texts, which you can manually enter inside the Power Query Editor.

Click on the Transform Data button at the bottom of the Navigator dialog box provided you’re satisfied with the structure of the copied data.

Your dataset will open in Power Query.

Load data
Load data

Alternatively, if you don’t need to transform your dataset, click on the Load button.

Excel will copy the dataset into the cell or cell range you’ve previously selected in the active worksheet.

The copied dataset will be in the form of an Excel Table.

Using Microsoft Word as an Intermediate

If you can’t access any advanced PDF editor you can use the Microsoft Word desktop app as well to copy content from a PDF to an Excel sheet.

Choose another app
Choose another app

Firstly, go to the directory where you’ve kept the source PDF file.

Select the PDF file and right-click to bring up the context menu.

There, hover the mouse cursor over the Open with menu and select Word on the overflow menu that opens.

If you don’t see the Word app in the overflow menu, click on the Choose another app option.

Choose Word app
Choose Word app

You’ll see the How do you want to open this file? dialog box with a scroll bar and various app icons.

Scroll down on the list to find the Word app, select it, and click OK.

Select and copy content from Word
Select and copy content from Word

The PDF file will open in the Microsoft Word desktop app.

You’ll see that the contents of the Word document are now easily editable.

Click anywhere on the document and press Ctrl + A and Ctrl + C to copy the entire dataset.

Paste content in Excel
Paste content in Excel

Go to the destination worksheet, select a cell, and press Ctrl + V to paste the copied data set.

Using Google Drive

You might come across certain PDF documents containing scanned tables or lists of data. These PDFs aren’t easy enough to copy and paste into an Excel worksheet. Also, you can’t use the Power Query data import method as well. Here comes Google Drive, especially Google Docs.

When you upload a PDF file in Google Drive you can preview and edit the document in Google Docs. Google Drive uses its built-in OCR tool to visually scan the content and convert the scanned numbers and texts into editable content.

So, you can use this feature of Google Drive to copy from scanned PDF files into an Excel worksheet. Let’s find out how it’s done below.

Drag and drop PDF file
Drag and drop PDF file

Open your Google Drive account in Chrome or Edge. Navigate to My Drive.

Drag and drop the source PDF file into My Drive.

Click on notification
Click on notification

Look for the 1 upload complete notification in the bottom left corner. Click on that.

Open with Google Docs
Open with Google Docs

A preview of the PDF will open in a new tab. Click on the Open with Google Docs button at the top of the preview screen.

Copy content from Google Docs
Copy content from Google Docs

The content of the PDF file will open in a Google Docs document in a new tab.

Select the dataset by pressing Ctrl + A and copy it using the Ctrl + C shortcut key.

Copy from PDF to Excel using Google Drive
Copy from PDF to Excel using Google Drive

Go to an Excel worksheet and press Ctrl + C to paste the copied data from Google Docs.

📚 Read more: You might also want to go through these tutorials to learn related Excel skills:

Conclusions

If you’re here, congratulations! Now you know how to copy from PDF to Excel following different approaches, like simple copy and paste, Export PDF to Excel in PDF editing software, Power Query, Microsoft Word, and Google Drive. Choose a method that suits your way of working and requirements.

Did you find this Microsoft Excel tutorial helpful? Comment below to share your thoughts or any expert tips for copying a table from PDF to Excel.

About the Author

Bipasha Nath

Bipasha Nath

Bipasha is a technical content writer with 10+ years of experience in the technology industry. She previously worked in a SaaS software development company focused on SharePoint, OneDrive, Word, Excel, Word solutions.

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