This guide provides quick instructions so you can easily convert/import a table from a PDF file and have it appear properly formatted on your Excel worksheet. You can avoid trying to manually copy and paste tables from PDFs with this simple trick!
PDFs can be tricky to work with if you were not the original creator of the file. There may be text or data in the PDF, and getting it out of there in the proper format doesn’t always work properly. You can try to copy and paste data from a table in a PDF, but it might come out as a jumbled block of text because the formatting is not applied.
However, Excel has built-in functionality so you can import that table from the PDF directly into your Excel sheet. This will retain all data and formatting with only minimal manual adjusting after the action.
Using this method allows you to start working on your table faster and you can avoid manual data entry. Continue with the guide below to quickly copy or import Web Data into Microsoft Excel.
Convert Table from PDF into Excel – Simple steps
- Make sure the PDF with the table is saved in a location you can easily find.
- You will browse to this later from Excel.
- Open Excel (either a new file or existing one where you want the table to appear).
- Click the Data tab, then click Get Data.
- Click From File, then click From PDF.
- Browse to the location on your computer of the PDF that has the table and select the PDF.
- Select the Table (from the column on the left) that you want add to your worksheet, then click Load.
- When you click an option, it will show a preview of the data so you can confirm it.
- The data will load perfectly and cleanly into your Excel worksheet.
- You can now organize and format as needed.
- Delete the row that says “PDF Table” – it won’t impact the data.
Convert Table from PDF into Excel – Guide with images
1) Make sure the PDF with the table is saved in a location you can easily find.
You will browse to this later from Excel.
2) Open Excel (either a new file or existing one where you want the table to appear).
3) Click the Data tab, then click Get Data.

4) Click From File, then click From PDF.

5) Browse to the location on your computer of the PDF that has the table and select the PDF.
6) Select the Table (from the column on the left) that you want add to your worksheet, then click Load.
When you click an option, it will show a preview of the data so you can confirm it.

7) The data will load perfectly and cleanly into your Excel worksheet. You can now organize and format as needed.
