convert pdf to xls

I'll give you my standard comment for folks who want to do PDF-to-Excel conversion, but in this particular case, I believe that your spreadsheet is too complex for any tool (that I'm aware of) to handle well.

For PDF to Excel, I've had excellent results with this free online tool:
http://www.pdftoexcel.org/

It does a good (but not perfect) job of maintaining the formatting, which is always the trick with any PDF to Excel (or Word) conversion. I don't know if it will work well on your particular PDF (I doubt it!), but it's worth a (free) shot. If you do like it and would prefer a local install rather than the online tool, it is available for purchase and download (and it has a 7-day free trial):
http://www.investintech.com/prod_downloadsa2e.htm

Another product worth trying is A-PDF to Excel:
http://www.a-pdf.com/to-excel/index.htm

It's not free, but is reasonably priced at $39 USD, and it offers a free trial so you can see if it works on your PDF before buying it.

There are many other products that have PDF-to-Excel capability (both with and without OCR), including ABBYY FineReader, Adobe Acrobat, Nuance OmniPage, Nuance PaperPort, Nuance Power PDF, etc., and I tried several on your spreadsheet, but none of them did a great job. My advice is to track down the author of the document and get the spreadsheet from that person. The PDF file was almost surely created from a spreadsheet. Unless it's not possible, getting the source spreadsheet is the way to go in this case. Regards, Joe

I've been using AbleToExtract for the last 10 years now and it never failed me. The only thing is that it cost 99.99$

but a good investment.

This is a very good software to have.

Able2Extract PDF Converter 9

Hi Wilder,

Yes, that's the first two links I posted — the online tool at PDFtoExcel.org and the local install of it, called Able2Extract. I don't have the local install, but the online version of the tool did mediocrely on it — converted spreadsheet is attached.

I'm not disparaging this tool, as all conversion tools that I tried did mediocrely on it. It's just too complex. But if you don't mind, please try the PDF on your Able2Extract local install. I'm curious to see if it does better than the online version. Theoretically, it shouldn't, as the online tool and the local install supposedly use the same conversion engine, but I do wonder. Thanks, Joe

Hi Joe,
I agree with you.

None of the software i used in the past never gave a perfect conversion.  I always have to fix or adjust a couple of fields after.

I don't believe any software can do a perfect job anyway. But the closer, the better :)

So, does the local install (Able2Extract) do a better job than the online version (PDFtoExcel.org) or do they perform the same?

To be honest with you, since I'm using this software since the last 10 years, it's been to long since i have used the online version.

i think i will give it a try at home. I just don't like online version for enterprise doc. I normally is it when I'm at work.

This is something else to be careful with. If it is confidential doc, Web conversion is not a the best and safe idea.

To be clear, I don't want you to try the online version. I already did that and posted the XLSX output above. What I want you to try is the local install version — your AbleToExtract product that you've been using for 10 years. I'd like to know if it produces a better result than the spreadsheet I posted above from the online version.

i will try it tomorrow as i'm not at work right now. But i will send the result tomorrow

Thanks!

The difference between A2E and A2E Pro:

The main difference between these two products is that Able2Extract Professional has the additional capacity to convert scanned PDF documents. All PDF documents are not created equally – a PDF document created from Word, using PDF creation software, has a very different internal structure than a scanned PDF document which is simply a picture/image that contains no textual information.

Able2Extract Professional supports OCR technology – this technology allows the program to extract text from scanned documents and convert them into an editable formats. Users that encounter scanned documents will have a high need for the Professional version. Users of Able2Extract that work with PDFs that are exclusively created or generated from electronic sources may not require the Professional version.

Probably that they also use the pro version on the online convert.

They are at version 9 today. may even have a better result.

Funny thing, My first version of A2E was 3 Pro and i just re install it, just to see the difference between 3 pro and 8 pro.

I have the same result.

> Let me know if you have a similar result.

Sorry...my bad. I meant to attach the result from the online conversion to post< http:#a40524830> but forgot. It is attached to this one. It is very similar to your result. Regards, Joe
HR-Mapping-Staging-v6.2.3-via-PDFtoExcel

They must use the Pro version online also then.

So if this is not confidential, the online converter is a very good option and also free. It also take 30 minutes, from what i see on the web.

If this is confidential docs, the app becomes a very good solution and it also very quick. It took me 40 seconds max.

All of that is true, but the key point is that the conversion produced only a mediocre result. In other words, the resulting spreadsheet doesn't contain all of the same formatting as the PDF file. As I mentioned early in this thread, the tricky part of any PDF to Excel (or Word) conversion is maintaining the format. In this case, because the spreadsheet in the PDF is so complex, the conversion doesn't do a great job of retaining the format. This is clearly the asker's issue, because in his opening post about having tried a few online converters, he said, "i am not getting correct format". I take that to mean that the online converters did not do a good job of maintaining the formatting — hence, my suggestion to get his hands on the original Excel file from which the PDF was created. If that's not possible, then he'll have to live with "not getting correct format." Regards, Joe

well well well.

Never been that close.

Look at this one and make sure to look at all pages: Wondershare PDF to Excel converter pro

I think i will switch to it starting now.

My partner was using this one and i did not even knew about it.

Look at the result. :)
HR-Mapping-Staging-v6.2.3-new.xlsx

Very interesting! I tested the free trial of Wondershare's PDF Editor a while ago and wasn't thrilled with it. Here's a thread about that:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28523864/Nuance-versus-Wondershare-PDF-editor.html

But at the time, I didn't try its conversion features. Thanks for posting your result!

You and I have had a good time collaborating on this question. I hope the asker jumps back in soon. :)

Regards, Joe

wow, just did it so that every pages stays in the same sheet during the conversion.

yes, it was very good time for both of us :)

I hope the asker jumps back in soon also.
HR-Mapping-Staging-v6.2.3-4-.xlsx

> every pages stays in the same sheet

Very nice!

I get this error when opening it:


Do you get this? Even so, when I clicked Yes, the spreadsheet looks very good.

Yes, i do get the same error message also.

Strange! Even though it gives that dialog box, the spreadsheet looks very good.

and not to expensive also: PDF Converter Pro

the above link does a PDF Converter Pro vs. Basic .

For the price, the Pro version is very good.

Yes, $80 is a reasonable price if it works well. Nuance's Power PDF Standard is $100 and Power PDF Advanced is $150 (and those are low-priced compared to Adobe's Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Professional).

My thanks to Wilder1626 for a very interesting collaboration on this one. Strange choice by sam2929 for the solution, but, as the saying goes, c'est la vie. Regards, Joe