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To convert PDF to Excel, you need EXTREME knowledge of PDF (and Excel for that matter). To have this knowledge, means you can earn money with it. Marketleader seems to be Nuance (for decades).<br />
<a href="http://www.nuance.com/for-business/imaging-solutions/document-conversion/power-pdf-converter/how-to/convert-pdf-to-excel/index.htm" rel="ugc">http://www.nuance.com/for-business/imaging-solutions/document-conversion/power-pdf-converter/how-to/convert-pdf-to-excel/index.htm</a><br />
If they make money on it, it probably means you will need about 2000 man hours of VB6 coding to finish a successful PDF to Excel conversion. I don't think that's really worth it, and therefore I suggest you just buy the product (it's 100 bucks).<br />
There are many free online and offline solutions, most are ad supported or adware, so try at your own risk.
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<div>
Thank you Kimputer for your prompt response. &nbsp;I will pursue the product you suggest if I cannot get this to work (below). &nbsp;I started playing with this after submitting my question:<br />
<br />
<b>Public acroavdoc As Acrobat.CAcroAVDoc<br />
Public acroPDDoc As Acrobat.CAcroPDDoc<br />
<br />
Set acroavdoc = CreateObject(&quot;AcroExch.AVD<wbr />oc&quot;)<br />
acroavdoc.Open(&quot;c:\test.pd<wbr />f&quot;, &quot;Accessing PDF's&quot;)<br />
Set acroPDDoc = acroavdoc.GetPDDoc()<br />
acropddoc.Save(1,&quot;c:\testc<wbr />onvert.pdf<wbr />&quot;)</b><br />
<br />
The parms for acropddoc.Save are (nType as integer, sFullPath as string)<br />
The above code snippet will save to pdf so I'm thinking/hoping that if I can find the correct nType enumeration for an Excel file type, then it will create an Excel file. &nbsp;And then, finding all the enumerations, I will also be able to save to MSWord, HTML, XML....etc...<br />
<br />
Thank you again for your response,<br />
fbroccoli
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<div>
Acrobat only exposes the most simple routines to the user. The advanced coding, will never be made public (it's how they earn their money).<br />
I've seen workarounds, but that involves the VB6 code opening Acrobat, and using SendKeys. Not a very nice solution.
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<div>
I looked into Power PDF Converter, but it appears it requires user intervention. &nbsp;For what I need, I can just have the user click on Save As=&gt;Excel. &nbsp;I do appreciate your help and sorry I said &quot;prompt response&quot;, I meant &quot;quick response&quot;. &nbsp;I rarely use Experts Exchange, but have never received a response as quickly as I did yours. &nbsp;I used to waiting much longer. &nbsp;Thanks again.
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<div>
Most software like these don't expose API to the public (especially if a lot of settings need to be adjusted in GUI environment). I suggest you try again with Power PDF Converter, IN COMBINATION with AutoHotKey (since the windows/buttons/screens will probably quite predictable, it means you can &quot;click&quot; quickly).<br />
Depending on the speed of the PC, you might not even see the window open/close and flashing<br />
<a href="https://autohotkey.com/download/" rel="ugc">https://autohotkey.com/download/</a>
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<div>
Thank you Kimputer and Mr. Joe Winograd,<br />
<br />
I have parsed many a pdf in the past but these new ones appear to have been scanned (or at least contain no text I can extract). &nbsp; So, which software, or combination of software, would you suggest I purchase to convert these pdf's to Excel using a CLI with zero end user intervention? &nbsp;<br />
<br />
Thanks again for all your time.
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<div>
If they contain no text, then they're surely image-only PDFs, containing only raster graphics/images, so the method you use will have to perform OCR in order for conversion to Excel to be meaningful.<br />
<br />
If you have many files with varying layouts, I don't think you'll get anything to work well — it's going to be error-prone. But if all the files have the same exact layout (only the data values are different), then you may be able to get an automated method to be reasonably effective in creating an Excel spreadsheet. But it's still <b>not</b> going to be 100% accurate, and for two reasons — OCR errors and PDF-to-Excel conversion errors.<br />
<br />
So, first question: do all the files have the same exact layout or are the layouts different? Can you post a sample file (being careful not to include private/sensitive info)? Regards, Joe
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<div>
They all have the same layout, however, they do contain both private and sensitive information.
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<div>
Since it's a raster image, it should be easy to redact the private/sensitive info with an imaging tool. I'd like to see the table structure — i.e., what will become the columns and rows of the Excel spreadsheet.
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<div>
Well, I'm not sure if this will be of any help. &nbsp;With the few tools I have, I captured the screen, blacked out the sensitive info, converted back to pdf. &nbsp;These two attachments actually appear on one page of the original pdf that I wish I could send to you.<br />
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2016/08_w36/1114296/Image01.pdf" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="Top of pdf page one (68 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>Image01.pdf</a><br />
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2016/08_w36/1114297/Image02.pdf" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="Bottom of pdf page two (63 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>Image02.pdf</a>
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Image01.pdf

Image02.pdf

<div>
&gt; appear on one page of the original pdf that I wish I could send to you<br />
<br />
Attached are the two images on one page. Also, I OCRed the PDF, which was just a raster image, as we suspected. It now has text from the OCR process in addition to the raster image.<br />
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2016/08_w36/1114313/Image01-Image02-combined-and-OCR.pdf" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="Image01 Image02 combined and OCR (63 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>Image01-Image02-combined-and-OCR.pdf</a>
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Image01-Image02-combined-and-OCR.pdf

<div>
That is great! &nbsp;So what/which software do you recommend I purchase to either convert to pdf where I can parse text or convert to Excel using CLI? &nbsp; Thank you so much!
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<div>
Sorry, I should have included this in my last comment. &nbsp;I'm kinda leaning toward ocr then conversion to Excel since these documents are apparently being scanned. &nbsp;Grabbing the text via position may not be as consistent as reading cells from Excel.
</div>


<div>
Yes, they're probably being scanned.<br />
<br />
I really don't know what is going to work best for your particular docs. I don't even know if <b>anything</b> will work well. You should experiment with the software I mentioned earlier.<br />
<br />
Here's a good first test. OCR the docs with the free software described in my 5-minute EE video Micro Tutorial:<br />
<a href="https://www.experts-exchange.com/videos/1618" rel="ugc">How to OCR pages in a PDF with free software</a><br />
<br />
You won't be able to call this with your VB6 code, but we'll worry about that later. For now, we just need the docs to have text in them via OCR. Then use the <a href="http://www.a-pdf.com/to-excel/index.htm" rel="ugc">A-PDF To Excel</a> product for the conversion (free trial available), which does have a command line interface that you could call from VB6 code. I emphasize that I have no idea how well it will do on your docs. Regards, Joe
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<div>
Understood and thanks Joe. &nbsp;The OCR'd doc you sent me did not do a great job, however, I did have to screen capture the pdf, black out the sensitive information, save as image and convert back to pdf for the test. &nbsp;So, I'm not giving up hope. &nbsp;Worst case, I have the users open the pdf, click Save as, and export to text, or Excel or Word, and then run my program.
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<div>
&gt; Worst case, I have the users open the pdf, click Save as, and export to text, or Excel or Word, and then run my program.<br />
<br />
No need for that! If the PDF has text, then you can easily grab it in your VB6 code by calling one of the (free!) command line Xpdf utilities. Here's a 5-minute EE video Micro Tutorial that shows how to download and install them:<br />
<a href="https://www.experts-exchange.com/VP_213.html" rel="ugc">Xpdf - Command Line Utility for PDF Files</a><br />
<br />
And here's another one that shows specifically how to extract the text:<br />
<a href="https://www.experts-exchange.com/VP_217.html" rel="ugc">Xpdf - Convert PDF Files to Plain Text Files</a><br />
<br />
Before calling this from your VB6 code, experiment with the five different settings for the output mode:<br />
<br />
-layout<br />
-lineprinter<br />
-raw<br />
-table<br />
&lt;null/default&gt;<br />
<br />
Regards, Joe
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<div>
Joe, I retract my last statement that the ocr did not do a great job. &nbsp;I'm an idiot. &nbsp;I forgot that I had to black out the sensitive information in the document I sent you. &nbsp;My bad.
</div>


<div>
No problem, but I was surprised by the comment because the OCR looked reasonably accurate to me (not perfect, of course). Thanks for the correction. :)
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<div>
Thank you Joe for all your help and time!
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<div>
You're very welcome. Good luck on the project! Regards, Joe
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<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Looking for VB6 code to programmatically convert PDF to Excel.
</div>
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Looking for VB6 code to programmatically convert PDF to Excel.

VB6 code to programmatically convert pdf to excel

Visual Basic is Microsoft’s event-driven programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) for its Component Object Model (COM) programming model. It is relatively easy to learn and use because of its graphical development features and BASIC heritage. It has been replaced with VB.NET, and is very similar to VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), the programming language for the Microsoft Office product line.