Import Data from a PDF to Excel 

If you have Office/Microsoft 365 and don't see the PDF connector then you need to update Office. Find out how to get the latest updates here: support.microsoft.com/office/da36192c-58b9-4bc9-8d51-bb6eed468516

I manually imported tons of tables from pdf files in my work in the last 2 weeks and my boss found that I was taking too long to do the task. This evening I started to think there must be a solution to do this tedious task automatically and quickly, so I found out that Microsoft Office 365 can do this. I feel stupid for not having known this before.

What Excel version is this? There's not Get Data tab on Excel 2016. It only shows From Access, From Web, and From Text.

Thanks for the nice presentation, in case the excel navigator is showing pages on left and on Right hand side it shows page is empty? any Advise. Thanks

Minda, do you have a power Query Power BI "101" --> video , I am a complete beginner on these two.

Mind-blowing and amazing tricks you have👏. Loved to watch this 😁😀😀

How could I select and append different tables from different files at the same time? Scenario: Select Tables 4, 13, 16 and 19 from pdf.files 1,3,5,7?

Thank you so much for this video! I have needed this so many times and it'll be so nice to actually have a solution for the next time I need it.

What a nice woman! Very homely, cozy. I think you're a good mom. The children were very lucky. I wish you happiness! Oh, Yes, we talked about Excel...

Glad MSFT finally GA'd this feature, thanks for the video!

Thanks fr much needed video👍👍👍

I think if I watch your videos daily I will become a native English speaker 👌and thanks again for the upload

Thanks, very much, I have this issue, I have different pdf files, these have different pages and tables, it may be possible to get the names of the queries so my query does not fail, since the files differ in pages and tables and my query fails

In my PDF, I have 14 columns and 47 rows. I want to show each row in a single cell of power query so that the trailing spaces are not lost. Pls advise.

Thank you so much, the technique will help me so much. I did not know Power Query would be able to identify pages with tables and separate them from pages with text. super-amazing👏👏

Madam, I am re-framing my question I have Multiple PDF file in one folder, in some PDF when I see in Power Query it shows as Table 3 and for some PDF it shows the same content in Table 4. so importing becomes problem if I select the sample from table 3 then only data from all pdf from table 3 will be considered for processing. one common thing I have is table has one column Name as " LineNO". First I should find if PDF has a table having the column as LineNO if Yes then consider that as the table to process and move to next PDF and do the same process So Importing of Table having Column Name as "LineNo" is the condition that to be passed before Transform.

What If you don’t have Excel 365? I have excel 2016. What would be the best solution in this case? I’ve tried several attempts starting from PDF but the results don’t always work.

Hello, I'm not good with Computer so this is a bit hard to understand for me... Let say I have multiple pdf files ( or I can combine multiple pdf files into 1 big file, separate by each page) which have the same format. Now I want to extract some specific data from said files using the "Get data -> From PDF" function. The problem now is I'm having multiple pages extracted and don't know how to apply the same configuration to each page and then combine them into 1 table... Can someone help me with this problem? Thank you so much in advance.

My office version is office 365 proplus.but I don't have this option under get and transfrom..could you help me solve this..? Or why was it..

I have installed Office365 but import PDF option it doesn't show kindly help me in this regard,thanks

So I've set up a Power Query from a PDF, which involved quite a lot of tidying! We have an old system that provides messy PDF outputs for data, and I'd like to add new PDFs and get Power Query to do the same applied steps every time, so I can feed it new PDFs and get clean outputted data as separate tables. Is this possible?

I'm using this method to import data , but when i'm trying to refresh using a diff pdf having similar data , i'm getting errors as Power Query picks up diff tables than i want , kindly help. I liked and subbed by the way , excellent video.

the function "get data " is not appearing in my excel version . please advice

My PDF is a scan of a table and the Power Query just says "no data in table". Thinking the quality of the scan isn't good enough for the software to recognize. Any way around this?

It's only available for Office 365 users. Yes. I save your time, you can now go look for different methods.

Thanks, Myanda, this is an excellent video. I completed your Power Query Course in 2016. I am now fully retired but have maintained an interest in EXCEL and each week I receive a PDF file from a data provider that I need to put into a data table for my SMSF. I developed a VBA program to analyse the data once I have placed the data in a Table. I will try and use Power Query to do this step as it could be a time saver. Thanks again. The course was excellent and I would recommend it as it is the future direction being taken by Microsoft.

I am using Excel 2019 application in windows 10 I don't have option to get data from pdf . Can you please tell me how can I get that option?

Very insightful.Thank you

Thanks for the video, why can I not reformat the cells i.e. insert currency symbol and insert formulars to add up columns etc.

Can i use in Microsoft Excel 2019? I can't see From PDF in Get Data.

Please, i have a question. After we import the PDF file via Power bi, how can i select all tables at the same time. when i importe a long PDF file, i get a hundreds tables that i cannot select one by one. that may takes a life time. thank you.

Is there a way to the import data and select all tables automatically? For example, you only have to specify the location with multiple PDFs and the automation does the loading + selecting all tables

Picture of this vedio is soo hazy.. cant see anything to understand.. its really hard to see the data.. kindly enhance the vedio picture quality...

You are very bautiful woman i want to marry you

there's not pdf option in my ribbon.

I have multiple excel in some excel data is available in table 3 and in some excel same data is available in table 4 . So how to transform both table? Pl support me

Hi Mynda.. great tutorial. Glad to see this functionality now included within Excel. Thanks for the lesson. Thumbs up!

Why do I get "Table is Empty" error? Is it because the data was scanned to pdf?

Plz help me, i have latest ms 365 but pdf import option r not showing🙄

Super great amazing tutorial! I spent hours on getting data from pdf last week with csv things.

Hi, I just got a recent update Nov 2021 of O365 & sadly it seems that the option for getting data from PDF is no longer available. Do you know a workaround?

If you have a pdf that is always in the same format, is there a way to create a template so when you create an import button you don't have to do all the work every time? Is this too much for a macro to do?

Not only getting idea for importing pdf n also to work in PQ in another dimension thanks 👍

Hi Mynda, the option for import from PDF is missing, I am using the 365 version of Excel do you have an idea why this is happening? TIA

hi, great video! question for you MyOnlineTrainingHub - I have several tables from PDF, they are basically one long table (22 tables in import) but only the first table has headers. Excel doesnt recognize or understand that columns from each table are the same so it ends up staggering them over. so if table 1 ends on column 10, then table 2 starts on column 11, table 3 on column 21, and so on. how do you make excel recognize or understand that you want it to simply stack all the tables on top of each other and recognize headers from first table you pick?

What version of excel are you using?????

Hi Mynda, I could not find from pdf option under from file, how to add that option there

How can we convert 100 pages pdf. Pls send the email I'll send the document.. I have tried but not happen.

the Get Data option is not there in my excel-2016.

The page range [PageStart=7, PageEnd=8] must be exactly in that format (with parenthesis, camel case followed by comma)? Is PageStart and PageEnd variables or built-in within PQ? Can I use something like [Pages=7-8]?

Hi, Excellent video. However, I was wondering how to append pages that are not continuous?

Would be able to convert multiple pdf to one Excel sheet

hi maam i have question in my data option from file from pdf option is not coming

what if i only want page 7 and page 9, skipping page 8?

I'm a mailer and sometimes get address lists in pdf. I'm going to try this at work. Probably going to take a few tries but if I can get it to work I'll look like a stud. We usually have to have the client send us a xls or csv to get their addresses imported to our addressing machine.

I cannot see the command getdata from file->pdf.I have Office 365 of course. do you know why?

I don't have pdf option!!! How do I get it there?

HI Mynda, I'm your silent follower and really like what you do. Power query is not been able to retrieve data from password protected PDF file. It is not getting forward; can you help me out please

Darn, do not have the get data, rom file option??

Hi Mynda, how can I extract words one by one without spaces for a specific text from cell to others? please, i found a solution but it's complicated, sure you have something better

Will this work with the on line version of excell?

PDF option not show in my excel

Yes ...I will try this in my job 👍

Can we import data from MS Word doc too?

hi there... great video... But is the option of get data rom pdf available only in O365 or is it possible in older versions too.. pls advice how to do it... thanks

Thanks .T You were too fast

Nice tutorial!! If You Need some Quick solution without a connection with the PDF file, You can import the PDF file in Word and there there are all the tables that You Need! After that You only Need to Copy and paste on Excel and edit what You want!!

Hello. I'm wondering if Power Query can be used to import and process larger lists in pdf? F.ex. General Ledger or similar. Sometimes we get longer lists in that format and it would have been very useful to be able to edit them before they are taken over in excel. I have tried but unfortunately without success.

Fantastic information. I've enjoyed watching your informative video.

Thanks Mynda. So much flexibility with power query. Never thought of doing this with pdf. Appreciate you sharing. 👍

There is no pdf icon in my excel

to be honest, its a challenge to any tutor on this subject as ms excel developer team is deliberately silly by not adopting the method in pivot table field selection means: click & drop....the management of ms gets a gut to accept such a dummy operation & take to market as ms product in 201x~2020.....that gives bill gate omg.............

Hi Mynda!Really Helpful Tutorial,It's Really Great We Can Now Import PDF Data Into Excel Using POWER QUERY..Thank You :)

Awesome. I've been exporting my PDFs to text and the connecting to Power Query. This should be better. I don't see this update on my work account. Is this only for personal accounts?

This is great! What about OCR? Can Excel handle PDF documents that are scans?

Another excellent video, nice voice and volume yo explain Power Query, muy claro con tus vídeos Mynda, congratulations! I am learning good!

Thank you very much for a clear and concise tutorial. I'm going to try it myself now with a bank statement.

Powerful!!! Thank you for the video. The same option extrapolated from Power BI to Excel. Thank you Mynda!

👍👍

Another brilliant presentation, thanks. The functionality of Excel is very impressive! Wow!

Excellent 👍

Thank you Mynda for this valuable video. This really helps when you only a receive pdf file and prevents time zapping manual work. Your email tips & tricks and video demos are awesome!

This is an interesting video for me, PDFs and Excel have been a nightmare in the past. Power Query is the answer, and it is a feature I’ll need to get a lot more comfortable with, thanks for the presentation Mynda, really good.

I have not this option in my office 2019

Another excellent video. Could you do an example where you transform financial statements from a set of published accounts?

Thanks, Mynda! Quick question. Are we able to specify a conditional last page i.e. [StartPage = 3, If(condition, EndPage = 7, EndPage = 8] to cater for variable number of tables.

This was great. Althogh could you make a video Where u do this with a financial report?

Can you help me to sort variable in a customised order.

Thanks Mynda. Very Helpful. : )

Hi, I use Excel on a Mac, do you know the nuances regarding Excel PC vs Mac? Like the shortcuts? Thank you (your channel is super instructive and easy to follow)

Great lesson. Clean and straight forward. All in all good quality as always. Thank you for sharing your content.

Thanks, al lot for your valuable information. Can you tell me, How I can add this option in office 2019?

Very nice tip and Excellent explanation. Thanks a lot.

Omg, my team is going to make extremely good use out of this function. Thanks for bringing it to attention!

i was wondering, where can i get one of those green excel notebooks?

Very useful, thanks Mynda!

What version of excel do you need to access this feature

Well Done Mynda All Your Videos Are Useful

Fantastic video! Great Transformation!

This will be very useful one day. . Thank you.