Converting PDFs to Excel

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petepuma01
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Converting PDFs to Excel

Post by petepuma01 »

I like PDF XChange very much but one feature that Acrobat performs better is converting PDFs to Excel. Please see the attachment which contains the source PDF and the conversion results from PDF XChange and Acrobat.

- Acrobat will convert all pages of the PDF to a single worksheet while PDF XChange converts each page to its own worksheet. For Excel, a single worksheet is usually more desirable-- can this be changed? (or prompt the user for how to convert- 1 or multiple worksheets)

(we have found a few macros that will combine multiple worksheets into one but they don't always work, as is the case with this sample)

- Acrobat does a much better job of converting data to Excel as you see it in the source document. PDF XChange seems to add a lot of unnecessary empty cells and they don't always align well. Review the first few rows of the first worksheet in each sample spreadsheet.

Note that data has been cleansed.

Are there any suggestions for improving the conversion process? I'm currently on 8.331, Windows 10 64 bit.
Last edited by petepuma01 on Tue Oct 08, 2019 1:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Converting PDFs to Excel

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello Petepuma01,

Thank you for the report, Currently the Editor does not have any options to setup multiple pages to a single sheet. We have discussed the function internally in the past, and are looking at implementing it in the future, but I cannot give any guarantees at the moment.

As for the overall quality, I see the issues you are talking about here as well. The dev team is working on improving the conversion as time goes on. I will request that we increase the priority on these improvements, but still cannot make any guarantees on a timeline for those improvements. Likely they will be gradual, successive improvements, getting slightly better with every few updates in the future.

Looking over your document, you may find better results if you set out Excel conversion to "new row on sheet for each 'line'"
image.png
image.png (91.83 KiB) Viewed 1352 times
Instead of 'Paragraph'.
This can be changed from the preferences (Ctrl+K) under "convert from pdf".

Kind regards,

P.S. I should note, form a document security standpoint, the "rectangle tool > flatten comments" method that you used to clean up the document does not remove content below the rectangle annotations, it only makes it slightly more difficult to get to.
In the future, if you wish to share documents without including sensitive information, I would advise using the "redact tool" on the form tab instead. Redaction, when applied as per that article, will completely remove all traces of whatever content was below it, including text and partial image content.
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
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Support@pdf-xchange.com
petepuma01
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Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:56 am

Re: Converting PDFs to Excel

Post by petepuma01 »

Thank you. I did try the paragraph/line option but it did not improve things.

Regarding the redaction-- i did try the redaction tool, which did work in the invoice logo up top. When I tried to redact the body, it would not draw a rectangle but instead, selected all text below the start of the redaction.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Converting PDFs to Excel

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Sorry to hear that option didn't help much. Unfortunately I cannot offer any other options for the time being, and we will need to wait for future updates to improve the conversion results.

As for redaction, that would be because the redaction tool can select text directly, if you hold Ctrl you will toggle "exclusive mode" and the redaction tool will not be able to select text, then it will allow you to draw a rectangle.

I hope that helps!
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
ricky.watkins
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Re: Converting PDFs to Excel

Post by ricky.watkins »

Are there any updates on improving the conversion process to Excel spreadsheets. I am experiencing the same results as the user in this email string - some conversions even produce a blank spreadsheet. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
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Chris - Tracker Supp
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Re: Converting PDFs to Excel

Post by Chris - Tracker Supp »

Hi Ricky,

Sorry for the delay in response, would you be able to send your original spreadsheet to support@pdf-xchange.com so our support team can investigate this issue further.

Thank you
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.


Chris Attrell
Tracker Sales & Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
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