If you convert PDFs on a regular basis, you’ll know that every PDF to Excel conversion is different. There are some that require a bit more attention than most. These are the conversions that don’t go too well the first time around with misaligned cells, skewed data output, poor formatting around headers and footers, or partial data conversions.
Able2Extract has a Custom Conversion feature that allows you to designate and set the formatting for PDF to Excel conversions that reduce these extraction problems significantly. This usage tip explains how.
1) Open the PDF to be converted within Able2Extract (Able2Extract Professional for scanned PDFs). Select the content to be converted.
2) Click on the Convert to Excel option. You’ll be given a choice to perform either an Automatic conversion or a Custom conversion. Select Custom, then click on Convert.
3 ) What follows will be a preview of your document with a grid of lines placed over the highlighted selection. These are the column and row lines which you can add, adjust, or delete altogether.
Although the startup wizard does contain instructions to guide you, here’s a little preview of what you’ll need to do when adding, removing or adjusting lines—which requires some mouse dexterity if you’re not used to right clicking!
• Adding lines—right click in the designated space where you want to add a line
• Remove lines—double right click on the line
• Adjust lines— right click and hold on the column line, then drag to move it
4) Once you have the lines in place, click on the Excel conversion icon again.
A few things to be aware of while using this conversion method:
*Although you’re custom converting to avoid misalignment between cells and data, you may still encounter some columns striking through your converted content that result from the vertical line placement and difference in multiple table formats. You can resolve this with a tip that was previously posted.
However, with our next version release, you’ll have the option of correcting the strikethroughs automatically where Able2Extract will produce another conversion which will readjust the results for your Excel output.
*With multiple data selections using the Custom conversion option, be aware that when you adjust the vertical column lines for one table, you’re also designating the formatting for any other tables you have selected. This issue usually plays a role in the data being struck through with vertical lines.
*In such cases where the formatting for multiple tables differ, it might be more appropriate to use the Convert to Special feature where you can convert each individual table and customize separate table formats. This way you can still perform custom conversions and export them into the same Excel file as well.
*The two adjustable horizontal lines will eliminate any headers and footers that occur between the pages when the selected content is spread over more than one page. Able2Extract will perform the conversion with empty Excel rows separating the tables to signify any page breaks that are in the original document.
Next up, will be a spotlight on the various Excel conversion output options which you can use to tailor that conversion process even more. Stay tuned!
