PDF to Excel

Last week, we introduced you to Able2Extract’s new Smart Templates feature in the first part of this series, How to Custom Convert PDF to Excel with AI Technology: Smart Templates. This week, we’re going to cover Master Templates and how they work to further enhance your batch conversions.

We all know that batch converting multiple files to Excel at the same time is fast and efficient. Now, imagine having a number of PDFs and being able to automatically batch convert only the specific PDF tables you need. That would be a great time saver, indeed!  

The only problem to figure out, though, is how to select those tables from a number of separate files for batch conversion. The closest we’d be able to get using regular methods is to open all files, select the specific table in each one and convert one file at a time, which would be time consuming.

From a batch conversion perspective, though, automating the data selection makes more sense – and this is where a Master Template steps in.

This comes in handy if, for instance, you’re a retail manager who exports monthly reports on all in-store products for 2018 into separate PDFs (one for each month). When you need to analyze the data for the sale of a specific product over the entire year, a Master Template can help Able2Extract to identify, select and convert that specific dataset from all of your 2018 monthly PDF reports in one sitting.

To do this, though, you first need to train a Master Template. This is what we’ll cover in today’s post.

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As you well know, Able2Extract Professional 14 went above and beyond this year. It included the ability to sign PDF files, but it also came with artificial intelligence baked right in. The move may seem strange for a PDF converter, but it isn’t.

We’ve added AI technology to help tie both Able2Extract’s table selection capabilities and Custom Excel Templates closer together. We’ve made it so that you can boost and train those Excel templates into “Smart” and “Master” Templates. These templates can then be used by Able2Extract to automate how you select table structures for conversion.

When put into real-life context, this gives you more flexibility and power. You may have credit card statements in the PDF format, for example, where the table columns (date, amounts, transaction type) are all the same, yet the tables may vary in length (the number of transactions may differ from one table to the next) or occur on different pages.

In other words, you have the same table structure peppered across the PDF on non-consecutive pages. Selecting each of those tables for conversion becomes a challenge. It becomes an even more tedious task when extra text and other tables get in the way. This is what the new AI engine in Able2Extract aims to help you with.

In the first of this short two-part series, we’re going to show you how Smart Templates work. Let’s begin.

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