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Importing Data from PDF Files

Excel Help for Importing Data From Pdf Files in Developing Business Administration Solutions


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Importing Data From Pdf Files

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Happy Business Spreadsheets has developed a free Excel program to extract and import PDF data into Excel which can be downloaded and used without restriction.

There is a common need to extract and import specific data from PDF files into Excel. Since Excel does not natively support the reading of PDF content, utilities are needed to convert the PDF file content for the Excel format. Several commercial applications accomplish this; however it is often the case where only specific data is required to be imported from multiple PDF files into one structured format.

We created such an application by using VBA code in conjunction with an open source PDF to Text conversion utility, which can be found at Foolabs.

[Download the free PDF data import Excel program here]

The program relies on the conversion utility (included in the download) and all PDF files to reside in the same directory as the Excel application. Text or data to extract are defined in the Control sheet by specifying start text, end text and multiple replacements routines with wildcard support. This enables flexibility to obtain comparable data from multiple PDF files based on patterns independent of different PDF file structures.

As many extraction rules as required can be set in order to create a table of information imported by extraction rule and PDF file name. Information on how to set up rules is available within the Excel application with a help icon and cell comments. The VBA code is commented and open for modification.

Any improvements or new features to the code are welcome to be posted here so that we can update the download version to the benefit of everyone.
 Excel Business Forums Administrator
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Oops
Pdftotext application
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The executable file in Pdftotext.exe should be in the same folder as the Excel application and PDF files.  This is launched via command shell from the Excel application to import data.
 Excel Business Forums Administrator
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Confused
Need help with this tool
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Hi I am new member to this site.. I downlaoded this tool. I could see one pdfttotext.exe file. when i double click it dont see any activity. Its not getting installed anywhere. I am using windows xp. Could someone help me please.. coz i use texts from around 70-80 pdfs in a day. this tool wud really help me...
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Oops
Example PDF for testing
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OK - if you can attach an example PDF by replying to this post notification email, we can take a look and see what is going on.
 Excel Business Forums Administrator
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Confused
Thanks for reply
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(3/5 from 1 vote)
Thanks for the reply. Sadly, i am still not getting anywhere with it. The file does appear to even be getting checked despite it being in the same folder as the excel document but opens the test pdf's. I also unsure on what commands to enter.
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Confused
Rows of text to columns
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Once you have established the start and end text, the row of numbers will be extracted as one text string. Often in this case, we need to clean the extracted data to reproduce the columns.  The Text to Columns menu item in Excel can accomplish this.
 Excel Business Forums Administrator
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Confused
Import Columns
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Hi Guys, not sure if im just being daft but how do i use this to import data like this in the pdf:

[edit: the single numbers were meant to appear under the ref in a column format, just like the treble digits under amount) REF Amount 1 100.00 2 125.00 3 130.00 4 150.00 5 160.00 I basically want it to pull the data into excel in the exact same format. anyone got any ideas?
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Surprised
Column delimited output options
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(3/5 from 1 vote)
The handling of differing column widths depends a lot on the PDF content. 

If you're able to get the data into the Excel output cleanly, then the best option would be to tidy it thereafter.  Options for this include the Text to Columns feature in Excel using spaces or tabs as the delimiter, and the TRIM function to remove white space. 
 Excel Business Forums Administrator
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Confused
Create output with columns delimited..
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(4/5 from 2 votes)
Thanks for the excellent tool. I am able to extract text from pdf files perfectly.

However, the columns in the output text are spaced differently for different pages of the pdf. This makes importing to excel a bit of a problem when dealing with a large number of pages.

Is it possible to delimit the output columns with a delimiter like # or * ?
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Confused
End text below the first line
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(3/5 from 1 vote)
To recuprate the first line, one would ned to define a common text below this as the end text to then loop files and extract whatever content appears before it.
 Excel Business Forums Administrator
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Confused
beginning of document as start
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(3/5 from 1 vote)
Really great tool. My case is a little bit different. I need to rename lots of pdf files based on the first line. How should I modify the code to have as START point the beginning of the pdf as it is not always the same? Thank you.
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