How to export scanned PDF to Word or Excel

How to export scanned PDF to Word or Excel

Donna Baker – March 19, 2012

Let’s take the text from this image scan and send it to Word. Choose File > Save As > Microsoft Word > Word Document. The Save As dialog box opens. Let’s see how Acrobat will prepare the file. Click Settings to open the Save As DOCX Settings dialog box. Since the graphics aren’t needed, deselect the Include Images check box. Acrobat will automatically check if the file is an image only, or if it contains text. Click OK to close the settings, then click Save. Acrobat processes the file, captures the text, and exports the Word document.

Check out the file in Word. The text is all converted, but the strange characters came from the wrapped text in the scanned page. A few seconds to delete the strange characters and column breaks, and the text is ready to use.

It’s easy to export a scan directly to Excel, too. Choose File > Save As > Microsoft Excel Workbook to open the Save As dialog box. Let’s check out the settings. The only setting is to capture the text, which is what we need. Click OK, then click Save.

Here’s the new spreadsheet! All the text processes perfectly, although the background color isn’t exported to Excel.