Converting PDF to Excel

You can't convert PDF to Excel. However there is a way to get the data out of a PDF and into Excel. Is this PDF a form, or a flat (non-interactive) report like document? Have you looked at third party conversion tools?

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

thomp,

thank you for your response, I am talking to Acrobat Technical support and they're telling me that such function does work in Acrobat professional 9.0.

I don't know if it's a form, or a flat (non-interactive) report like document ? how can I tell? Basically this is an invoice that comes to me on a CD and it is a PDF file, I can view with Acrobat Viewer. But I want to export to excel, make a flat file, map field to match my system and then upload.

I have looked at 3rd party conversion tools, but since Acrobat is a preferred tool I would need to go through a lot of red tape to get anything else approved.

The "Save Tables to Excel XML" option in the Acrobat SaveAs dialog scrapes data from flat content ,that looks like a table, and puts it in a XML format. It doesn't always get everything, but it works ok. It does not collect any data that doesn't look like a table. Have you tried it?

If the PDF is an invoice then it's probably not an interactive form. Is it a QuickBooks invoice? If the PDF is a LiveCycle form then the Document properies will show that it was created with LiveCycle. If it's an AcroForm you can use the "Select Object" tool to show the form fields.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]