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justinaus's avatar
justinaus
Copper Contributor
Apr 11, 2023

pdf to excel

hi, is it possible to import a formula that is within a pdf document into Excel to then be able to use that formula for calculations? This is to prevent the transcription of complex formulae into the...
excel
Formulas and Functions
NikolinoDE's avatar
NikolinoDE
Platinum Contributor
Apr 11, 2023

justinaus 

It is possible to import data from a PDF file into Excel using the built-in feature in Excel.

You can do this by going to the Data tab in Excel, clicking on Get Data, then From File, then From PDF. This will allow you to select the PDF file you want to import data from.

Once you have selected the file, the Navigator window will appear, showing a list of all the data sets that Power Query has found in your PDF. 

You can then select the item or items that you want to import and click on Transform Data.

However, this feature is only available to Office 365 subscribers since August 2020.

It is not clear from your text whether it is possible to paste formulas from a PDF into your Excel. In Excel from Office 365 (the version with subscription) there is a tab with which you can get data from Data/From File/From PDF/From PDF. Announcing data import from PDF documents.

 

I hope that I could help you with this.

  • Areyoukiddingme's avatar
    Areyoukiddingme
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 05, 2024

    NikolinoDE 

    It doesn't work with Pro 2019. There is no PDF option in the dropdown menu

  • g_g_r_'s avatar
    g_g_r_
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 20, 2024

    NikolinoDE UGH! I tried this, since I was trying to do this. It did not work as expected. 

     

    It tried to create multiple tables and none of the data was present, it was all ascii chars. 

     

    Using Adobe cloud to convert was accurate and less painfull - no need to select tables or data or whatever MS excel was tring to do. 

     

    Yes, I do have Office 365 subscription. 

     

    I would really like this feature to be painless or seamless - now that every thing has AI - this mundane task can be handled properly without too much of human input. 

     

    Also, if we are working with sensitive data or financial information, using cloud is out of quesiton.

    • NikolinoDE's avatar
      NikolinoDE
      Platinum Contributor
      Jul 01, 2025

      Can You Import Formulas from a PDF into Excel and Use Them?

      Not automatically.
      Excel’s “Get Data > From PDF” feature can import tables or text data from PDFs, but it does not recognize or extract formulas as usable Excel formulas.

       

      Summary…

      Excel's “Get Data from PDF” won’t import formulas as usable Excel logic

      Adobe Acrobat (paid, offline) is better at preserving formula-like text

      For highly sensitive documents, use manual or code-based extraction offline

      No perfect solution yet—but with increasing demand and AI tools, it’s a space worth watching

       

      Hope this information helps you a little.

      • TonOt's avatar
        TonOt
        Copper Contributor
        Jul 01, 2025

        Have a look at online ((OCR based) converters like https://www.onlineocr.net.
        These can produce quite a 1-to-1 representation; no formules, I guess.
        Works way better than copy&paste (as importing PDF-data gets mis-aligned lines/data when pasting).  

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