How to convert PDF to Excel without losing formatting?

If your reports contain scanned pages or complex tables that Excel’s import struggles with, Azure AI Document Intelligence is worth testing. It combines OCR with table extraction, including identifying rows, columns and merged cells.

To try it, create an Azure Document Intelligence resource, open its Studio, and analyse a sample PDF with the Layout model. Check the detected tables in the preview before processing more reports. The results are structured data, so you’ll need a small script or integration to turn them into an Excel workbook.

For your formatting concern, it focuses on recovering table structure, rather than matching the original fonts, colours and borders. Extracted amounts may also need conversion from text to numbers, so check decimal separators and totals before calculating.

There’s a limited free tier for testing, with paid usage generally charged per page. It’s a cloud service, so files must be uploaded. It makes more sense for repeatedly processing difficult reports than for a few files where you want a straightforward “upload PDF, download Excel” converter.