To copy a table from a PDF to Excel, you can use Lido's PDF Table Extractor. Select the table in your PDF, and Lido extracts it with every row and column in place, ready to export to Excel in seconds.
In this tutorial, we will walk you through how to copy a table from a PDF to Excel using Lido. Simply follow the steps below.
Lido's PDF Table Extractor is the best way to copy a table from a PDF to Excel because it keeps every row and column in place, even in scanned and multi-page PDFs.
Before you start, make sure you have your PDF saved on your computer. Digital PDFs, scanned PDFs, and photos of paper documents all work.
If you don't have a Lido account yet, you can create one for free here.
Once you're logged in, create a New File.
Click on Tools in the top menu and select the PDF Table Extractor. This tool is designed to read tables from your PDF and keep their structure intact.
Drag and drop your file into Lido, or click to upload.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we are using a sample bank statement. Drag the selection box over the table you want to copy. If your PDF has several tables, you can select just the ones you need.
Once you have your selection, click Extract Data.
Review the extracted table to make sure it includes everything you need. You can go back to adjust your selection. When you're satisfied, click Insert at Active Cell to add the table to your spreadsheet.
You can edit and format the cells however you need. Adjust column widths, format numbers and dates, or reorganize the data to suit your workflow. Bank statement tables often need reconciling with existing Excel data, such as a ledger or invoice list.
Click Export to Excel at the top to download your table as an Excel file. Every value stays in the right row and column, with no cleanup needed.
These methods can work for simple tables, but each one has limits:
Copy and paste: Select the table text in your PDF reader, copy it, and paste it into Excel. It only works on simple tables in digital PDFs. If everything lands in one column, you can try Data, then Text to Columns, but this fails when values have different widths.
Adobe Acrobat Pro: Go to File, then Export a PDF, then Spreadsheet, then Microsoft Excel Workbook. It handles clean, digital tables well, but it requires a paid subscription and struggles with scanned PDFs and complex layouts.
Free online converters: Sites like Smallpdf, iLovePDF, and PDF24 convert a PDF to Excel in a few clicks. Most have daily limits, handle only basic tables, and require uploading your file to a third-party server.
Python libraries: Developers can use tabula-py or Camelot to extract tables and save them to Excel. They're free and scriptable, but they require coding skills and can't read scanned PDFs.
For a broader comparison, see our guides to the best table extraction software and the best PDF to Excel converters.
Now that you know how to copy a table from a PDF to Excel, you can skip the manual cleanup and get clean, organized data every time. For text or single fields rather than full tables, copying PDF content into Excel works a little differently.
Open Lido's PDF Table Extractor, upload your PDF, and drag the selection box over the table. Lido extracts it with every row and column intact. Then click Export to Excel to download it.
Not with copy and paste, because scanned PDFs have no selectable text. You need a tool with OCR. Lido runs OCR and table extraction in one step, so scanned tables come out just as organized as digital ones.
PDFs store text as positioned characters, not table cells. When you copy, the clipboard captures the text without column breaks, so Excel puts it all in one column. Lido's PDF Table Extractor avoids this by reading the table's structure.
Most methods split multi-page tables into separate pieces or repeat headers. Lido processes the whole PDF as one document and merges the table across page breaks into one continuous table.
Yes. Copy and paste is free, and tools like PDF24 and tabula-py can convert simple tables. These usually need manual cleanup and don't work well on scanned or complex tables. Lido offers 50 free pages so you can try it on your own PDFs.
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