Excel Lesson for Engineers: How to Edit your PDF Spreadsheets

and Tables
Microsoft Excel is often associated with business, bookkeeping, accounting, financial analysis
and similar industries. You normally would not associate the spreadsheet application with
engineering. Yet, in reality, engineers often rely on Excel for data and numerical analysis.
MS Excel is a leading spreadsheet and data tool, and lots of tables and spreadsheets come our
way in PDF (Portable Document Format). In order to perform various numerical analysis and to
make those PDF spreadsheets and tables usable, they need to be transferred into Excel first.
Sometimes the simple conversion of entire PDF documents into XLS(X) format can do the job.
At other times, simple conversion from one format to another simply isnt enough. For example,
you may have a multipage PDF with lots of columns and rows full of data that you dont really
need. Rather than exporting all that unecesarry data into Excel with the first simple PDF to
Excel converter you come across, it may be wiser to utilize a professional PDF converter that
will allow you to tailor your PDF file to your needs before the actual conversion to Excel. The top
choice for such a case is Able2Extract PDF to Excel converter developed by Investintech.
It is one of the leading PDF extraction solutions on the market with PDF to Excel as its hallmark
feature. Able2Extract PDF Converter is developed with Excel users and analysts in mind. The
real power of the tool lies in its PDF to Excel custom conversion panel which allows users to:
Specify the page range of the PDF that they want exported to Excel
Add and delete tables to a page with a single click
Automatically recalculate the column structure for the page range
Customize tables by adding columns or erasing column lines, and adding or erasing
rows, as well
Preview the conversion output right from the application before the actual conversion
and much more as you can learn here
As impressive and useful all these PDF to Excel conversion options sound, lets put them into
perspective and show how you can actually use them with a help of a simple and practical how-
to illustrated guide.
1. Open the desired PDF table in Able2Extract by clicking the Open Icon (optionally
choose Open from the Edit menu).
2. Select the table or content for conversion to Excel by clicking the All icon on the toolbar
or Area if you want to specify the part of PDF with your mouse.
3. Now click the Excel icon.
4. Choose Custom conversion to access and define your custom conversion options.
You will now see the custom conversion panel where you can customize your table to details
prior to conversion.
For example, click the Erase column line and then click the column you would like to remove
from your table. Depending on the structure of your table and needs, try and make other wanted
adjustments.
Click the Show Preview check-box to preview the look and feel of your resulting Excel file.
5. In the end, click the green button Convert.
For example, click the Erase column line and then click the column you would like to remove
from your table. Depending on the structure of your table and needs, try and make other wanted
adjustments.
Click the Show Preview check-box to preview the look and feel of your resulting Excel file.
5. In the end, click the green button Convert.
For example, click the Erase column line and then click the column you would like to remove
from your table. Depending on the structure of your table and needs, try and make other wanted
adjustments.
Click the Show Preview check-box to preview the look and feel of your resulting Excel file.
5. In the end, click the green button Convert.
As you can see from the example above, Able2Extract allows you to literally tailor your PDF
tables to your needs before extracting them to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for maximum
productivity.