Converting PDF to XLS or DOC?

[YeaTexasFight]

I know I've seen threads in the past on this topic but I never paid attention to them because I never needed to do it before. I know there are many programs out there that can do it, I was just curious what the best product is with respect to ease of use, price, quality, etc.

 

[po elvis]

i did much searching for a program to convert pdf to excel and the only one i found is called Able2Extract. I use it and it works.

you specify the page range, then select what you want to convert the pdf to (xls, word, html, etc...). it then converts those pages onto one page. atleast with excel it puts it all on one page.

it is a pretty cheap lookin program, but it works and if you are desperate for something to do this task, there isn't a whole lot out there.

 

[dustin_c1]

I've tried a bunch of different tools to do this.

Some work better than others. Even the better ones will hiccup and not translate well on some documents. I had to use a couple of these. One would work for some documents and not others, while another would work for some and not others.

The best one I found was a web-based service. I can't remember the name right now.

 

[Son of a Son]

The hardest part of this is the PDF itself. If this is a document that has been scanned in, then 90% of the products out there WILL NOT WORK. Most PDF converters require there to be a text layer, which it can then process. If a document is scanned into PDF, then it is basically an image file and there is no text layer. Keep this in mind when looking for a product.

Generally speaking, you are better off printing out the document and then scanning it in and using the OCR software that is invariably packaged with scanners.

If it helps, I fight this issue several times in a week, so I have been through it WAY to many times. Nothing is going to convert it perfectly.