Tips to help with picture perfect conversions.
When working to convert PDF data into Excel, you can be swamped with the repetitive task of converting the same data everyday.
For handling large groups of PDFs, there’s the batch conversion feature in Able2Extract. Yet, this option is only ideal for full and automatic conversions.
What about multiple PDF to Excel conversions that need a bit of customization or scanned PDFs that can’t be converted in batch mode, but have the same layout per page?
Part 2 of 13 in our How To Use AutoCAD series
Working with PDF documents is difficult. Just working with the data itself can be time consuming. This is especially true when you need to extract something as precise as a PDF table into Excel. It requires that data to be transferred, cell by cell correctly into a spreadsheet, formatted perfectly and faithfully to the original.
So you can imagine how exporting a table from a PDF drawing to Excel is somewhat more complicated than exporting a table straight from AutoCAD to Excel.
However, this can be easily accomplished with Able2Extract’s “Custom PDF to Excel” conversion feature.
You can download the 7 day free trial and follow the steps below to export your table.
1.Open your PDF drawing with Able2Extract.
2. In the select panel, click on “Area”. Left click and drag to mark the table that you would like to export.
3. Once selected, click on “Excel”.
4. You’ll be presented with a Convert to Excel panel. Export simple tables automatically by clicking “Convert”. For now, stick to the Custom conversion and hit “Define”.
5. Now you have a complete control over your PDF to Excel conversion. Use the toolbar on the right to add and remove output columns and rows. When satisfied, check the “Show Preview” box to review your results.
6. Click “Convert” and save the file.
Converting AutoCAD tables to Excel may sound like a complicated procedure at first, but with the right tool, you can easily maneuver around that obstacle and work with any AutoCAD tables you come across.
Microsoft Excel can be intimidating. True. But a big pro is that it can be a life saver when wrestling with numbers and data.
Now, if you’re asking yourself when in the world would you have to deal with numbers and data, we have two words for you: March Madness.
March Madness 2016 is almost here and you can bet that everyone who doesn’t (or does) deal with data will be wading in conference standings and school stats over the next few weeks.
If you’re running a March Madness pool for your office, using MS Excel will be the best way to analyze, track and digest all the information you need to fill out your brackets and keep your pool in order.
Yet that’s only half the battle. The other half is getting that data into Excel. And this is where Able2Extact 10 can help you get everything in order.
In Excel, you can streamline and combine any existing data you want to keep as reference or update as the tournament goes on.
Player and team data will usually be available in a downloadable PDF. But what if you have a Word file? A PowerPoint presentation? No worries.
You can get your March Madness data into Excel spreadsheets regardless of the format you have. Just open your file in Able2Extract 10 and select the content you want converted (a page, line or the entire file). Then simply click on the Convert to Excel command on toolbar.
There are a lot of pain points associated with dealing with data when managing a pool—or several, one of them being the many different formats you have to consolidate and analyze. If you have differently formatted tables or statistical charts spanning pages, it can be a nightmare.
Good news is that you can tailor a PDF to Excel conversion according to the table structures in your file. Able2Extract has a few PDF to Excel conversion settings that make the job easier to identify and deal with the source document’s table structure. Select your settings before you make the conversion and you’re good to go.
You may also need specific data extractions for analyzing detailed statistics. For example, you may want to eliminate the data for lower seeded teams or scrape only the data from top teams in the last year to create your own shortlist.
For this, you can simply perform a Custom PDF to Excel conversion and filter out that information even before you even hit the Convert button. You can move rows, columns and even preview your conversion results to see if you have all the numbers you need in the right place.
Which team you root for depends just as much on the numbers as it does on a team’s dynamics. But we’re talking about 68 Division I college teams plus stats on individual players, coaches and so on. That’s a lot of data!
It, thus, may be worthwhile to have database tools for March Madness. Or, if you’re tech savvy enough, you may have a tool or script that can crunch the numbers to predict the perfect March Madness bracket.
In either case, you can get your March Madness PDF data into raw .CSV or delimited formats. Just click on the Convert to CSV command in Able2Extract. It’ll get your data working with the databases and tools you already have in place.
In some instances, you may have PDF data on teams all lumped into one single PDF with each team on one page or separate categories of data on each page.
It’s convenient for distributing and consuming the information, but hardly so if you want to separate that data. For instance, if you end up wanting to analyze each of the Final Four teams separately, you may want to organize and record each team’s information into separate worksheets.
Now, you can go into your spreadsheet and move all your data around via copy-paste. But an easier way is to uncheck the Single Worksheet option in Able2Extract’s Excel/CSV Conversion Options before you make your conversion.
This will automatically convert each PDF page into a separate worksheet, saving you the hassle of doing it manually.
No matter what type of pool your group decides to set up, knowing your stats is essential. Whether it be analyzing wins, losses and odds or keeping track of results and pool entries, Excel will be your best bet. The key is getting that data set up properly for analysis. Hopefully a few of the tips above helped!
So with March Madness just around the corner, how are you filling out your brackets this year?
Part 1 of 13 in our How To Use AutoCAD series
When working with AutoCAD, you never work completely in isolation. AutoCAD workflows are always about collaboration, review and approval. As such, AutoCAD projects and designs will always be connected and work in conjunction with other formats.
More often than not, the detailed tables of information of a design will need to be either recorded, edited or entered into Excel spreadsheets. That being said, you’ll need to know how to get that table into Excel.
To export a table from AutoCAD and edit it in Microsoft Excel simply select the table, then right click and choose “Export”. The table will be exported in .CSV file format.
Next, right click on the exported .CSV file and from the options menu choose Open with Excel.
Once the table has been opened in the Microsoft Excel, save it as an .xlsx file and you can instantly start editing the spreadsheet.
How effectively do you convert PDF files? Are you spending more time on setting things up? Making formatting adjustments after conversion? Checking in for conversions to start and end?
Well, with this short guide, we’re putting our foot down on some of the most common PDF conversion time-wasters.
If you’ve got Able2Extract, you may already be familiar with a few of the features on this list. But if you haven’t given them much thought before, you’ll want to take a closer look now. Because when combined, they can eliminate a majority of the small tasks that add up and slow you down.
Performing a custom PDF to Excel conversion is one of the most effective ways to get your spreadsheet data right. But it’s all too easy to get caught up in getting the rows and columns formatted just right. This is why Able2Extract offers Custom Excel Templates.
When you use this feature, you can easily save your column structure and use it to instantly convert other PDF tables that are formatted in the same way. You don’t have to reset your parameters or remember how you set your conversion up.
Once you have a template saved, you can simply load it to perform the same conversion any time. So if you’re dealing with customer data or PDF invoices in standardized forms, this feature can do a lot of the leg work for you.
When opening a PDF file, you probably waste more than 4 clicks to get it open and set up. Did you know that Able2Extract will let you open a file in less than half of that? Try a couple of these quick PDF-opening tricks:
This will open a new window of Able2Extract when you want to quickly start viewing a PDF in isolation, away from PDFs to be converted or edited.
Doing this will open a PDF file within the application simply by dragging your PDF into the open application. No double clicking needed. Use this trick to work with a specific group of PDFs at the same time which aren’t located in the same folder.
We know that not everyone uses the same version of Microsoft Office. At one point or another, you probably came across this compatibility issue with others. Ever have to re-convert a PDF or re-save the converted Office file?
Well, instead of re-working the already converted Word, Excel or PowerPoint data, Able2Extract will let you switch up the default format even before you start converting the PDF.
Usually, Able2Extract will convert your data to the Office version you have installed by default. But you can also set the Office output format to 2007 so you convert to the .docx format regardless of the Office version you have installed.
To make things even easier, you can save your conversion settings as a file. This way you can easily switch between different Office output settings as needed.
Excel conversions are hard to nail. Oftentimes, you may opt to simply extract everything into one worksheet and then spend a few minutes, post-conversion, moving data around into different worksheets.
If that’s the case, then you should take a look at the Excel Single Worksheet feature. With this functionality, Able2Extract converts selected data from your PDF into one single Excel worksheet.
By default this is turned on. So if you want to break up your converted data and get each page into separate worksheets for more precise conversions, you can do so before you convert. Here’s how:
Or you can simply hit F5 to turn the feature off.
With Able2Extract’s batch conversion, you can get the most done with the least amount of effort. Of all the features in this list, the Batch Conversion option is the one that saves you the most time as it works on multiple PDFs at once. If you have a handful of straightforward conversions to the same format, use this feature.
The process is automated, so you don’t have to sit and supervise each process as Able2Extract goes down the list. Just set it up and Able2Extract will take care of the rest. You can quickly access the feature from the command toolbar or by hitting CTRL + V.