We’ve all been there. You’ve got a report to write, you need to update a table of figures from last month’s report, but you’ve only got a PDF copy to work from. No problem, just open the PDF, select the table, copy, paste. Cue frustration as one or more of the following happens
- No matter where you click and drag, you can’t seem to select the whole table
- You can’t select any text at all
- When you paste, the text looks like someone’s dropped it and all table formatting is lost
You accept defeat and start to manually transcribe the data. But what if you have a lot of tables to process? A whole set of end-of-year accounts? Months of bank statements? There must be a better way?
Extracting tables with Textreme
There is. Use the “Tables” feature in Textreme. First, log in (or sign-up), then select the “Tables” tab.
Upload your PDF, then wait for processing to complete.
Once done, simply select your desired output format (Excel, CSV or Markdown) and download. Tables are detected, formatting is maintained and peace is returned to the office.
Take the sample below:
And the resulting Markdown:
| Date | Description | Ref. | Withdrawals | Deposits | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-10-08 | Previous balance | 0.55 | |||
| 2003-10-14 | Payroll Deposit - HOTEL | 694.81 | 695.36 | ||
| 2003-10-14 | Web Bill Payment - MASTERCARD | 9685 | 200.00 | 495.36 | |
| 2003-10-16 | ATM Withdrawal - INTERAC | 3990 | 21.25 | 474.11 | |
| 2003-10-16 | Fees - Interac | 1.50 | 472.61 | ||
| 2003-10-20 | Interac Purchase - ELECTRONICS | 1975 | 2.99 | 469.62 | |
| 2003-10-21 | Web Bill Payment - AMEX | 3314 | 300.00 | 169.62 | |
| 2003-10-22 | ATM Withdrawal - FIRST BANK | 0064 | 100.00 | 69.62 | |
| 2003-10-23 | Interac Purchase - SUPERMARKET | 1559 | 29.08 | 40.54 | |
| 2003-10-24 | Interac Refund - ELECTRONICS | 1975 | 2.99 | 43.53 | |
| 2003-10-27 | Telephone Bill Payment - VISA | 2475 | 6.77 | 36.76 | |
| 2003-10-28 | Payroll Deposit - HOTEL | 694.81 | 731.57 | ||
| 2003-10-30 | Web Funds Transfer - From SAVINGS | 2620 | 50.00 | 781.57 | |
| 2003-11-03 | Pre-Auth. Payment - INSURANCE | 33.55 | 748.02 | ||
| 2003-11-03 | Cheque No. - 409 | 100.00 | 648.02 | ||
| 2003-11-06 | Mortgage Payment | 710.49 | -62.47 | ||
| 2003-11-07 | Fees - Overdraft | 5.00 | -67.47 | ||
| 2003-11-08 | Fees - Monthly | 5.00 | -72.47 |
-
Image credit Sergio Ortega, licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0 ↩