PDF to Excel
Excel can read a PDF's tables directly: Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF, tick the tables Power Query lists in the Navigator, and Load. That connector ships with Microsoft 365 for Windows — if your Get Data > From File menu has no From PDF entry, your build does not include it, and Excel for Mac never has. It only works on PDFs that contain real text; a scan or a photograph is an image, and no import will extract rows from pixels without OCR first. Expect the same three repairs each time: a long table arrives split into one table per page, numbers land as text because of currency symbols or bracketed negatives, and dates come back in the PDF's original format rather than yours.
A worked example
A twelve-page bank statement PDF, generated by the bank rather than scanned, with the same five columns on every page.
Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF > select the file > in the Navigator tick Table001 through Table012 > Transform Data
Power Query opens with twelve separate queries, one per page. Append them into a single query, then set the Amount column type with Change Type > Using Locale so bracketed negatives and the statement's thousands separator are read correctly, and the Date column the same way if the statement uses d/m/y and your machine does not. Load once and the whole sequence replays next month against a newer file at the same path.
Which one do I need?
| If you want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 on Windows | Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF, then tick the tables you want in the Navigator |
| Excel for Mac, or a build with no From PDF entry | No connector exists — copy the table out of the PDF reader and rebuild the columns with Data > Text to Columns, or get the data exported from whatever produced the PDF |
| The PDF is a scan or a photo of a page | There is no text layer to import; run OCR over it first and import the result |
| The table runs across many pages | The Navigator lists one table per page — select them all and Append rather than pasting them together by hand |
| The imported numbers refuse to add up | They arrived as text: strip currency symbols, convert bracketed negatives, then set the column type |
| You want the PDF file itself inside the workbook, not its data | Insert > Text > Object > Create from File, which embeds the document as an icon |
| You are going the other way, sheet to PDF | Export rather than import; the page-setup settings decide almost everything about the result |
| The same PDF is reissued every month | Import through Power Query and keep the file path stable — Refresh re-reads the new file and replays every cleanup step |
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no From PDF option in my Data tab?
The PDF connector is part of Get & Transform in Microsoft 365 for Windows. If Data > Get Data > From File lists Excel, Text/CSV and XML but no PDF, your build simply does not have it; Excel for Mac has never included it. Check File > Account to see which product and channel you are running.
Why did my PDF import produce empty or garbled tables?
Either the page is an image with no text layer, in which case nothing can be extracted without OCR, or the PDF draws its table with lines and spacing instead of a real table structure. In the second case Power Query guesses where the columns end and often guesses wrong — split the columns manually in the query editor rather than fighting the import.
Why did my imported numbers come in as text?
PDFs carry formatting, not types, so a currency symbol, a thousands separator from another locale, a negative shown in brackets or a trailing minus sign all arrive as characters. Fix them in Power Query before loading: remove the symbols, then use Change Type with Using Locale so the separators are read the way the document meant them.
Can I convert a bank statement PDF this way?
Yes, and it is the single most common use of the connector. Expect one table per page to append, an amount column needing the bracketed-negative fix, and a date column in the bank's format rather than your regional one. Once the query is built, next month's statement is a Refresh rather than a rebuild.
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