[BarnStorm]

I am looking to get "accounting type" data (e.g., check number, payee, amount, etc.) from a PDF-based report into an Excel spreadsheet.

Unfortunately, I do not have the option to get this information as a CSV or other such Excel-friendly format. Hence, I am forced to work from the PDF.

I have tried to jockey things around with a combination of maneuvers, but it is very labor-intensive. I also tried saving as text from Acrobat.

Any suggestions, tricks or tools that might make this simple?

Thanks much.

[etaf]

if you copy and paste into excel and then use "text to columns" does that get you near

[BarnStorm]

Thanks, Etaf.

That does get me more "near," but it is still quite tedious in that I have to do several passes. Meaning, scraping the PDF data and then pasting into Excel does not come over in the same logical order, especially when I am copying across multiple pages.

I see there are some tools out there (with free trial) that convert PDF to XLS. However, as this is a rather short-term need, I was hoping not to buy something.

Perhaps there is freeware out there that would accomplish the same.

I will keep hunting (and report back should I come across anything promising).

[phil-key]

I've used a product called Monarch to strip data from text files; usually very large mainframe reports downloaded to PC.

Monarch allows you to set up reusable templates that define data columns as specific formats (date, text, number). It can be set up to ignore page headings, pull data from headings (page or column) and pull data from multiple detail lines. You can also set up filters and perform lookups to other tables.

I have not used it for PDF files but the literature says that it does it. If it works on PDFs as well as it does on text files, you should be very happy.

http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_pro.php

[slurpee55]

Not an easy task, I agree. If you want security, then you will need to buy some software to convert such as this, but if you can trust your file to an online converter, you could try either this or this. (With the last, you will need to convert to text or csv first, and not to xls, but that isn't a huge problem.)
Personally, I have never tried any of these, so phil-key's monarch may be your best bet, but I have read good reports about Zamzar in general.

[BarnStorm]

Phil-Key... wow, I nearly forgot about Monarch. I used that back in the 90's. It was a great tool.

Slurpee55... thanks for your comments. I am still deciding what to do. I might just tough it out with some of the semi-automated approaches. It's not like I have that much to convert. I need to grab certain data from my Merrill Lynch annual statements for further spreadsheet work. The 2009 data was available in a CSV/DNL format; the other years I want are PDF only. One tool that I downloaded for trial was of no use in that it was crippled to only allow 3 pages worth of conversion. What I wanted was, of course, in the middle of the report and the tool only started from page 1.

[slurpee55]

Of course, make sure you only bother to download what you need (e.g. the consolidated financial statement for 2007 shows only pages 81 to 86, and there is a specific download that is only those pages.)

[BarnStorm]

Yes, of course.

I am a big believer in "minimum resource necessary."

However, the 40+ page summary is as discrete as I can be in terms of the account that has the data of interest.

[slurpee55]

If it is more than earnings that you want, this won't be of any help, but downloading some of the data in Excel might make things faster:
http://ir.ml.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=93516&p=earnings

[slurpee55]

You might check out this site for the reports...when I clicked on the download button, it offered it as a pdf or as text....

[BarnStorm]

Slurpee55... thanks again for your comments.

I should have been more clear on the data I reference. This is MY financial data, not Merrill Lynch corporate. Still, an annual summary for me amounts to 40+ pages of data and it is only a particular segment I wish to get into Excel. Like I said, I can do this easily for the current tax year, but previous years is where I only have PDF sources.

I will give the one you mention, Able2Extract, a trial shot.

[BarnStorm]

Slurpee55... I tried your suggestion... Able2Extract.

It worked quite nicely. There was still some effort due to it being limited to 3 pages per pass, but I got through it without difficulty and it was smoother than previous methods I tried.

I am marking this SOLVED. Thanks for your assistance.

[slurpee55]

Glad to help, have fun with your financials!