How to Copy a Table From a PDF Into Excel on Mac (Free, No Upload)
Most of the time you do not need a converter to get a table out of a PDF. If the PDF was created from a document or exported from software, the text inside it is selectable, and your Mac can copy it into Excel for free, with no upload, in a couple of minutes. This guide shows how, and how to deal with the awkward results.
Quick answer: Open the PDF in Preview, hold ⌥ (Option) and drag a rectangle around the table, press ⌘C, click cell A1 in Excel and press ⌘V. If everything lands in one column, select it and use Data > Text to Columns. If you cannot select any text at all, the PDF is a scan and needs OCR instead.
First, check whether the text is selectable
This decides everything. Open the PDF in Preview and try to highlight a word in the table with the text selection tool, or press ⌘F and search for a word you can see in it. If the word is found and highlights, the PDF has a text layer and copying will work. If nothing highlights, the file is an image of a page, usually from a scanner or a phone camera. No amount of copying will help, because there is no text to copy. That case needs text recognition (OCR) rather than copying.
A PDF can also have copying disabled in its permissions. In that case the text selects but will not copy, or the copy is blank. That is the document owner's choice, so respect it and ask for the data in another format.
Method 1: Copy the table in one go
Open the PDF in Preview.
Choose the Text Selection tool from the toolbar, or from Tools > Text Selection.
Hold ⌥ and drag a rectangle over the table. In recent versions of macOS this lets you select a block rather than whole lines of text.
Press ⌘C.
In Excel, click cell A1 of a blank sheet and press ⌘V.
If Excel shows the rows in separate columns, you are done apart from cleaning. If everything is in column A, go on to step three below. Either way, keep the PDF open to compare against, because the next steps are about checking that nothing has been lost.
Method 2: Copy one column at a time
When the one-go copy merges columns, the most reliable fix is to copy each column on its own.
Hold ⌥ and drag a rectangle around the first column only, header included.
Press ⌘C, click the first cell of the first column in Excel and press ⌘V.
Repeat for each column, pasting into the next Excel column each time.
This takes longer, and for a table with 12 columns you may prefer Method 3. But it removes any guesswork about where columns split, which matters for financial tables where an amount in the wrong column is expensive.
Method 3: Paste as text, then split
Select the whole table, copy it, then in Excel use Paste Special (⌃⌘V) and choose Text so that no formatting from the PDF viewer comes with it. Then select column A and split it with Data > Text to Columns. Our guide to cleaning PDF data pasted into Excel goes through the wizard, plus fixes for numbers stored as text, hidden spaces and negative values.
| Method | Works when | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copy the whole table, paste as one block | Table is simple and text is selectable | Fastest | Columns can merge into one |
| Option-drag one column at a time (Preview) | Columns are cleanly separated | Keeps columns apart | More steps |
| Copy from a browser PDF viewer | Preview selects badly | Sometimes keeps tabs between columns | Behaviour differs by browser |
| Paste as text, then Text to Columns | Everything lands in column A | Works for most tables | Needs cleaning afterwards |
Tables that run across several pages
Copy each page's rows separately and paste them one below the other. Two things to watch for. Page headers and column headings repeat on every page, so after pasting, filter for the heading text and delete those rows. And a row that straddles a page break can arrive in two parts, so scan the join between pages. Adding a quick check column, for example a running count, helps you see that each page contributed the number of rows you expected.
If Preview selects text badly
Sometimes Preview selects lines out of order, or grabs text from neighbouring columns. Try opening the same PDF in the PDF viewer built into Safari or Chrome, which use different selection logic. Or try the same rectangular selection with a slightly tighter box. If the document is long and the table is only a small part of it, you can also print just those pages to a new PDF with ⌘P and the PDF menu, which gives you a smaller file to work with.
Check your numbers before you trust them
The biggest risk with copy and paste is a silent error. A comma read as a decimal point, a minus sign dropped from a negative, or a row skipped at a page boundary can all go unnoticed.
Compare totals. Sum your column and compare with the total printed on the PDF.
Count rows. The number of rows in Excel should match the PDF.
Spot-check a few values, especially negatives and the first and last row of each page.
Format as numbers, not text, so that errors show up.
Why this approach is worth trying first
It is free, it works offline, and the file never leaves your Mac, which matters for bank, payroll and client documents. It also teaches you what the data looks like, which helps when you use a converter later. If copy and paste produces something unusable, a dedicated extraction tool will do better.
Common mistakes
Skipping the selectable text test and wasting time on a scanned page.
Forgetting the ⌥ key, which selects whole lines instead of a block.
Pasting straight into a sheet that already has data, overwriting it.
Not checking totals against the PDF.
Leaving numbers as text so that sums silently return zero.
Frequently asked questions
Can Preview export a PDF table to Excel directly?
No. Preview can copy text, but it does not convert a PDF to an Excel file. You copy the text and paste it into Excel yourself.
Why did my columns merge into one?
The copied text did not contain tab characters between the columns. Paste as text, then use Text to Columns, or copy each column separately.
Why is copying not working at all?
Either the PDF is a scan with no text layer, or its permissions block copying. Test by searching for a word with ⌘F.
Does this work in Adobe Acrobat Reader?
Yes, Reader can select and copy text from a PDF with a text layer. Exporting to Excel directly is a paid Acrobat feature, so copying is the free route.
Will the table keep its formatting?
No. Colours, borders and fonts do not carry across. You get the text and numbers, and you rebuild the formatting.