How to Convert Scanned PDFs to Excel in Bulk with PDF.co and Make

Converting scanned PDFs to Excel has never been easier, spending a lot of time manually extracting data from scanned PDF documents and manually inputting them into Excel spreadsheets. With PDF.co and Make, you can convert scanned PDFs to Excel in bulk with just a few clicks, saving you time and effort.

PDF.co PDF to Excel is a powerful PDF processing tool that specializes in converting PDF documents to Excel spreadsheets. With PDF.co’s advanced optical character recognition (OCR) technology, it can accurately extract text, tables, and other data elements from PDF documents, including scanned PDFs, and convert them into editable Excel format.

In this tutorial, we’ll be converting scanned PDFs to Excel using PDF.co and also how to perform this task in bulk using Make. We’ll provide a detailed guide to ensure that you can easily and efficiently extract data from scanned PDFs and convert them into Excel, allowing you to automate your workflow and productivity. Whether you’re a business professional, data analyst, or anyone who deals with scanned PDFs regularly, this tutorial will give you the knowledge and tools to work on this task with confidence. So without any further ado, let’s get started!

Scanned PDF to Excel

1. Create a New Scenario
2. Google Drive and Download a File
3. Google Drive Connection and Configuration
4. Google Drive Result
5. Add PDF.co Module
6. PDF.co Connection and Configuration
7. PDF.co Run Result
8. Scanned PDF to Excel Output

Bulk Scanned PDF to Excel

1. Google Drive and Watch Files in Folder
2. Setup Google Drive Configuration
3. Result
4. Add PDF.co Module
5. Setup PDF.co Configuration
6. Run Scenario Result
7. Bulk Scanned PDF to Excel Output

Here is the sample scanned PDF and bulk PDF files that I intend to convert into an Excel format using PDF.co and Make.

Scanned PDF to Excel

Step 1: Create a New Scenario

• First, log into your Make account and click on the Create a New Scenario button.

Step 2: Google Drive and Download a File

• Next, search and select the Google Drive app. Then, choose the Download a File module to download the file from the Google Drive folder.

Step 3: Google Drive Connection and Configuration

Let’s set up the Google Drive configuration.

• First, connect your Google Drive account to Make. You can also use other cloud storage to retrieve your scanned PDF file.
• Next, choose the Select from the List option to see available folders from Google Drive.
• Then, select My Drive as the Drive to use.
• Finally, enter your folder and file name from your Google Drive.

After setting up the configuration, you can now run the scenario to download the file from Google Drive.

Step 4: Google Drive Result

• Great! The scenario has run successfully and downloaded the file from Google Drive. Now, let’s add another module to convert scanned PDFs to Excel format.

Step 5: Add PDF.co Module

• In this step, we will add the PDF.co app and select the Make an API Call module to utilize the PDF to Excel endpoint. This module will enable you to make API calls to convert PDF files to Excel format using PDF.co.

Step 6: PDF.co Connection and Configuration

Let’s set up the PDF.co connection and configuration:

• First, connect your PDF.co account to Make.
• Next, input the PDF to XLSX endpoint to convert PDF to Excel format.
• Then, select Upload files and inject as URL param to automatically download the file from Google Drive.
• Enter your desired output file name.
• Finally, under the Body param, type async for the Key and false for the Value.

Once you have finished setting up the configuration, click on the “Run Scenario” button to initiate the conversion of the scanned PDF to Excel format.

Step 7: PDF.co Run Result

• Excellent! The scenario has run successfully and converted the scanned PDF to Excel format. Copy the URL and paste it into your browser to view the output.

Step 8: Scanned PDF to Excel Output

• Here is the converted Excel document from a PDF file.

Bulk Scanned PDF to Excel

Step 1: Google Drive and Watch Files in Folder

• Search and select the Google Drive app. Then, choose the Watch Files in Folder to trigger when a file is created or modified in a selected folder. You can also use other cloud storage to retrieve your bulk files.

Step 2: Setup Google Drive Configuration

Let’s set up the Watch Files in Folder configuration.

• Connect your Google Drive account to Make.
• Select By Created Time is the option to watch files based on their creation time.
• Choose My Drive as the Drive to use for monitoring.
• Select the specific folder that you want to be watched for file creations or modifications.
• Choose All for the File Types to Watch, so that any type of file created or modified in the selected folder will trigger the notification.
• Enter the maximum number of results to be processed during one cycle. This will determine how many files will be monitored at once for changes.

Once you have set up the configuration for converting bulk PDF files to Excel format, you can run a scenario to see the results.

Step 3: Result

• Awesome! The Google Drive integration is up and running, and you have successfully retrieved the bulk files from the designated folder. Now, let’s take it a step further by adding another module to your workflow to convert these bulk PDF files to Excel format.

Step 4: Add PDF.co Module

• Search and select the PDF.co app. Then, Choose the Make an API Call module within the PDF.co, specifically designed for PDF to Excel conversion.

Step 5: Setup PDF.co Configuration

Let’s set up the PDF.co configuration.

• Connect your PDF.co account to Make by setting up the necessary authentication and authorization.
• Input the PDF to XLSX endpoint from PDF.co’s API documentation to configure the conversion from PDF to Excel format.
• Select the Override URL param with value to use the content link from Google Drive as the input PDF file.
• Choose the Web Content Link from Google Drive for the URL parameter.
• Enter your desired output file name for the converted Excel file.
• Under the Body parameter, add async as the Key and true as the Value to enable asynchronous mode for the conversion process.

After setting up the PDF.co configuration, run the scenario to convert bulk PDF files to Excel format.

Step 6: Run Scenario Result

• Congratulations! The bulk scanned PDF files have been successfully converted into Excel format. Please copy the URLs provided and paste them into your web browser to download the output files.

Step 7: Bulk Scanned PDF to Excel

• Here are the Excel files that have been successfully converted from the bulk PDF files.

In this tutorial, you learned how to convert scanned PDFs to Excel format in Bulk using PDF.co and Make. You can learn how to connect and utilize cloud storage services, such as Google Drive, to store and access files for conversion. You also learn how to configure API calls using Make, a workflow automation tool, to interact with PDF.co’s API and initiate the bulk conversion of scanned PDF files to Excel format.