It must be a publicly accessible file (or folder) for this Zap to work. PDF.co reads it directly from your Google Drive.
How to Convert PDF to CSV from Google Drive Folder with Zapier and PDF.co
6 Minutes Read
Zapier is a digital automation platform that links your preferred applications, including Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, among over 1,500 others. It enables you to automate recurring tasks by connecting multiple apps without the need for coding or developer assistance. The process is so straightforward that anyone can create their app workflows in just a few clicks.
This tutorial shows you how to automatically convert PDFs added to a Google Drive folder into CSV files using PDF.co and Zapier. The completed CSV files are then saved in a separate Google Drive folder.
What You’ll Need
- A PDF.co account
- A Zapier account
- A Google Drive input folder for PDFs
- A separate Google Drive output folder for CSV files
Add a sample PDF to the input folder before configuring the Zap.
Step 1: Set Up the Google Drive Trigger
- Create a new Zap.
- Select Google Drive as the trigger app.
- Choose New File in Folder as the trigger event.
- Connect your Google Drive account.
- Select the drive and folder that will receive the source PDFs.
- Test the trigger and select your sample PDF.
Use a dedicated input folder containing only PDFs. Zapier triggers on newly added files, not files that were already in the folder before the Zap was activated.
Step 2: Connect PDF.co
- Add an action and select PDF.co.
- Choose PDF to Anything Converter as the action event.
- Click Add a new account.
- Sign in to your PDF.co account and authorize Zapier.
- Return to the Zap editor and select the connected account.
Step 3: Configure the PDF-to-CSV Conversion
Configure the PDF.co action:
- Output Format: Select
CSV. - Source File URL: Map the Web Content Link from the Google Drive trigger.
- Page Selection: Leave blank to process every page, or enter a range such as
0-4. - File Name: Map the source filename or enter a name ending in
.csv. - OCR Language for Scanned Documents: Select the language used in the PDF when OCR is required.
Test the action. PDF.co will return a temporary URL for the generated CSV file. Open the URL and verify that the document’s contents were extracted correctly.
Step 4: Save the CSV to Google Drive
- Add another Google Drive action.
- Choose Upload File.
- Select the destination folder for the converted CSV files.
- Map the output URL returned by PDF.co to the File field.
- Enter or map the CSV filename.
- Test the action and confirm that the file appears in the destination folder.
Keep the destination folder separate from the watched input folder so uploaded CSV files do not trigger the workflow again.
Step 5: Publish the Zap
Review the workflow:
- Google Drive detects a new PDF.
- PDF.co converts the document to CSV.
- Google Drive saves the converted file.
Publish the Zap. New PDFs added to the selected input folder will now be converted and saved automatically.
This guide has shown you how to set up Zapier with PDF.co and Google Drive for automatic conversion of PDFs to CSV format when they are placed in a designated Google Drive folder. Automating this process using Zapier can greatly enhance your workflow efficiency, allowing you to handle documents more effectively and with less manual intervention.
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