Extract Text from a Three-Column PDF Using PDF.co and Make

Step 1: Add the Google Drive Trigger

1. Create a new scenario in Make.
2. Add Google Drive – Watch Files in a Folder.
3. Connect your Google Drive account.
4. Select the folder containing the PDF documents.
5. Set the number of files to process during each run.
6. Run the module once and select a sample three-column PDF.

Step 2: Download the PDF

1. Add Google Drive – Download a File.
2. Map the File ID from the trigger.
3. Test the module and confirm that it returns the PDF as file data.

Step 3: Extract the Text with PDF.co

1. Add the PDF.co app.
2. Select Convert from PDF.
3. Connect your PDF.co account.
4. Configure the module:
   • Input Type: Upload a File
   • File/Data: Map the file data from Google Drive
   • Convert Type: PDF to Text
   • Pages: Leave blank to process the entire PDF
   • OCR Language: Select the document language if the PDF is scanned
   • Output File Name: Enter a name such as extracted-text.txt
5. Under the advanced settings, enter this custom profile: { 'ExtractColumnByColumn': true }. This setting instructs PDF.co to extract the first column from top to bottom before continuing with the next column.
6. Run the module.

Step 4: Review the Result

Open the output URL returned by PDF.co and confirm that the text follows the intended column order.

PDF.co output URLs are temporary. If the extracted text must be retained, download the result with HTTP – Download a File and upload it to permanent storage such as Google Drive.

Step 5: Activate the Scenario

Run one complete test with a representative three-column PDF. Once the text order is correct, set the scenario schedule and activate it.

New PDFs added to the selected folder will now be downloaded and converted to text automatically.