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Fix Unreadable Characters When Converting Adobe PDF to Excel
Question details
Users experience garbled, unreadable, or incorrect characters when converting PDF documents into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat / Microsoft Excel
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Exporting or converting a PDF document containing data tables into an editable Excel format.
- Observed behavior
- The resulting Excel file displays gibberish or unreadable symbols instead of the expected text and numbers, often due to font encoding errors or scanned images.
Verify whether your PDF contains actual text or if it is a scanned image by trying to highlight the text. Scanned documents will require an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool to extract text accurately.
Use OCR to Extract Text from Scanned PDFs
If the PDF is a scanned document or image, standard conversion cannot read the text, resulting in unreadable output. Applying OCR converts images into editable text.
Standard PDF to Excel converters attempt to map existing text characters. When a document is scanned, the page is treated as a single image. Using an OCR feature analyzes the shapes of letters and converts them into machine-encoded text before exporting.
Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro. In the right pane, select 'Scan & OCR' from the Tools menu.
Click on 'Recognize Text' in the toolbar and choose 'In This File'.
Click the 'Recognize Text' button to process the document. Once completed, go to File > Export To > Spreadsheet > Microsoft Excel Workbook.
Print to PDF to Reset Font Encoding
Re-saving the document by 'printing' it to a new PDF can resolve underlying font mapping and custom encoding issues.
Contact Adobe Support for Advanced Troubleshooting
If the issue persists despite applying OCR and resetting fonts, Adobe Support can help diagnose specific formatting or software bugs.
Use WPS Office to Convert PDF to Excel Without Formatting Loss
WPS Office provides a highly accurate, built-in PDF to Excel converter. It handles complex font encoding smoothly and includes an advanced OCR engine to recognize text from scanned documents, ensuring your spreadsheets stay readable and perfectly formatted.
- 1. Open WPS Office: Launch WPS Office and open your problematic PDF file in the WPS PDF reader.
- 2. Select PDF to Excel: Navigate to the 'Tools' tab on the top ribbon and click on 'PDF to Excel'.
- 3. Configure Conversion Settings: In the dialog box, select your desired page range. If your document is scanned, ensure the OCR option is enabled.
- 4. Convert and Save: Click 'Convert' to process the document. The readable data will immediately open as a perfectly formatted spreadsheet in WPS Spreadsheet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do standard fonts turn into unreadable symbols after conversion?
This usually happens because the original PDF was created with custom or embedded fonts that lack standard Unicode mapping. When exporting, the converter fails to map the custom font to a standard Excel font, resulting in gibberish. Resetting the font encoding or using OCR often fixes this.
How do I know if my PDF is a scanned image or actual text?
Try to highlight individual words in your PDF viewer. If you can select text word-by-word or line-by-line, it contains real text. If the entire page highlights as a single blue block, it is a scanned image and requires OCR for successful Excel conversion.
Is there an email address for Adobe support regarding PDF conversions?
Adobe primarily handles support through their online help portal via live chat or secure support tickets rather than a direct public email address. You can visit helpx.adobe.com/contact.html to log in and get personalized assistance for your conversion errors.
