PDF Ex - Extract PDF Tables to Excel, CSV & Text

Extract tables & text from PDFs to Excel, CSV, Markdown or JSON. Scanned-PDF OCR built in. 100% local - files never upload.

Extract tables and text from any PDF and save them as Excel, CSV, Markdown, HTML, plain text or JSON - entirely on your own computer. Your files are never uploaded. Most PDF to Excel converters make you upload your document to their servers first. For invoices, bank statements, payroll, medical records or anything under NDA, that upload is the problem. PDF Ex does all of its work inside your browser: no server, no account, no API key, and it keeps working with your Wi-Fi switched off. PRIVACY FIRST • 100% local processing - your PDFs never leave your computer • Fully offline from the moment you install - nothing to download later • No servers, no cloud, no external API calls • No account, no sign-up, no tracking, no analytics • The OCR engine and its language data ship inside the extension • Open source and MIT licensed, so every claim above is checkable WHAT IT DOES Digital PDF text extraction Pulls text out of standard PDFs while preserving the original reading order, using Mozilla's PDF.js. Rotated and landscape pages are handled correctly. Automatic table detection Finds tables without you drawing boxes or selecting regions. Rows and columns are reconstructed from the position of the text on the page. Tables that span multiple pages A table continued across pages 3 to 7 is exported as one table, not five disconnected fragments. Tables with no header row Most tables start with a header. When yours does not, switch off "First row is a header" and that first line stays where it belongs - as data - instead of being turned into your column names. Real numbers in Excel Numeric cells arrive as numbers you can SUM and sort, not as text. IDs with leading zeros, long account numbers and dates are deliberately kept as text so they are never corrupted. OCR for scanned PDFs Turns image-based pages into searchable text with built-in Tesseract OCR. Scanned pages are detected automatically, including pages that carry only a thin text layer such as a header or page number. Run long jobs in a full tab A browser popup is destroyed the moment you click somewhere else - which is exactly what tends to happen during a multi-minute OCR run. One click on the tab button reopens the same tool as an ordinary tab, where a long extraction keeps going and the preview has far more room. Chinese, Japanese and Korean PDFs Full CID character map support, so CJK documents extract properly instead of coming out blank. (OCR itself is English only.) Password-protected PDFs Prompts you for the password instead of giving up. Fillable form fields Reads the filled-in values from PDF forms - useful for invoices and applications, where the answers are invisible to plain text extraction. Preview before you export See the detected tables laid out as real tables, and copy any single one straight to your clipboard ready to paste into Excel or Google Sheets. Safe spreadsheets Text lifted out of a PDF is untrusted. Cells that begin with =, +, - or @ are neutralised in CSV, so a malicious document cannot smuggle a live formula into your spreadsheet. Ordinary negative numbers are left exactly as they are. EXPORT FORMATS • Excel (.xlsx) - one sheet per table, sized column widths, plus sheets for form fields and document info • CSV - table data only, with a choice of comma, semicolon or tab separator • Markdown - for Notion, Obsidian, GitHub and AI chat tools • HTML - a formatted page; tables paste into Word and Google Docs with their structure intact • Plain Text - all text with readable table formatting • JSON - full structured output with text blocks, tables, form fields and OCR content If Excel opens your CSV files as a single mangled column, switch the separator to semicolon - that is the list separator Excel expects across most of continental Europe. WAYS TO LOAD A PDF • Upload a file from your computer • Drag and drop a PDF anywhere onto the popup • Extract the PDF already open in your current browser tab • Keyboard shortcut: Alt+Shift+P opens the extension HANDY EXTRAS • Page ranges - extract only what you need: 1-5, or 2,4,6, or 8- • Open in a full tab so a long OCR run is never cut short • Retry with OCR in one click if a run comes back empty - no need to find your file again • Cancel a long OCR run at any point, or just press Esc • Ctrl+Enter downloads in your chosen format • Copy all extracted text to the clipboard in one click • Progress bar with an estimated time remaining • Your last extraction is still there when you reopen the popup • Dark, light, or follow-your-system theme • Adjustable OCR quality: Fast, Balanced or Best AVAILABLE IN YOUR LANGUAGE The interface is fully translated into English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese (Brazil) and Japanese, and follows whichever language Chrome is set to. BUILT TO BE USABLE BY EVERYONE • Text scales with your browser's font size setting instead of overriding it • Colours meet WCAG AA contrast in both the light and dark themes • Every control is reachable by keyboard, with a clear focus outline • Screen reader friendly: progress is announced sensibly rather than repeated on every page • Respects your reduced-motion preference HOW TO USE Upload a PDF 1. Click the extension icon. 2. Click Upload PDF, or drag a file onto the panel. 3. Wait while the pages are processed. OCR pages typically take 2-5 seconds each. 4. Check the preview. 5. Choose an export format and click Download. Extract from the current browser tab 1. Open any PDF in Chrome. 2. Click the extension icon. 3. Click Current Tab. 4. The PDF is fetched and processed straight from the active tab. Working through a large scanned document 1. Open the extension and click the tab button in the top right. 2. Load your PDF there and start the extraction. 3. Carry on using Chrome as normal - the run continues in its own tab. OCR MODE ON (default) • Scanned and image-based pages are read with Tesseract OCR • Pages are detected automatically - no manual selection OFF • Faster • Image-based pages are skipped • Best when you only work with text-based PDFs OCR runs entirely on your machine. The engine and the English language data are bundled with the extension, so there is no first-run download and no internet connection is needed at any point. PERFECT FOR • Accountants and bookkeepers pulling figures out of invoices and statements • Researchers and students extracting tables from papers and reports • Data analysts converting PDF reports into spreadsheets • Anyone handling confidential documents that must not be uploaded • Archiving and digitising scanned paperwork Fast, private, fully local PDF table and text extraction for Google Chrome.