Software for importing Pdf data into Excel

[Speckledtuna]

I'm trying to improve our inspection checklist at work to remove a lot of menial tasks. The files we need to have are a digital form that acts as a record of inspection, and a compiled list of those violations. I've tried using the adobe tools but the software is new to me and not as powerful at face value as I need to be. I've tried using the adobe javascript to program buttons, but that's not working. I tried a free trial software that is a step in the write direction, but not smart enough to let me organize the resulting excel sheet at all.

So now I'm looking for a different program (doesn't need to be free or open source). I just hope it will give me some sort of control. What I would like is something that would organize each pdf by different text boxes (building and room#), then checks every check box, pasting its field name into the next cell and concatenating for each another check box on the form. Rinse repeat. Bonus points if it cam also be told to copy text boxes for specific check boxes for the "Explain" portion of the inspection form.

In case anyone was wondering, the inspections are done on Surface tablet pc's running Windows RT, and aren't very powerful.

 

[Alabalcho]

It should be much easier for you to pick up that data before it goes to PDF - if your company is producing this data, you can get it before it gets mangled by the PDF.

You might want to try some OCR software, but all these good for one-off conversions, not for data entry.

 

[Speckledtuna2]

It should be much easier for you to pick up that data before it goes to PDF - if your company is producing this data, you can get it before it gets mangled by the PDF.

You might want to try some OCR software, but all these good for one-off conversions, not for data entry.

We use separate tablets to generate the data. In the past we would use pdf forms to fill out the conditions of the rooms and then an office guy manually reads all of the 200+ forms. Compiling a list of the issues in a word document.

So really the goal is to either find a better method of recording data that is easier to export or find a good pdf converter to excel.

 

[Alabalcho]

There is no "good, better, best pdf converter to excel". There are converters (and you've tried them) for one-off conversion of a PDF file into something which with little work can be imported into Excel.

Your document flow needs to be changed. The persons using these data-entry tablets should not enter the data into PDF forms, they should enter this data into an application which will post them to a database. If paper forms are required, they should be the result of this data entry, not the source.

 

[Speckledtuna2]

I'll take your advice, and try this http/www.excel-easy.com/vba/userform.html

I dabbled in VB as an adolescent and I think that exporting to excel with this would be easier than trying to program a javascript button with adobe. Thanks.

 

[Tradesman1]

This might help:

http/www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/tips/pdf2excel