How To Copy a Table from a PDF to Word

Evan Gower June 10, 2021

When you try to move a table from PDF to Word by simply copying and pasting it, all you will copy is the values. The table formatting will get lost in the process.

Since you usually need to copy the whole table, you’ll have to find another method to paste the rows and columns in full. This article will show you how to do it.

Open the PDF with Microsoft Word

One of the easiest ways to convert a table from a PDF to a Word document is to simply open the PDF in Word. This works with all the newer versions of Microsoft Word, and it takes just a few steps.

To do this, you should:

Right-click the PDF document.
Select Open with.
Select Word (desktop). If it isn’t in the dropdown menu, select Choose another app, click on Locate another app on this PC, and navigate to your Microsoft Word EXE file.
A window with open with a message ‘Word will now convert your PDF to an editable Word document…’
Press OK.
Microsoft Word should open the PDF document.

Note that Microsoft Word will convert the full PDF document. So if you want to copy just the table to another Word document, you can:

Select the table by clicking on the ‘move’ icon in the top-left corner (arrows pointing in four directions).
Right-click on the table.
Select Copy.
Open the Word document to which you want to paste the table.
Right-click on the document.
Select Paste.
The table should appear.

Convert the PDF to Word via Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader is a useful tool that helps you read and edit PDF files, and you can use it to convert the document as well. If you don’t have this tool, you can get it from the official website. Just click on the yellow ‘Install now’ button and follow the instructions.

Once you install the software, you should:

Open the PDF document with Adobe Acrobat.
Click on the File tab in the top-left corner of the window.
Choose the Convert to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint option.
Click the blue Export to Word button in the new window.

Your PDF document will convert to a Word document. You can then use the same method as in the previous section to copy/paste the table into the Word document where your table is supposed to be.

Keep in mind that you’ll need an Adobe account to use this option.

Using a Third-Party App or Web Tool

Sometimes, the quickest way to copy the contents of a PDF to a Word document is to convert it online. In particular, this is useful if you’re working with cloud files instead of those on your drive.

You can use a Google Chrome extension such as Small PDF, or an online web tool like SimplyPDF. They all work on a similar principle – select a file either from your drive or from cloud storage (like Dropbox or OneDrive), and then convert it to a Word document with one click.

You can then just copy the table from that document into another one.

Converting Is Easy

As you can see, it is fairly simple to copy your table from a PDF file to Microsoft Word. The easiest solution is to open the PDF with your Word, which will automatically convert it for you. You can also export it manually to a Word document via Adobe Acrobat, and there are countless online tools that can convert the documents for you in a few clicks.

Which method do you find the easiest? Let us know in the comments below.