Do you have complex Word documents? Do you need to analyze data but are tired of manually copying and pasting data points or tables into Excel spreadsheets? Your answer is probably yes, and that's why you've come this far.
While we agree that Microsoft Word is great for text documents, it is not specialized for keeping records of data, analyzing it, or visualizing it. Therefore, converting a Word document into an Excel spreadsheet opens up a variety of tools, such as charts and pivot tables, that can be used to analyze the data in depth.
Is it possible to convert Word documents to Excel? Of course it is. Microsoft Word is one of the most popular document management software. Since Excel belongs to the same product suite, converting a Word document to an Excel spreadsheet is quite simple and straightforward.
In this article we will explore two different use cases.
- How to convert a Word document to Excel?
- How to convert a table from Word to Excel?
We will take an example of a bank statement to better explain the entire process.
Needless to say, both present certain unique challenges that we will also address. And finally, we will take a quick look at an advanced solution for more complicated needs.
How to convert a Word document to Excel?
So, let’s get down to business. A plain text Word document can be anything – a bank statement, a legal contract, an order form, a report, etc. Let’s take the example of a bank statement to explain the entire general process that can be followed for conversion. Simply save the Word document as a plain text file and use Excel’s Import feature. Here is a step-by-step guide to do so:
Step 1: Open the Word document you want to convert to Excel. I am taking a bank statement that is randomly arranged into a Word document.
Step 2: Next, we need to make sure that the document is saved as a plain text file.
Click on “File” option in the quick access toolbar above > “Save As” > Select the desired location > Set the file name > “Save As” type should be Plain Text (*.txt) > Press “Save”.
Step 3: Now we are ready to create an Excel spreadsheet.
Open a new Excel spreadsheet and click on the “Data” option in the Quick Access Toolbar above > “Get and Transform Data” > “From File” > “From Text”. Select the file we saved in the previous step in the file explorer that opens. Press “Import”.
Step 4: You now have the opportunity to preview and modify the data if you wish.
You have to decide which one “Delimiter” works best for your data. You'll get a preview of your data as you go through all the options in the list. Common options include “Space,” “Tab,” or “Colon.” In this example, “Space” worked best for us.
Step 5: If you want to make changes, you can click “Transform” and then add or remove columns, rows, etc. Once you are satisfied with the data preview, click “Burden”You can also adjust the formatting here.
So there we have it. The general process that can be followed when converting a Word document to Excel. Needless to say, there are unique challenges associated with this process depending on the content of the Word document and its complexity.
Select the delimiter.
The biggest challenge is selecting the “Delimiter” option, as it can literally make or break your data import. Excel offers multiple options including comma, colon, space, tab, semicolon, to name a few. “Delimiter” is basically a character that Excel will interpret as a signal to transfer the following data to the next cell. The challenge can be heightened based on the specific type of document you are converting. For example, a legal contract, inventory report, or order form may come with different formats and different delimiter requirements.
So, let’s say in the above example, we are looking at a new row entry in the transactions table that appears in the Word document, such as “03/07/2024 Transfer from Savings $400.00.” The spaces between the words indicate that “03/07/2024,” “Transfer from Savings,” and “$400.00” should be in separate cells. The “space” character acts as a delimiter here, letting us know that these are separate words. It acts as a flag for Excel to transfer the following data to an adjacent cell.
Preprocess your data by substituting a delimiter in place of your usual spaces.
Preprocessing your data can significantly reduce the manual effort required. Pick a delimiter in your head. “Space” worked for us in the example above, but, just to suggest an alternative, let’s choose “semicolon.” The preprocessed data would look like this: “03/07/2024; Transfer from Savings; $400.00.” Now, Excel will take this row and create contiguous entries for “03/07/2024,” “Transfer from Savings,” and “$400.00” by splitting them on the “;” character.
Take advantage of intelligent document processing tools.
Preprocessing becomes tedious, error-prone, and resource-intensive when the volume of documents is large. Imagine having to preprocess thousands of invoices, inventory lists, order forms, legal contracts, etc. You can always turn to smart document processing tools, such as Nanonets, which can detect and extract specific data points from your documents, as well as automatically detect tables to extract separately. This way, the time it takes you to preprocess the file and then use native Excel functions to import it can be reduced by more than 85%. Example below!
How to convert a table from Word to Excel?
Now that we have covered the general process of converting a Word document into an Excel spreadsheet, we can take a look at the relatively simpler process that can be followed if the Word document only contains tables. It is a simple matter of copying and pasting the tables partially or completely. If there are multiple tables, we can repeat the process for each one. Let's take a quick look at the process:
Step 1: Open the Word document that contains the table.
Step 2: If you want to partially copy the table, drag the mouse while selecting the desired rows and columns and press “CTRL + C” or click “Copy” in the “Edit” option on the toolbar above.
Step 3: Now, open a new Excel spreadsheet and place the cursor in the top left cell and press CTRL + V or alternatively, press “Edit” in the top bar and click “Paste”.
You should now see the table successfully pasted into the spreadsheet. You can now take advantage of the full range of tools that Excel offers to modify, analyze, and visualize the data. In case we want to copy multiple tables into a spreadsheet, you can copy the table from the Word document, place the cursor at the desired location within the spreadsheet, and paste the tables one after the other. You can also create a new spreadsheet within the same workbook and paste different tables into different spreadsheets.
How to work with split tables, multiple tables, or thousands of documents.
This process is fairly simple and doesn't present many challenges. However, if you are working with multiple tables on multiple pages of a single Word document, sometimes a single table that is split across multiple pages, each of them needs to be selected, copied, and pasted separately. Now imagine doing this for hundreds, if not thousands of documents. The process becomes slow and error-prone.
Take advantage of intelligent document processing tools such as Nanonets.
Fortunately, intelligent document processing tools like Nanonets can automatically detect tables – partial or complete, singular or multiple – and extract them separately. They can also merge the same table on different pages into one. This solves a major problem, which is accurate data extraction at scale, and the whole process is reduced to a couple of clicks and a few seconds. See the same example, using Nanonets below:
Summary
There we have it. A step-by-step guide on how to convert Word documents to Excel spreadsheets. While this is a straightforward process that can work for most simple documents, sometimes there are significant challenges that cannot be overcome. These challenges arise due to the complexity of the documents being converted and the exact needs of the user. For businesses, SMEs or corporations, the volume of these documents also makes simple methods like the ones mentioned above slow, inefficient and generally not feasible. We may need to identify, classify and extract data on a large scale while also integrating it with other software. However, there are advanced technologies that can help with this.
For example, let’s say you have a legal contract stored as a Word document, or an inventory report, or other complex documents from which you need to extract specific data points and convert them into Excel spreadsheets for further analysis. It may not be as simple as saving it as a text file and importing it into an Excel spreadsheet. To carry out these processes efficiently and at scale, we need to turn to more powerful tools, such as Nanonets, which can not only extract text and tables from Word documents directly into Excel sheets but also automate end-to-end business workflows.
Are you looking to convert Word documents to Excel accurately? Tired of manually copying and pasting tables from Word to Excel? Try Nanonets for free or set up a personalized live demo below.
