To convert a PDF to Excel on a Mac, select the table text in Preview, copy it, paste it into Excel and split it with Data > Text to Columns. For a screenshot, use Live Text. For a long or messy file, use a browser converter in Safari. Then check that the dates did not shift by four years.
Does Excel for Mac import PDF files?
On Windows, Excel can read a PDF through Data > Get Data > From File > From PDF. Excel for Mac is the doubtful case. Microsoft's own page on importing data lists the PDF connector with a requirement for the .NET Framework, a Windows component, and says nothing about a Mac version. Look in your own Data menu before you plan around it.
The source for that is Microsoft's support article, Import data from data sources (Power Query). It lists Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac under the products it applies to, but the PDF section states no platform, and its one stated requirement is the Windows-only framework. That is not proof that no Mac build has the option. It is a reason to check, not to assume.
How to check your copy in under a minute
- Open Excel and a blank workbook.
- Click the Data tab.
- Look for Get Data, then From File, and read the list. If "From PDF" is there, use it. The Windows steps are in the Get Data from PDF import steps and the clicks on a Mac build that has it should be close.
- If it is not there, use one of the Mac routes below.
Why the missing option is not a disaster
Excel's PDF import is one way to get a table out of a PDF, and not the only way. Copying from Preview, reading a screenshot with Live Text and using a converter in your browser all work on a Mac, and they work whichever Excel build you own. A Windows computer with Excel at the office is a fourth option when the file is large or has to be refreshed every month.
Four routes, one choice
Choose by how clean the PDF is and how much of it you need. A short table in a text PDF suits Preview. A screenshot or a photo suits Live Text. A multi-page statement suits a converter. If you have not decided between the general methods yet, four ways to turn a PDF into Excel, compared lays them side by side.
Copying from Preview into Excel on a Mac
Preview is the app that opens PDFs on a Mac, and it can copy text from a PDF whose text is real, not a picture. Pasting that text into Excel usually drops each line into one cell, with spaces where the columns were. Preview does not keep the columns, so you split them afterwards.
Here is the step list. The example values are invented.
- Open the PDF in Preview. Double-click it, or right-click and choose Open With > Preview.
- Select the table. Choose the Text Selection tool and drag across the table, or click at its start and Shift-click at its end. If no text highlights, the page is a picture, and you want Live Text or OCR instead.
- Copy. Press Cmd+C.
- Paste into Excel. Click cell A1 of an empty sheet and press Cmd+V. A line such as
03/14 FLOUR SUPPLY CO 412.80 9,318.27lands whole in column A. - Split the columns. With column A selected, choose Data > Text to Columns. Pick Delimited, tick Space, and finish. Dates and amounts separate, but the description is also split at every space.
- Rejoin the description. If the description should be one cell, use a different delimiter, or pull the date and the last two numbers out with formulas and leave the middle alone.
Where the copy goes wrong
Preview selects by line, not by column, so a table with two columns of text can arrive interleaved. Wrapped descriptions become two lines in two rows. Amounts with a thousands comma and a currency symbol arrive as text. After pasting, run the six checks from making a converted spreadsheet that sorts and sums before you trust a total.
The repair steps in detail
The pasted table usually needs more than one Text to Columns pass. The settings to choose, and what to do when columns bunch together, are in Text to Columns repair steps for a pasted PDF table. Use that post when your paste is nearly right and needs a few fixes.
When copying is enough
Copying suits one page, one table, and a text PDF you can select. If you do this every month with the same layout, copying becomes the slow part, and a converter earns its place.
Live Text on a Mac for PDF screenshots
Live Text is the macOS feature that recognises text inside images, so you can select it as if it were typed. On a recent macOS, you can open a screenshot of a table in Preview or Quick Look, drag across the text and copy it. It reads the characters; it does not rebuild the table.
Use it when the PDF is a picture, or when all you have is a screenshot from a phone or a web page. Take the screenshot with Shift+Cmd+4, open the image, select the text, copy it and paste it into Excel the same way as in the Preview steps above.
What Live Text does well
- It reads printed numbers and words in a clear, straight image.
- It works without sending anything to a service, because the recognition happens in the system.
- It is quick for a handful of lines, such as one invoice or a short summary.
What it does poorly
It returns text, with line breaks, and no column positions. A table of five columns can paste as a single long run of values, one per line, in reading order. You may have to rebuild the grid by hand, and a blurred digit can be misread in a way that still looks plausible. An eight read as a three is the classic. For any money, compare the pasted total with the picture before you use it.
Photos and screenshots at larger scale
For more than a page of rows, a screenshot approach gets tedious. Turning a photo or screenshot into Excel rows covers tools built for the job, including what to do about skewed photos and low resolution.
A quick accuracy test
Paste the Live Text result and compute the sum of the amount column. If it does not equal the total in the image, at least one digit is wrong. Find it by comparing subtotals for each block of rows.
Browser converters in Safari on a Mac
A browser converter works the same on a Mac as anywhere else: you drag a PDF onto a web page, it returns an Excel file, and Safari downloads it to your Downloads folder. The Mac matters only at the end, when Excel opens the file and you check dates. No installation is needed.
Safari has two small quirks. It may open a downloaded file in a preview or ask before downloading from a site you have not used. If a file lands in Downloads with a name you do not recognise, sort the folder by date added.
Before you upload a bank statement
A statement holds account numbers and a full transaction history. Check what the converter says about encryption, storage and deletion before you upload one. The wider trade-offs are in whether uploading a PDF to an online converter is safe.
Where this site fits
FastBankConvert is being built for this case: a digital bank statement PDF turned into Excel, CSV or JSON from a web page, with no app to install. It is not open yet; Get started takes your email for when trial conversions are available.
What to expect from any converter
Good output has one row per transaction, separate columns for date, description and amount, and numbers that are numbers. Open the file, run the checks, and compare the total. A converter that shows you a balance check before the download saves you from finding a gap later.
Why are Mac Excel dates off by four years?
Dates look four years out because the workbook uses the 1904 date system instead of the 1900 one. Excel stores a date as a count of days from a start date. If a file was built with one system and read with another, every date shifts by 1,462 days, which is four years and one day.
Microsoft documents both systems in Date systems in Excel. The 1900 system counts days from January 1, 1900, and the 1904 system from January 1, 1904. Microsoft says newer Excel for Mac versions use the 1900 system by default, and earlier Mac versions used 1904.
How the trap appears
You copy dates from one workbook to another, or open a file made on an older Mac, and the dates are wrong by about four years. The data is not damaged. The workbook disagrees with the source about where day one is.
Where to switch it on a Mac
Per Microsoft's article, on a Mac choose Excel > Preferences > Formulas and Lists > Calculation, then check or clear "Use 1904 date system". On Windows the same box sits under File > Options > Advanced, in the section called "When calculating this workbook". The setting belongs to the workbook, not to the app.
Fixing dates you have already pasted
Switching the box changes how the numbers display, so apply it to a workbook that has not been converted yet, or on a copy. If you must fix dates that are already wrong, add 1,462 days to the value, or subtract it, depending on the direction of the error. Do it in a new column, then compare one date with the PDF before you convert the whole column.
A related check
Dates that sort in the wrong order are a different problem: they are text, not shifted. Whether you can turn your PDF into an Excel file at all is worth settling first if you are unsure what kind of PDF you hold.