Got a screenshot or photo of a table and need the numbers in a spreadsheet? This guide walks through converting a table image to Excel using free OCR via our Image to Text converter, then arranging the data into clean rows and columns.
OCR reads a table in natural reading order — left to right, top to bottom — so the values come back in sequence but not yet in a grid. Excel’s Text to Columns tool does the heavy lifting: it splits each line into separate cells based on a delimiter such as a space, comma, or tab. For tables with clear gaps between columns this works well; for dense or merged cells you may need to nudge a few values into place. The cleaner the source image, the less tidying you’ll do.
Working from a multi-page report? Pull the pages first with our PDF to text guide. If the table is on screen, the screenshot to text guide covers capturing it cleanly.
Excel’s Text to Columns tool is what turns a pasted block of table text into a proper grid. After pasting the extracted text into column A:
If a single space splits values that belong together (for example a two-word label), tick “Treat consecutive delimiters as one”, or paste into a temporary column and adjust before finishing.
Google Sheets has an equivalent tool. Paste the extracted text into a cell, select the column, then choose Data → Split text to columns. Sheets auto-detects the separator and lets you switch between space, comma, or a custom delimiter. It’s a quick, free alternative if you don’t have Excel to hand — the rest of the workflow is identical.
If your table sits inside a longer document, pull the page first with the PDF to text guide, or capture it cleanly using screenshot to text, then bring just the table into Excel.
Yes. Extract the table text with the free image to text converter, then paste it into Excel.
OCR returns the values in order; use Excel’s Text to Columns to split them back into a grid.
Yes — paste the extracted text into Sheets and use Data → Split text to columns.