Importing a Table into Excel
This guide will show you step by step how to copy a table into notepad, create a CSV file
and then import it into Microsoft Excel. This is a very basic guide but will cover the
majority of likely uses. For this example I have used a table from a PDF file to illustrate
the process.
First we must open the file or webpage with the table. This should be one in which we
can select the text and copy and paste it elsewhere.
Next we need to open a text editor. In this example I am using notepad, which is bundled
with Windows. It is important to use a text editor that does not automatically impose its
own formatting on a document. If you are not sure if your preferred text editor does this
then I would recommend just using notepad. To open notepad click on the start menu,
select “run” and enter the word “notepad” and click “OK.”
Next we need to select the data from which we wish to create a table. Do this by using
your mouse to position the cursor at the beginning of the data, click and hold the left
mouse button, and then drag the cursor to the end of the data. It should highlight the
relevant text.
*Note: In Adobe Acrobat you must select the “Select” button next to the hand icon located to the left in the
toolbar at the top of the document.
Next we copy and paste the data into notepad. This can be done in one of two ways:
press ctrl+c or select “copy” in the “Edit” dropdown menu located in the upper left
portion of the program. We then paste the data into notepad by bringing up the notepad
program and either pressing ctrl+v or by selecting the “paste” option in the “Edit”
dropdown menu at the top of the program. If done correctly all of the selected data will
appear in notepad.
Our next step is to format the data. This is done primarily with quotation marks and
commas. Commas tell Excel to put the data on either side into different cells. Quotation
marks denote text that is to appear within a single cell of Excel and may be necessary if
there are commas or other such objects within the relevant text that would otherwise
suggest putting data in a different column or row in excel.
As you can see above, in this example I have put the table’s title "Table 1: Core
technology-innovating economies, 2002" and the footnote "Source: US Patent and
Trademark Office, February 2003" into quotations because the commas in them would
otherwise have told Excel to split the text into different cells.
Next we must save our file with the extension .csv, which stands for Comma Separated
Values. This is done by selecting “Save As” from the “File” drop down menu at the top
of notepad and naming the file with “.csv” at the end. In the example below I have used
“Table 1.csv” as the name for the file.
Now that we have created a CSV file we will open it using Microsoft Excel. First we
must open Excel. Then we open the file that we have created. This is done by clicking
on the open file icon in the toolbar at the top or by selecting “Open file” from the “File”
dropdown menu. Next a window will open up that will allow us to select our file.
Browsing to the location to which you have saved the file you may notice that it is not
showing up. It may be necessary to select a different file type from the dropdown menu
below the “File Name:” field. You may select either “Text Files” or “All Files” to make
the CSV file show. In the below example I have used “Text Files” as the file type. As
you can see, it made “Table 1” show up as available.
Now you should see a very crowded table appear in Excel. You may want to clean this
up a bit. First we want to format the cells so that the text inside of them will wrap around
instead of going off to the side where we cannot read it. This is done by first selecting all
of the cells you want to change, which can be done by clicking on a cell in one corner of
the table, holding down the button and then dragging your cursor to the corner at the
horizontally opposite end of the table. All cells should be highlighted if this is done
correctly.
Next we click on the “Format” dropdown menu at the top of the program and select
“Cells…” This will open a dialogue window that gives us a few options. We want to put
a check in the box that says “Wrap text.” Then click on “OK.”
Now our table will have some of the larger words wrapping around in the cells. You’ll
notice that some cells have grown vertically to accommodate this. In particular the title
and footnote cells have become particularly tall and awkward. We may want to stretch
these along the length of the table to make them look nicer. To do this we select the cells
that contain the text and the cells to the right of them into which we would like to extend
by clicking on the target cell, holding down the left mouse button and dragging the cursor
over to the last cell into which we want to extend. Then we open up the cell formatting
dialogue again by clicking on the “Format” dropdown menu at the top of the program and
selecting “Cells…” This time we will put a check in the box next to “Merge cells” and,
again, click “OK.” It is important to note that the contents in the neighboring cells into
which we are expanding will be deleted. If there is something in those cells that you do
not want to be deleted then you should move them to another part of the table. In this
case, though, the cells are empty anyway, so there is no worry.
Now we have a table that looks much like the original but is formatted in a way that we
can use it in Excel without problems.
All that is left is to save it. Instead of saving it as a CSV file we may want to save it as an
excel file. To do this, choose “Save As” from the “File” dropdown menu at the top of the
program. Then select Microsoft Office Excel Workbook from the “Save as Type”
dropdown menu. Now click on the Save button and it will save the file for use in Excel.