PDF to Excel Columns Merged or Numbers Stored as Text? How to Fix It

The short answer

A PDF does not store tables, only words placed at positions on a page, so every converter has to guess where one column ends and the next begins. When it guesses wrong you get merged or split columns, and numbers with commas often arrive as text. Fix merged cells with Text to Columns (Excel) or Split text to columns (Google Sheets), and turn text numbers back into real numbers with =VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,",","")). The free PDF to Excel converter gives you a CSV file you can clean up this way in a few minutes.

Why PDF tables break in the first place

Inside a PDF, a table is just text items, each with an x and y position. There are no cells, no column borders the computer can rely on, and no record of which numbers belong together.

The Lazyblink converter rebuilds rows and columns from those positions:

• Rows: text items at the same height on the page become one row.
• Columns: within a row, items are sorted left to right. A big horizontal gap starts a new cell; a small gap is treated as a space inside the same cell.
• Output: a CSV file (it opens in Excel and Google Sheets), with all pages one after another.

This works well for neatly spaced statements and reports. It struggles when columns sit close together, when one cell wraps onto two lines, or when text is right-aligned with uneven gaps. Knowing this tells you which fix to use.

Problem 1: two columns merged into one cell

What you see: a cell like 12/10/2026 UPI-SWIGGY where the date and description should be separate.

Why: the gap between the two columns in the PDF was small, so they were read as one cell.

Fix in Excel:

Insert an empty column to the right of the merged one, so you do not overwrite data.

Select the merged column.

Go to Data > Text to Columns.

Choose Delimited and tick Space, or choose Fixed width and click to place the split line if the first part always has the same length (dates usually do).

Click Finish.

Fix in Google Sheets: select the column, then Data > Split text to columns, and pick the separator.

If descriptions contain spaces, splitting on every space will scatter them across many columns. In that case use a formula instead. For a date that is always 10 characters long:

• Date: =LEFT(A2,10)
• Rest: =TRIM(MID(A2,11,500))

Problem 2: one value split across two columns

What you see: Amazon in one cell and Pay India in the next, pushing every following value one column to the right.

Why: the PDF placed extra space inside the text, so the converter saw a column gap.

Fix: join the cells with =TRIM(B2&" "&C2), copy the result, paste it back as values, then delete the extra column. If only a few rows are affected, select the stray cell and use Delete > Shift cells left for that row.

Problem 3: numbers stored as text

What you see: amounts aligned to the left, a small green triangle in the corner, and SUM returning 0.

Why: values like 1,25,000.50 include commas, and some sheets also contain Cr, Dr or extra spaces. Spreadsheets may not recognise these as numbers, depending on your regional settings.

Fix: in an empty column, use:

=VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2),",",""))

For 1,25,000.50 this returns 125000.5, a real number you can sum. Fill the formula down, copy the column, and Paste Special > Values over the original.

For amounts with a suffix, strip it first, for example =VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2)," Cr",""),",","")). For bank statements where debits and credits share one column with Dr and Cr labels, use an IF formula to make debits negative.

Problem 4: header rows repeated on every page

What you see: the column titles (Date, Narration, Amount) appear again every 30 or 40 rows.

Why: each PDF page has its own header, and the converter extracts every page.

Fix: turn on a filter (Data > Filter), filter the first column for the header word such as Date, delete the visible rows except the first one, then clear the filter. Page numbers, "continued" lines and footers can be removed the same way.

Problem 5: a long description wrapped onto a second row

What you see: a row with only text in the description column and nothing in date or amount.

Why: in the PDF the description wrapped onto a second line, which sits at a different height, so it became its own row.

Fix: join it to the row above with =B2&" "&B3, paste as values, then delete the extra row. Sorting by an empty date column brings all these orphan rows together so you can deal with them at once.

Problem 6: nothing comes out at all

If the tool says "No text found — this looks like a scanned PDF", the PDF is a picture of a page, not text. Turn the page into an image with PDF to JPG, read it with Image to Text (OCR), and paste the result into a sheet. Expect to check every number by hand, because OCR can misread digits.

If it says the PDF could not be read, the file is probably password-protected. Open it with the password and save or print it to a new PDF first.

Tips for a cleaner conversion

Use the original PDF, not a scan or a photo of a printout.

Convert only the pages you need. Extract the table pages with Split PDF first, so cover pages and terms do not clutter the result.

Open the CSV and save as .xlsx before you start fixing. CSV does not keep formulas, colours or column widths.

Check totals. After cleaning, sum the amount column and compare it with the total printed in the PDF. If they match, the conversion is reliable.

Quick reference

Symptom	Fix
Two columns in one cell	Text to Columns, or LEFT and MID formulas
One value split in two cells	=TRIM(B2&" "&C2) then delete the extra column
Numbers will not sum	=VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2),",",""))
Headers repeated	Filter on the header word and delete those rows
Wrapped descriptions	Join to the row above, then delete
No text found	OCR the page images

For converting bank statements specifically, see how to convert a bank statement PDF to Excel. For the basic conversion steps, read how to convert PDF to Excel.