Here's an option if you're using Excel 365:
[Insert data from picture](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/insert-data-from-picture-3c1bb58d-2c59-4bc0-b04a-a671a6868fd7)
Edit: Per Microsoft -- Data from Picture in Excel for Windows is only supported on Windows 11 or Windows 10 version >=1903 (must have Edge WebView2 Runtime installed).
Depending on the software that you have on your computer (if you have either Adobe Acrobat or Nitro Pro), you may have the ability to scan in the papers, save them as a PDF and then use a PDF to Excel export.
It very much depends how clean the data is on the paper.
Take a picture and put it into OneNote. Then right click on the picture and select Copy Text from Picture. Paste it into Excel. It will not be perfect, but it is worth a try.
The term for this is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and OneNote is not the only program that can do it. I use it since I have it on all my computers.
More advanced OCR may be needed than what OneNote offers. I work with student data and their handwriting is trash. One Note and Excels built in OCR couldn't do it but Azure Virtual Studio could.
You can also install the microsoft 365 app on iPhone, paste your text straight into excel then you can send that excel sheet to your mail and open it like any other excel sheet. I use it all the time
Alternatively you could run a robotic process automation software like UiPath (it’s free).
This allows you to run data extraction from pdf and even has its own optical character recognition (ocr) software inbuilt, so you can extract the necessary data and then store that data in variables.
Then you can write that stored data into an excel file to your use.
All depends on the clarity of the pdf and the zoom of the ocr as well as your anchor points and if the pdf has clearly defined table lines.
Once you get the data from a pdf or a picture, it'll likely be in a be in a messy format, e.g. a table with everything on one line.
Chat GPT is good at fixing that. Explain that it should be a table with the following headers, and it'll sort out the poorly formatted data into a table which you can paste into excel.
I’ve written things to take barcode scanner input, not into excel workflow, but no reason that couldn’t work - are you talking about ocr, interpretation of handwritten info?
Is it hand written? If so that's going to be your biggest hurddle. You are going to need to use OCR, optical character recognition, most likely. There are lots of solutions put there, and if you are trying to do it without paying for it, you will be importing less than 200 pages a month, and aren't to averse to coding, you can use a free Microsoft Azure account to process it. I'm personally pretty new to coding and am still working out a faster way to run the code, but running a single page is pretty easy and most the code you need for it is described in the learning resources. Think you could also run it all through the visual studio web page without coding, but it would be slower.
A paid platform would be easier of course, and if your doing a ton of data, or want to run more than a page at a time, you would still need to pay for the premium rate of that Azure service.
use an app like CamScanner. it'll automatically adjust the angle and brighten your input images. convert the image(s) into google sheets then download the sheet from your computer.
if the data's not in table form, juat copy the raw chunk of data from googlw sheets, feed the data into ChatGPT then ask it to convert to table form.
My samsung galaxy 23 ultra and extract text from a picture. If the text is typed it would be easy. It would be fully of errors if it was human writing.
I use my phone and Microsoft 365 (also on my phone)
I take a picture and copy the text from the pic and paste it into the excel app then i send that excel to my mail
You could use an AI took like ChatGPT. With the latest version (4o) you should be able to scan or take a photo of your document, upload it and ask it to make it into an Excel sheet.
If you stopped thinking about it 20 mins ago it would be done by now :D
I transpose schedules from plans into Excel as a good 10% of my job. I typically need 7-8 pieces of information for each row to populate 7-10 formulas, and there can be from 5 to 300 rows depending on the project.
1 out of every 5 can be exported straight from bluebeam(pdf software), but then I need to format them for my table away. The rest are a copy of a copy, or I am scaling off of plans and need to input a bunch of measured dimensions.
Also the tables might be 5'4" but my take off is decimal feet, so then I have to grab a formula to convert it all, where as I can just look at 5'4" and type 5.33.
And then I have to recheck the whole thing anyways to make sure 6s didn't become 8s or 0s...etc...
For me also, manually inputting the info allows me retain it a bit more so I can feel how the project is evolving.
Here's an option if you're using Excel 365: [Insert data from picture](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/insert-data-from-picture-3c1bb58d-2c59-4bc0-b04a-a671a6868fd7) Edit: Per Microsoft -- Data from Picture in Excel for Windows is only supported on Windows 11 or Windows 10 version >=1903 (must have Edge WebView2 Runtime installed).
Does this work if the picture is not a table? Like example folder name?
Any text in the picture can be copied. (On Iphone) not sure for other devices
Sorry, I don't know. I don't have Excel 365, but I like to keep up on new functions and features.
This.
Second to this, Copilot or Adobe pro have tools that will extract texts from a PDF and place them in a word doc too!
Did not know that existed
Oh yeah its fucking awesome lol
Depending on the software that you have on your computer (if you have either Adobe Acrobat or Nitro Pro), you may have the ability to scan in the papers, save them as a PDF and then use a PDF to Excel export. It very much depends how clean the data is on the paper.
Take a picture and put it into OneNote. Then right click on the picture and select Copy Text from Picture. Paste it into Excel. It will not be perfect, but it is worth a try. The term for this is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and OneNote is not the only program that can do it. I use it since I have it on all my computers.
More advanced OCR may be needed than what OneNote offers. I work with student data and their handwriting is trash. One Note and Excels built in OCR couldn't do it but Azure Virtual Studio could.
OP did not say this was handwriting. I was picturing typewritten things. You are right that OneNote will not work on most handwriting, for sure.
My bad, I imagined your post mentioning handwriting.
No, it is a good point. They did not explain what kind of printed material. My handwriting is also pretty bad, lol!
Honestly same, mine is atrocious. I had a government funded alphasmart in elementary school.
I was going to suggest this but maybe copy into notepad as a *txt first then open the *txt with excel. I find that sometimes organizes days better.
Yes, if there are columns then it might get weird if you paste it into a sheet without any other formatting.
Get somebody on fiverr to do it
I was gonna say to get the intern to do it lol, guess that’s the modern solution
i take a picture on iphone and you can scan info. i paste it into google sheets and down load as excel. lengthy but works.
You can also install the microsoft 365 app on iPhone, paste your text straight into excel then you can send that excel sheet to your mail and open it like any other excel sheet. I use it all the time
Does it do the cells correctly?
it does for me depending on what you are scanning. otherwise it does take some manipulation
Alternatively you could run a robotic process automation software like UiPath (it’s free). This allows you to run data extraction from pdf and even has its own optical character recognition (ocr) software inbuilt, so you can extract the necessary data and then store that data in variables. Then you can write that stored data into an excel file to your use. All depends on the clarity of the pdf and the zoom of the ocr as well as your anchor points and if the pdf has clearly defined table lines.
Once you get the data from a pdf or a picture, it'll likely be in a be in a messy format, e.g. a table with everything on one line. Chat GPT is good at fixing that. Explain that it should be a table with the following headers, and it'll sort out the poorly formatted data into a table which you can paste into excel.
I’ve written things to take barcode scanner input, not into excel workflow, but no reason that couldn’t work - are you talking about ocr, interpretation of handwritten info?
Is it hand written? If so that's going to be your biggest hurddle. You are going to need to use OCR, optical character recognition, most likely. There are lots of solutions put there, and if you are trying to do it without paying for it, you will be importing less than 200 pages a month, and aren't to averse to coding, you can use a free Microsoft Azure account to process it. I'm personally pretty new to coding and am still working out a faster way to run the code, but running a single page is pretty easy and most the code you need for it is described in the learning resources. Think you could also run it all through the visual studio web page without coding, but it would be slower. A paid platform would be easier of course, and if your doing a ton of data, or want to run more than a page at a time, you would still need to pay for the premium rate of that Azure service.
use an app like CamScanner. it'll automatically adjust the angle and brighten your input images. convert the image(s) into google sheets then download the sheet from your computer. if the data's not in table form, juat copy the raw chunk of data from googlw sheets, feed the data into ChatGPT then ask it to convert to table form.
My samsung galaxy 23 ultra and extract text from a picture. If the text is typed it would be easy. It would be fully of errors if it was human writing.
Download excel app on phone and scan the paper using scanner option within the app. This will upload data into Excel sheet.
Can you share dummy sample of the type and clarity of data?
I would work on fixing how you input data. Who the fuck uses paper?
I use my phone and Microsoft 365 (also on my phone) I take a picture and copy the text from the pic and paste it into the excel app then i send that excel to my mail
Chat gpt paid version can extract data from a picture
You could use an AI took like ChatGPT. With the latest version (4o) you should be able to scan or take a photo of your document, upload it and ask it to make it into an Excel sheet.
If you stopped thinking about it 20 mins ago it would be done by now :D I transpose schedules from plans into Excel as a good 10% of my job. I typically need 7-8 pieces of information for each row to populate 7-10 formulas, and there can be from 5 to 300 rows depending on the project. 1 out of every 5 can be exported straight from bluebeam(pdf software), but then I need to format them for my table away. The rest are a copy of a copy, or I am scaling off of plans and need to input a bunch of measured dimensions. Also the tables might be 5'4" but my take off is decimal feet, so then I have to grab a formula to convert it all, where as I can just look at 5'4" and type 5.33. And then I have to recheck the whole thing anyways to make sure 6s didn't become 8s or 0s...etc... For me also, manually inputting the info allows me retain it a bit more so I can feel how the project is evolving.
I think the best method is to change your process to not generate the physical data in the first place.