Marking a Table or Field
PDF2XL Support avatar
Written by PDF2XL Support
Updated over a week ago

Before you can convert your document, you will need to map out the data that you want to convert. This is a simple process that can be done in a couple of ways.

Auto Suggest

On the Layout tab, there is a button called "Auto Suggest". By selecting this, and then choosing one of the options beside it (All Pages or Current Page), you can force the application to determine the layout on its own.

While this tool can make the mapping process quick and easy, it cannot always locate the table properly or select specific data.

Manual Selection

This process requires you to draw a box around the data you want to convert.

  1. Place your cursor on the top left-hand corner of the data.

  2. Press and hold the left mouse button.

  3. Drag the cursor to the bottom-right corner of the data.

  4. Release the mouse button.

While dragging the cursor, you will see a colorful box (orange if it's a table, blue if it's a field) stretching from the point where you first clicked the left mouse button all the way to the cursor. This represents the selected area, to help you correctly mark the element's area.
โ€‹ Don't worry if you didn't mark the element accurately, or if you want to change its size or position! Even after it's marked, it's very easy to move the table, resize it, or make any other changes you might like.

**At any point, you can right-click on the element and select " Change to table" or "Change to field".

While dragging the cursor, you can cancel the marking by pressing the Escape key on your keyboard, then the element will not be created.

When you release the left mouse button, PDF2XL will create an element in the marked area.

The default Marking Mode setting is " By Content", which will make PDF2XL try to guess on its own whether you're marking a table or a field.

You can select either " Tables" or "Fields" if you want to set your mapping preference. Selecting the "Text" option will not create a table or field, but will allow you to copy text that you would like to paste elsewhere, such as in a table heading or even on a notepad document.

If you've marked a table, PDF2XL will attempt to automatically define its columns and rows, and you can see the results in the Page Preview pane (under the document pane).

If the document has lines between the table's columns/rows, PDF2XL will use them for defining the columns/rows; otherwise, it will attempt to figure it out according to the data on the page.
In either case you can then move the columns/rows manually, or change the way PDF2XL attempts to find them using the Table Structure options in the Content tab.

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