Free Word to Excel Converter

Despite being a suite of products, Microsoft Office has compatibility issues between the different products. You can’t save a Word file as a spreadsheet, even if it only consists of tables. And inserting it straight into a spreadsheet leaves you with an image of the table, and no way to edit the contents.

With Smallpdf’s suite of tools, you can easily convert Word files to Excel without recreating tables manually. Our file conversion tools will transform your Word document into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in seconds. And you don’t need to pay a cent or register to use them.

What’s With the PDF Conversion?

There is no direct method to convert Microsoft Word documents into Excel spreadsheets. If there were, it would be a Microsoft Office feature. Instead, Smallpdf converts your Word file into a PDF. Then, optical character recognition (OCR) technology is used to turn the data into a spreadsheet. It’s one of those things where you shouldn’t worry too much about the conversion process, while appreciating that it works without much effort.

This process also means that Smallpdf can also convert existing PDFs to Microsoft Excel format. Instead of starting with our PDF Converter, you can head straight to our PDF to Excel Converter. We also have an easy guide on what to do.

Why Convert Word Documents to Excel Spreadsheets?

Word and Excel are both intended for specific—and very different—purposes. You wouldn’t use Excel for writing a letter or report, and you wouldn’t use Word to create spreadsheets. However, sometimes you need to include tables in a Word document. Microsoft Word has no problems with creating tables. If you want to later transform those tables into a spreadsheet, you’ll appreciate how easy it is to do with Smallpdf. Without Smallpdf, you would need to manually recreate the Word table in Excel. Wasting valuable time you could have spent doing other work.

Tips for Perfect Word to Excel Conversions

OCR technology is fantastic, but the results depend on the original document’s quality. For the best conversion results:

Use a sans serif font, such as Arial, Helvetica, Proxima Nova, Futura, or Calibri. Increase the font size if it is below 11pt. Change the text or table border color, especially if it is light. Remove the background color, if used anywhere in the document.

Even after doing all the above, still check the data in your new spreadsheet to confirm everything is correct. OCR works on scanned documents, but high-quality scans deliver the best results.

If the Word file includes multiple tables, these will typically be added as separate sheets within the same Excel file. However, these can be copied over to a single sheet if necessary. Each sheet and its data are fully editable.

Ensuring Document Security With Smallpdf

If you need to convert Word documents to spreadsheets, you’re likely doing it for work. This often means working with confidential information. But even if you’re only converting course notes, you still wouldn’t want anyone to have access to your documents.

Smallpdf follows strict security and privacy protocols. No one, not even Smallpdf employees, can access your documents. We comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations by deleting your documents from our servers one hour after upload. You can read more about our security measures in our Trust Center.

Batch Processing Word Files to Excel Format

Smallpdf is always free to use, but you are limited to two file conversions a day. For the price of two latte’s a month, you can grab yourself a Pro account, which grants unlimited access to the Word to Excel converter, along with all of our other useful functionalities, including batch processing. This feature allows you to convert as many files as you’d like in one go, and save them to your own Smallpdf storage.

Our Windows-only desktop app allows you to use Smallpdf tools without an internet connection. As with our online tools, there are some limitations when using it for free. With a Pro account, you unlock all tools without any restrictions. Want to try it out first? Sign up for a 7-day free trial and get started!

What Else Can Smallpdf Do?

Our site accepts many input file formats besides Microsoft Word and Excel. We transform to and from PPT, PDF, and many image files, such as JPG and BMP. Conversion is just one of our strengths. Our PDF compressor reduces the size of PDFs and many other file formats.

We also have tools to edit, split, merge, and electronically sign PDFs. Visit our tools page to learn more and simplify the way you work.