PDF2XL OCR

PDF files can sometimes be a nightmare for people who work with certain types of documents. PDF2XL OCR is a "I've been looking for something like this" kind of software. It can convert native or scanned PDF files to Excel, Word and other formats.

You might need to wait an extra minute or two if you're planning on downloading this program. The package weighs in at 25 Mb and the installation process isn't exactly a time saver either. Besides waiting a bit, you won't have to do anything else. After the installation is complete, you can run PDF2XL OCR straight away.

You'd think that a program which involves PDF manipulation will have an overloaded interface with tons of buttons, tabs and menus, but, in this case, you'd be wrong. PDF2XL OCR's interface features just a few menus with options that can also be found on the toolbar.

After loading a PDF file, you need to select the layout editing mode from the toolbar. This will let you click and drag a box over a PDF. If it's a scanned document, the program will automatically run the OCR function and will do an image to text transformation. If you click and hold the layout editing, a button for a text selection tool will drop down.

The document, be it native or scanned PDF, can be converted in other formats like MS word, Excel, Power Point and even HTML. Just Click the designated button and a menu with all conversion formats will drop down. Apart from a few other basic tools, that's all there is to know. Its OCR capabilities are quite good and its interface is accessible to any experience level user.