How to extract a photographed table into Excel

Before you start

Take a straight-on photo with even lighting. Crop the image to the table and avoid glare across numbers.

How to do it, step by step

1. Choose a straight-on, well-lit photo of the table. Retake a blurry photo rather than relying on conversion to repair it.
2. Run recognition and open the downloaded workbook.
3. Check each column against the photo, paying particular attention to decimal marks, dates and negative values.

Check the saved file

Check both recognized characters and their placement in spreadsheet cells.

Improve table recognition from a photo

Perspective, shadows and JPG compression can make table boundaries and small characters ambiguous. Recognition cannot recover detail that was never captured. Retake the photo if possible. A sharp original with visible row spacing is more useful than repeatedly converting the same blurred image.