Free Word to Excel Converter

Convert Word to Excel in Just a Few Clicks

Copying tables from Word to Excel manually is frustrating. You either lose the layout, paste it in as an image, or spend way too much time fiddling with formatting. Thankfully, Smallpdf makes it easy to skip all that.

Here’s how to convert Word documents to spreadsheets:

1. Go to the Document Converter on Smallpdf.
2. Upload your Word file (.doc or .docx).
3. We’ll first convert it to a PDF behind the scenes.
4. Click “Export As” and choose “Excel (.xlsx).”
5. Download your spreadsheet and open it in Excel.

That’s all it takes. Any tables you had in your document are now editable, sortable, and ready to work with. Perfect if you need to extract tables from Word for analysis or reporting.

Why You Can’t Convert Word to Excel Directly

Even though Word and Excel are part of the same Microsoft family, they’re not exactly best friends when it comes to table data. Word isn’t built to structure rows and columns the way Excel does, and Excel doesn’t know how to interpret tables saved inside Word documents.

Smallpdf steps in as the translator.

First, we turn your Word doc into a PDF, which helps capture the table layout more cleanly. Then we use OCR (optical character recognition) to scan and convert that table into real Excel cells. Easy as pie, you get a usable spreadsheet without lifting a finger.

When You’d Want To Convert Word to Excel

There are plenty of moments where this kind of conversion just makes life easier. Maybe someone emailed you a report or class notes as a DOCX, but you need to extract data from Word so you can sort, filter, or total the numbers in Excel. Or perhaps you’ve created a simple invoice in Word but now need to track it in a spreadsheet. And sometimes it’s just quicker to jot down a table in Word, only to later realize you should’ve used Excel from the start.

Having the flexibility to switch formats can save you serious time and effort. With Smallpdf, that switch only takes a few seconds.

Tips for Better Word-to-Excel Results

To help our OCR tool give you the cleanest output possible:

• Use a sans serif font like Arial or Calibri for clearer character recognition.
• Make sure your table has visible borders and a font size of at least 11 pt.
• Avoid background colors or faint grey text as these can mess with accuracy.
• If your document contains several tables, each one will usually be added to a separate sheet within the same Excel file.

Even with great source files, it’s always worth checking your converted spreadsheet afterwards to make sure everything looks just right.

Unlock Pro Features

Smallpdf is totally free for up to two conversions a day, which is perfect if you only need it once in a while. But if you're working with multiple documents or doing this regularly, upgrading to Pro unlocks a few nice perks.

You’ll be able to convert batches of files all at once and store them securely in your Smallpdf cloud space. With Pro, you can access our full suite, like PDF to Excel, Compress PDF, and Edit PDF, without limits or cooldowns.

And if you’re not ready to commit, we offer a 7-day free trial to give it a proper test drive.

What About Security?

If you're handling sensitive files (like work reports, financial data, or anything you wouldn’t want to land in the wrong hands) you’re in safe territory with Smallpdf. All files are encrypted during upload and download, and we delete everything from our servers an hour after you’re done.

We’re GDPR-compliant too, which means your privacy is protected every step of the way. Want the full rundown? You’ll find all the details in our Trust Center.

Pressing Word to Excel Conversion Questions Answered

Can I convert a scanned Word document?

Yes, you can. Just make sure it’s saved as a PDF first. Our OCR tool is designed to detect text and table structures from image-based documents too. The cleaner the scan, the better the result, so try to use a high-resolution version if you can.

Will my table formatting carry over?

Most of it will. We preserve the structure of your table, including rows, columns, and sheet layout. Fonts and colors might need a quick tidy-up, but everything should land in the right place. Once you’ve opened it in Excel, you can tweak styling as needed without having to rebuild the table.

Can I get a CSV file instead of Excel?

Not directly, but it’s easy to do. Just open your converted .xlsx file in Excel or another spreadsheet app and save it as a .csv. This can be handy if you're importing the data into another tool or platform.

What file types does Smallpdf support?

You can convert DOCX to Excel and older .doc files, and your output will always be an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx). If you’re starting from a PDF version of your Word file, you can also go straight to our PDF to Excel Converter.