TableXL / Practical guide

PDF to Excel cleanup tool: merge and split columns

Correct merged or split PDF table columns, edit headers and review cells before exporting Excel or CSV.

Inspect the first rows

Compare headers and at least three rows with the source. If Company and Address were split apart unnecessarily, edit the cells directly or select a column and merge it with the column immediately to its right.

Split a combined column

Select the table and a column number starting at 1. Enter a literal separator, such as a vertical bar, and choose Split. Each cell splits at the first occurrence only. Cells without that separator retain their text in the left column and receive an empty right cell.

Fix the header

Headers are editable independently from data. Example: a synthetic cell “Acme | Bristol” can become Company = Acme and City = Bristol. Check the split header as well, since header text may not contain your separator.

Save deliberately

Save corrections before downloading. Merge and split also save current edits. Another browser tab changing the same preview triggers a conflict instead of overwriting your work. Corrections and repeated downloads cost no extra page credits during the original 24-hour lifetime.

Check your first two pages free See page packs

Written by Zijian Xiao. Examples are synthetic. Review all extracted results against your original PDF.