Automatically Extract Data from Images into Excel Using “Data from Picture”

Table of Contents

😫 You receive a photo of a printed table or a screenshot of data, and you have to manually type every number into Excel before you can analyze it.

🗂️ Category: Microsoft 365 Tool Utilization

⭐ Difficulty: ★★★★☆

📝 Content

Excel includes a powerful feature called Data from Picture, which allows you to convert tables in images directly into editable Excel data.

Instead of manually entering numbers from printed reports, screenshots, or photos, Excel uses optical character recognition (OCR) to detect table structures and convert them into spreadsheet format.

This feature works well with:

• Photos of printed tables
• Screenshots of reports
• Data tables in PDFs
• Whiteboard tables from meetings

Excel scans the image, detects rows and columns, and creates a structured table that you can immediately edit, analyze, or visualize.

Before importing, Excel lets you review and correct any detected values, ensuring accuracy.

✅ Benefits

• Eliminates manual data entry
• Saves significant time when digitizing tables
• Reduces typing errors
• Quickly converts images into usable datasets

🛠️ Procedure

1. Open Excel and go to the Data tab.
2. Click Data from Picture.
3. Choose Picture from File or Picture from Clipboard.
4. Review the detected data and correct any errors.
5. Click Insert Data to import the table into Excel.

📎 Notes

This feature is available in Excel for Microsoft 365 and Excel mobile apps.

Clear images with straight alignment and good lighting produce the best results.

Many professionals use this tool to quickly digitize reports, invoices, or printed datasets without manual typing.