Retreiving data from pictures

Power Query (which has been the go-to tool for importing data into Excel for some time now) has a new option! Rereiving data from PDF documents has been around for a long time, and now you can also pick up tables from an image or image on the clipboard. So, if someone sends you an invoice that they took a photo of via Viber or WhatsApp, you don’t have to enter the data manually.

Retreiving data from images can be done in two ways: from an image that is on your computer or one that has been saved on the clipboard.

If you want to import a picture from your computer, go to the Data ribbon and select From Picture/Picture From File.

The Data from Picture panel will open on the right side of the window. By clicking on Review, you start the procedure for checking the correctness of the data within a table, and if you immediately select Insert, you will add the table to the worksheet. The spreadsheet may require some more small interventions on your part, but this is far better than entering the data manually.

Retreiving a picture from the clipboard is done by selecting the From Picture/Picture From Clipboard option. The import procedure is the same and allows you to download the data easily.