PDF to Excel table in Preview

[LAS.mac]

I wonder if I can get rid of Adobe Acrobat. One of the uses I often do, is open a pdf which contain a numeric data table (say, 5 columns with 10 or more rows), copy the whole table, and with right click in Acrobat I can either open the table in Excel, or save it a .csv file that can e later imported in Excel or numbers.

So, I wonder if I can do that directly with Preview; or maybe if there is an Automator script to do that?

 

[MisterMe]

...

So, I wonder if I can do that directly with Preview; or maybe if there is an Automator script to do that?

Wow! No, you cannot do that directly in Preview. Automator will not help you. It is a scripting app. The only Apple-branded application that will open [some] Excel files is Numbers.

 

[LAS.mac]

I don't want to open Excel files in Preview. I want to export column and row numbers FROM a PDF, to be opened into Excel or Numbers. So select the data table in Preview and either copy of Ctrl+Click or something else, to be able to open as table elsewhere, or export. That's a function available in Adobe Acrobat since some versions ago.
I can actually, from Previe, copy a data table; and past it into Excel or numbers. however, it pastes each row joining together all the numbers in different columns.
I was wondering of Automator, maybe some script could be done to do that?

 

[MisterMe]

I don't want to open Excel files in Preview. I want to export column and row numbers FROM a PDF, to be opened into Excel or Numbers. ...

Well, you most certainly can't do that in Preview. Preview is neither a spreadsheet nor a text editor. It is theoretically possible to automate Adobe Acrobat Pro to do what you want. However, your PDF would have to be in a standard layout. Otherwise, it would be a colossal PITA. My recommendation to you is to keep Acrobat Pro and use it to convert your PDF files to .doc or .rtf.