Getting a PDF to Excel in Excel 2016 means working around a gap: Excel 2016 and 2019 have no From PDF import, because Microsoft ships that connector only with Microsoft 365. You can still open the PDF in Word 2016 and copy its tables, convert it to CSV and import that, or copy and split the text.
Why does Excel 2016 have no From PDF import?
Excel 2016 lacks a From PDF import because Microsoft never added the PDF connector to the one-time-purchase editions. Microsoft's table of Power Query data sources in Excel versions marks PDF as included only under Microsoft 365 plans. It is absent, not hidden.
That matters because many tutorials show the From PDF menu without saying which edition they used. A reader on Office 2016 follows the screenshots, opens Get Data, finds no PDF entry and assumes a setting is off. No setting turns it on, and Microsoft's table gives no route to it short of a Microsoft 365 plan.
Here is how the three common editions compare on the importers that matter for this job, taken from the same Microsoft table. Office 2019 is included because it shares the gap.
| Edition | PDF connector | Text & CSV connector | Where the import tools sit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office 2016 (all suites) | Not included | Included | Data tab, Get & Transform group |
| Office 2019 (all suites) | Not included | Included | Data tab, Get Data |
| Microsoft 365 (Home, Business, Enterprise) | Included, needs .NET Framework 4.5+ | Included | Data tab, Get Data |
The Text & CSV row is the useful one. Every edition can import a CSV file with full control over column types, which is the basis of one workaround below.
Checking your Excel 2016 or 2019 build and product name
Your product name tells you which edition you have; the version number does not. Open Excel, select File, then Account, and read the line under Product Information. It names the suite, such as Office Professional Plus 2016 or Microsoft 365 Apps for business. That name decides whether From PDF can appear.
The version number confuses people because Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365 all report version 16.0 in the About box. Two people can both see "16.0" and have very different menus. Trust the product name.
A few other clues help when the Account page is locked down by your company:
- The splash screen when Excel starts usually shows the edition name.
- A ribbon with a Get & Transform group, holding New Query, points to Excel 2016.
- A Get Data button with From File, From Database and From Azure menus appears in 2019 and Microsoft 365, so it does not settle the question by itself.
If you turn out to have Microsoft 365 but still see no From PDF, the problem is different: your update channel may lag, or .NET may be missing. How Excel's PDF import works when you have it covers that check.
Sharing workbooks with Microsoft 365 colleagues
Mixed offices hit a quieter version of the gap. A colleague on Microsoft 365 imports a PDF with From PDF and emails you the workbook. You can open it in Excel 2016 and read every cell, because the loaded table is stored as ordinary values. What you should not expect is a working refresh. The query behind the table calls a PDF connector your edition does not have, so pressing Refresh All is likely to end in an error rather than new figures.
The practical rule: let the person with Microsoft 365 own the refresh, and treat your copy as a snapshot. If you need to update it yourself each month, one of the workarounds below gives you a query that runs on your own edition.
Is Excel 2016's Get & Transform the same as Power Query?
Yes. Microsoft calls Power Query "Get & Transform" in Excel, and in Excel 2016 it sits in a group of that name on the Data tab. It is the same engine that later gained the PDF connector. Excel 2016 simply has a shorter list of sources, which covers workbooks, text, CSV, XML, the web and databases.
So a 2016 user is not missing Power Query, only one entry in its source list. Everything that happens after the data arrives works the same: you can remove header rows, split columns, set data types and refresh. That is good news, because the hard part of converting a PDF is usually the cleanup, not the import.
What you cannot do in Excel 2016 is point Get & Transform at the PDF itself. You have to get the content into a format it can read first. The two formats that work best are a CSV file and a table pasted into a sheet. Once the data is in either form, a query can take over.
Not sure why the PDF needs this middle step at all? How a PDF and an Excel workbook store data differently explains it in a few minutes.
Word 2016 reflow as an Excel 2016 PDF workaround
Word 2016 can open a PDF and rebuild its paragraphs, lists and tables as an editable document, which gives you a table to copy into Excel 2016. Microsoft's page on adding a PDF to an Office file names Word 2013 and 2016 as having this PDF reflow feature.
Most Office 2016 suites include Word, so this route costs nothing extra. Open Word 2016, choose File, Open, pick the PDF and confirm the conversion message. Word builds a .docx copy; the PDF is untouched.
Click into a table in the new document. If the Table Tools tabs appear, Word made a real table, and you can select it, copy it and paste it into Excel 2016 with each cell landing in its own cell. If Word made tab-separated lines instead, the paste goes into one column, and Data, Text to Columns with the Tab delimiter usually splits it in one pass.
Where reflow lets you down
Reflow is a layout guess. On a statement with narrow columns it may merge the date and description, or split one table into several small ones at each page break. Count the rows in Excel against the PDF for one page before you rely on the rest. Microsoft's own page notes that the conversion "works best with PDFs that are mostly text," which is a fair warning for dense tables.
A PDF to CSV detour into Excel 2016's From Text import
The detour has two legs: turn the PDF into a CSV file with another tool, then import that CSV with Excel 2016's From Text/CSV, which lets you set each column's type before loading. That second step is what protects account numbers, codes and dates from being reformatted.
The first leg can be any converter that outputs CSV: a PDF reader with an export menu, a web converter, or a script. Ways to do it with nothing installed are in converting PDF to Excel without installing software. Pick CSV over XLSX when you have the choice, because a CSV hands you the raw values and lets Excel 2016 decide nothing on its own. Choosing between XLS, XLSX and CSV output explains the trade-offs in more depth.
The second leg, in Excel 2016:
- Open a blank workbook and go to Data, then New Query, then From File, then From CSV.
- Pick the CSV file and choose Edit rather than Load, so the query editor opens.
- Click the header of any column holding codes or account numbers and set its type to Text.
- Click the date column and set its type to Date. If dates come out wrong, use the column's Change Type, Using Locale option and pick the locale the PDF was written in.
- Remove junk rows, such as repeated page headers, with Home, Remove Rows.
- Choose Close & Load. The data lands as a table, and the query stays in the workbook.
A worked example
Say the CSV has a line 07/03/2026,DIRECT DEBIT 00412,-48.20. With UK date order, that is 7 March, not 3 July. Setting the date column with the English (United Kingdom) locale reads it correctly, and setting the description to Text keeps "00412" as typed. UK statements raise this often; UK bank statements and day-first dates in Excel goes deeper.
Excel 2016 add-ins and macros that promise PDF import
Third-party add-ins and VBA macros that claim to bring a PDF straight into Excel 2016 exist, and they deserve caution. An add-in runs with the same access to your files as Excel does. On a work PC you may need IT approval, and on a home PC you are trusting a stranger with every workbook you open.
Ask four questions before you install one:
- Who publishes it, and is it listed in Microsoft's Office Store or only on a download site?
- Does it send the PDF to a web service, and does it say what happens to the file there?
- Does it need macros enabled for every workbook, or only one?
- Would upgrading to a Microsoft 365 plan, which includes the PDF connector, cost less than the add-in over a year?
Often the better answer is not to bring the PDF in through Excel at all. For bank statements, FastBankConvert is being built to turn the PDF into a CSV or Excel file in a browser, which any Excel edition can open. It is getting ready to open, and Get started is where to sign up for trial conversions.