How to convert a printed data sheet into a digital spreadsheet

The “Insert Data from Picture” feature has recently been introduced in the mobile version of Microsoft Excel. This means that with your device you can take a photo of a drawn or printed table and quickly convert it into a digital spreadsheet with editing capabilities.

It is true that those who use Google Sheets will miss this function, but don't worry: you can import the spreadsheet created in Microsoft Excel and use it in Google Sheets.

Step-by-step process

On your mobile device (Android and iOS), open Microsoft Excel. In the top-right corner, tap the “New” icon to create a new blank workbook (you can also open a template).

Then you'll need to tap the “Image Data” icon (a grid with a camera) located in the bottom bar. There you'll have to accept permissions for loading and converting images into data.

Insert the image within the red frame and select the “Capture” button. If on the first attempt the service doesn't recognize the data on paper, you'll need to repeat the action until it does. Once the capture is taken, you can edit it with the top options (crop, rotate, and filter) and then tap the “Confirm” button at the bottom.

At this point, Microsoft Excel will highlight the cells in the capture (from the paper sheet). If the scan isn't adequate, you can tap “Edit” and fill in erroneous or missing data. Alternatively, from “Ignore” you can skip this step.

Data you can edit

• To explore elements, tap the < and > buttons.
• You can also edit a cell to add missing or erroneous data.

Once you've finished editing, tap the “Insert” button at the top and the tables will be inserted into the workbook.

According to the developers, this service still doesn't work perfectly. Therefore, we recommend taking a photo of a drawing or printout (it works better with a printout) where the tables and cells are clearly marked. This way, you'll ensure a smooth import process into Excel without any problems.

When you're done, you can save the spreadsheet to your device. Then, if you want to open that sheet in Google Sheets, simply import the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into your Google Sheets.

Thanks to this method offered by Microsoft Excel for its mobile version, we can digitize all our paper work without investing as much time.