## Automation overview
Nowadays you can be inundated with PDF reports and analysis from various sources and after a quick glance they are never viewed again. Here I show you a way of extracting and saving that data from a PDF you receive in an email into Excel.

[Extract data from a PDF email attachment into Excel using Make - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yND9qt8JcG0)

## Automation flow for extracting data from PDFs using Make and inputting into Excel

![Data extraction PDF flow](https://mermaid.ink/svg/pako:eNptkE1rwzAMhv-K8Qik0A526shhMJrmNjbY2GH4ojrqYpJYwVFoS8h_n5K0WzeGQX5lPfqwem0pR53oKOqdd5z0RnOBNRqdGL2DVsRSnd_eITjYVdhKUAnYBFdDOG2oojDxN-u7LMu2c0qLlnz-O5493m_StdHDMESR8eP5DNAU6i0dNXVcEZXx83wvjK-hxPhJjOgm31uKX9Ls1pK4eLRYxdvRLq6S1WqlsAZXqYPjQgmugBlsUaNnCT6oseZceWKPHMDyX2hqdu55jeXA8E-VQ3CMc5BJBTpMzDTi_E2l9FLXGGSyXNbdjy8_qxYpmyqNNn4QrmukEm5zxxR0soeqxaWGjun15K1OOHR4gVIHssH6m2rAfxBd_OELTAijEQ)
```mermaidignore
graph TD

outlook(Outlook)
make(Make)
pdfco(PDF.co)
excel(Excel)

outlook -- email with PDF attachment --> make
make -- extract attachment --> pdfco
pdfco -- extract data --> make
make -- write data to row --> excel
```

## How to recreate this automation
### Resources
- [Make | Work the way you imagine](https://www.make.com)
- [PDF.co](https://pdf.co/)
- [Outlook and Excel](https://www.office.com/)

### Step 1: Setup an Outlook rule to move required emails to a folder
Setting this up simplifies the process within Make - as it means we won't need to do any tricky searches on our whole inbox. For this demo I created a folder called `Automation` and moved any messages from my personal email address containing the subject `Channel Stats` into it.

![Outlook Rule](https://ry.d.pr/7FCbAK.png)

### Step 2: Create a Make scenario that extracts email attachments
This is a 3 step process in itself - first of all you find the emails via a search, then you list out the attachments from that email and then finally you download the attachment.

![Three steps to getting the attachment](https://ry.d.pr/UC0C5K.png)

In the `Search Messages` node we want to grab emails from `Today` that are in the `Automation` folder we set up in `Step 1`. 

![Search Messages](https://ry.d.pr/qKrjSH.png)

In the `List Attachments` node we want to use the `Message ID` from the search result in the `Search Messages` node.

![List Attachments Node](https://ry.d.pr/3z2jaH.png)

In the `Download an Attachment` node we want to use the `Message ID` from the search result in the `Search Messages` node and the `Attachment ID` from the `List Attachments` node.

![Download an Attachment Node](https://ry.d.pr/cUdz2h.png)

### Step 3: Extract data using PDF.co
You need to create an account on PDF.co and create a document parser. In this document parser you are able to set up objects that will extract text/data from your PDF. Here you can see how it was set it up for the demo (for more detailed information on how to set this up watch the video above).

![PDF.co Document Parser](https://ry.d.pr/yefVJT.png)

After you save take note of the ID of the Document Parser Template.

![Document Parser Template ID](https://ry.d.pr/ej0VGY.png)

Add your PDF.co node in Make after the `Download an Attachment` node.

![Add your PDF.co node](https://ry.d.pr/Tqhdrh.png)

Set your PDF.co node up so that its `Input File` is `Upload a File` and the `File` is from the previous node. Then add the ID of your `Document Parser Template` that you set up earlier.
![PDF.co node setup](https://ry.d.pr/eD6bz7.png)

### Step 4: Write out the data to Excel
The final step is to write the data you have extracted from your PDF to your Excel spreadsheet. Add `Microsoft 365 Excel Add a Worksheet Row`  node as the final node.
![Microsoft 365 Excel node](https://ry.d.pr/0mP7WO.png)

Setup your node so that it uses the values from PDF.co to write to your spreadsheet (you need to have created your spreadsheet already). The values you set up in your `Document Parser Template` will be available in this node to write to your spreadsheet.

Select your `Workbook` and then your `Worksheet` and the rows you have setup in your spreadsheet will become available.

![Excel node setup](https://ry.d.pr/u2deCS.png)

Automate data extraction from your PDFs using Make and PDF.co and save to Excel

Learn how to automate with Pdf.co