pdf-table-extractor-brief

# PDF Table Extractor Brief ## What This Skill Does Produces a structured extraction plan and clean spreadsheet template for pulling tabular data out of a PDF document — identifying the table structure, defining column headers, flagging extraction pitfalls, and providing a ready-to-use template that ensures the data lands in a consistent, analysable format. ## When To Use This Skill - You have received a government report, budget document, or public record as a PDF and need the tables in spreadsheet format for analysis - You are dealing with a PDF where automated extraction tools (Tabula, Camelot, Adobe Export) produce messy or incomplete results and you need a manual or semi-automated extraction plan - You have multiple PDFs with similar table structures and need a standardized template to ensure consistency across extractions - You are assigning the extraction task to a research assistant or intern and need clear instructions that prevent common errors ## What You Need To Provide **Required:** A description of the PDF and its table structure — the document title, what the table contains, how many columns and rows (approximate is fine), and what the data represents. If possible, paste or describe the first few rows of the table so the assistant can see the structure. Alternatively, provide the actual PDF content if you have extracted the raw text. **Optional:** The extraction tool you plan to use (Tabula, Camelot, manual copy-paste, Adobe Export, or "not sure — recommend...