Insert data from Picture Excel Android

The spreadsheet conversion tool sends the image to Excel's online image-recognition engine to process and convert the words and numbers into a table. And it can convert nearly two dozen languages. During the import, Excel gives you a chance to fix anything before it's converted.

Excel for Android and iPhone is part of Microsoft's collection of Office apps for mobile devices that includes Word and PowerPoint. The free versions of the mobile productivity apps give you basic editing tools. With a Microsoft Office subscription, you can unlock more features, such as the ability to collaborate with colleagues.

Read more at TechRepublic: 56 Excel tips every user should master

To turn phone photos into Excel table data:

1. In the Excel app, tap the New button at the top of the app to create a new file. You can choose to create a blank workbook or use one of the templates that come with the app.

2. At the bottom of the app, tap the Data from Picture button (it's the 3x3 grid with a camera). If this is your first time using the tool, tap Allow to give Microsoft permission to convert the image to data using Microsoft's online service.

3. Position the red rectangle around the data you want to capture, and then tap the round Capture button. The app is a little finicky about what it does and doesn't identify as data, so it may take you a few tries to capture what you want.

Now playing: Watch this: Turn a photo of data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

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4. If you are happy with the captured image, tap the red check button to convert the data. If you're not, tap the X and start again.

5. In a preview of the captured data, tap a red-highlighted cell and then tap Edit to enter missing information. Tap Done after each change. You can also tap unhighlighted cells to make corrections or changes.

6. Once you are happy with the data, tap Insert at the top to place the data in your workbook.

The data you capture and convert can be numbers and words and can include lists and recipe ingredients. And while the app was remarkably accurate converting data from a piece of paper, we also got it to collect data from a laptop screen. It did struggle with our hand-written data, however.

The Insert Data from Picture tool for Android and iOS can work with 21 languages, including French, German and Spanish, with more languages to come, Microsoft said.

Sending spreadsheet data to Microsoft for processing can bring up privacy concerns. 

"The privacy and security of Microsoft's customers' data are of the utmost importance to the company," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "Intelligence features within Office apps strictly respect the access rights given to a user, and will not expose information to anyone who has not been given access."

Listen, unless you’re an expert, spreadsheets can be daunting. You have myriad options, countless formulas, and don’t get us started on the formatting. 

Even importing data can be a complicated process. But Microsoft Excel’s mobile app allows you to take a picture of a table and paste the information directly into your spreadsheet. And no, that doesn’t mean sticking an image in there—it means the app can read, digitize, and paste the actual data into the corresponding cells. 

You can find the same feature in the Microsoft Word app, so you’ll never have to type the contents of a physical document ever again.

How to import data into an Excel sheet with your phone’s camera

Importing data to an Excel spreadsheet using your phone camera is simple. First, download the Excel app (free for iOS and Android), sign up or log in, and open a new document by tapping the plus sign in the upper right corner of your screen. There, you can choose whether you want a blank spreadsheet or one of the platform’s free templates. 

[Related: Three spreadsheet tips to make beginners feel like pros]

Tap the cell where you want to input data and then tap the Menu button at the top of your screen—it looks like an A with a pen over it. From the emerging menu, tap Home, and choose Insert from the dropdown menu. There, tap Data from a Picture and grant Excel permission to use your device’s camera. 

Now point your camera at the table you want to scan—it can be your bank statement, a guest list, or almost any piece of paper with any information distributed in rows and columns. To be clear, it’s not necessary for the data to be in a visible grid. As long as there are rows and columns, you’ll be good to go, but we did find the feature works best when you use it to scan something that has been typed and printed. You can also try pointing the camera at a spreadsheet on a screen, but it’s likely the moiré effect (those weird lines that appear when you snap a picture of your computer’s monitor) will distort the content and make it impossible for the app to recognize it. Don’t even try handwritten text—no matter how clear your words are, Excel just won’t be able to read it.  

Place the document on a flat surface and point your camera directly at it (your phone should be as close to parallel with the surface as you can get it)—pro tip: if you have a somewhat new smartphone, get some help from your camera’s built-in level to help you position the camera just right. When you’re ready, tap the shutter button and use the cropping frame that appears on your screen to outline the information you want to add to your spreadsheet. When you’re done, tap Continue. 

Excel will extract the data from the table you snapped, but before it pastes it into your document, it’ll ask you to check a preview to make sure everything’s just right. The platform will flag everything it might have gotten wrong by painting the cell red; to review it, tap the potentially problematic entry and choose Edit. To finish, tap on Open at the bottom of your screen.

You can do this as many times as you want in a single Excel file, and once the data is in the spreadsheet, you can use the program’s massive analysis power to do, well, whatever you want with it.

How to import text into a Word document with your phone’s camera

You didn’t think Microsoft would come up with a great tool and only make it available for one of its Office programs, right? Excel isn’t the only one with photo-based text entry—there’s a similar tool in the mobile Word app, too. 

To use it, download the app (free for iOS and Android). If you’ve already signed up or logged into the Excel app, Word will recognize you and you’ll be able to skip this step with other Office mobile apps in the future. Use the plus sign in the upper right corner of your screen to open a new document, then tap the Menu button. Tap Home, choose Insert from the dropdown menu, and finally tap Scan Document. 

Word will open a tool similar to Excel’s, and you’ll be able to choose one or more images from your photo gallery or take a new one. Whatever you do, you’ll be able to use the crop tool on the next screen to choose the specific block of text you want to import. When you’re done, tap Confirm.

[Related: Two alternatives to Microsoft Word that are free and customizable]

When it comes to importing text from real-world documents, the Word app is slightly more sensitive than Excel, and will also take format into account. This can be a bit annoying if you’re only interested in plain text, and it can blow out the proportions of your page if you scan something big, like a news headline.

Still, both of these tools will save you a lot of typing if you need an editable copy of an important document. Office 365 apps also work on the cloud, so if you’re not a huge fan of typing or playing around with spreadsheets on your phone, you can access your documents later on your laptop to replace taps with clicks. 

Sandra Gutierrez G.

Sandra Gutierrez is the Associate DIY editor at Popular Science. She makes a living by turning those “Wait, I can make that!” moments she has while browsing the internet into fully-fledged stories—and she loves that. Contact the author here.

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