How to Convert a Word File to Excel (Tables, Text, and Lists)

Word and Excel don’t have a one-click “convert” button between them, so how you convert a Word file to Excel depends on what’s in the document. If your data is already in a Word table, copy the table and paste it into Excel; each Word cell lands in its own Excel cell. If the data is plain text separated by tabs or commas, save the Word file as a Plain Text (.txt) file and open it in Excel with Data > From Text/CSV. Paragraphs of ordinary prose don’t convert into useful rows and columns, so only move the parts that are really data.

The steps below use Word and Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows. Mac differences are noted where they apply.

Which Method Should You Use?

Method 1: Copy a Word Table Into Excel

This is the fastest method and works on Windows, Mac, and the web versions of both apps.

1. In Word, click anywhere in the table.
2. Select the table handle (the small four-arrow box at its top-left corner) to select the whole table. You can also drag across just the rows you need.
3. Press Ctrl+C (Command+C on a Mac).
4. In Excel, click the cell where the top-left corner of the table should go.
5. Press Ctrl+V (Command+V). The table fills the cells to the right and below, so start in an empty area.
6. Select the Paste Options button that appears and choose Keep Source Formatting to keep Word’s fonts and borders, or Match Destination Formatting for plain Excel cells.

Widen columns by double-clicking the border between column letters, and check that numbers are right-aligned. Left-aligned numbers are usually stored as text, which stops formulas from working. See the cleanup section below for the fix.

Fix cells that split into several rows

If a Word cell contains more than one paragraph, Excel puts each paragraph in its own row, which throws the table out of line. Fix it in Word before copying:

1. Select the whole table in Word.
2. Press Ctrl+H to open Find and Replace.
3. In Find what, type ^p. In Replace with, type a space or a separator like ; .
4. Select Replace All, then choose No if Word asks to search the rest of the document.

Because the end of each table cell isn’t a normal paragraph mark, this joins the paragraphs inside cells without merging the cells themselves. Copy the table again and paste it into Excel.

Method 2: Save Word as Plain Text and Import It

Use this when your data is typed as lines, with tabs or commas between the values, such as an exported contact list.

1. In Word, go to File > Save As and pick a folder.
2. In the Save as type list, choose Plain Text (*.txt) and select Save.
3. In the File Conversion box, leave the default encoding unless your text contains special characters; if it does, choose Unicode (UTF-8) under Other encoding. Select OK.
4. Open Excel and go to Data > From Text/CSV.
5. Select the .txt file and choose Import. A preview window opens.
6. Check the Delimiter box. Pick Tab or Comma to match your file, and confirm the preview shows separate columns.
7. Select Load to place the data on a new sheet, or Transform Data if you need to change column types first.

On a Mac, open the text file from Excel with File > Import, choose Text file, and follow the import wizard to choose the delimiter.

Method 3: Turn Plain Lines Into a Table First

If your data is on separate lines but uses a consistent separator, such as commas, Word can build a table from it. Then you can use Method 1.

1. Select the lines of data in Word.
2. Go to Insert > Table > Convert Text to Table.
3. Under Separate text at, choose the character your data uses, such as Commas or Tabs. The Number of columns updates to match.
4. Select OK, then copy the new table into Excel.

If your text itself contains commas, like “Smith, John,” use tabs as the separator instead. You can also paste the lines straight into column A in Excel and split them with Data > Text to Columns.

Clean Up the Data in Excel

• Numbers stored as text. Select the cells, then select the yellow warning icon and choose Convert to Number.
• Lost leading zeros. Excel drops the zeros from values like ZIP codes or ID numbers. When importing, choose Transform Data and set that column’s type to Text before loading.
• Merged cells. Merged cells from Word block sorting and filtering. Select them and choose Home > Merge & Center to unmerge.
• Extra spaces. Use =TRIM(A2) in a helper column to remove leading, trailing, and doubled spaces.
• Dates in the wrong format. Check that Excel recognized them as dates, not text, especially if the document came from a region with a different date order.

What About Online Word-to-Excel Converters?

Online converters upload your file to someone else’s server. They can handle simple tables, but they rarely do better than copy and paste, and they’re a poor choice for documents with personal, financial, or company data. Word and Excel can do the job locally with the methods above.

If You Don’t Actually Need to Convert

Sometimes you only need the Word document visible inside a workbook, not its contents split into cells. In that case, embed the file instead; our guide on inserting a Word document into Excel walks through it. Going the other way? See how to insert an Excel table into Word.

FAQ

Can I open a .docx file directly in Excel?

No. Excel can’t read Word’s .docx format. Copy the data or save it as plain text first.

Will images, headers, and text formatting come across?

Copying a table keeps basic formatting like bold text and borders. Images inside table cells may paste as floating pictures, and headers, footers, and page layout don’t carry over. Plain text files keep no formatting at all.

How do I convert several Word tables at once?

Copy and paste them one at a time, placing each on its own sheet or leaving a blank row between them. For Word files you receive regularly in the same layout, Excel’s Transform Data editor can repeat the same cleanup steps each time you import a text version.

Matt Wilmont

Matt has been writing about Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft products since the days of Windows XP. He spends much of his time writing for sites like WindowBrain.com