Insert data from picture

Want to turn images that have table data into data that you can edit in Excel? With the Data from Picture feature, it's a snap.

Release notes

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With the Data from Picture feature, you can insert data from a screen capture on your clipboard, or an image file from your computer.

Important: Only the following character sets are supported: English, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Important: Data from Picture in Excel for Windows is only supported on Windows 11 or Windows 10 version >=1903 (must have Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime installed).

How it works

  1. Capture your data from an image. There are two methods:

Take a screenshot

Take a screenshot of the table, then click Data > From Picture > Picture From Clipboard.

Scenarios to try

Picture of tabular data

With the Data from Picture feature, you can insert data from an image file from your computer.

Important: Only the following character sets are supported: English, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

How it works

  1. To capture your data from an image, do the following:

Scenarios to try

Picture of tabular data

Your browser does not support video. Install Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, or Internet Explorer 9.

With the Data from Picture feature, you can insert data from a screen clipping on your clipboard, an image file from your computer, or from your iPhone camera.

Important: Only the following character sets are supported: English, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

How it works

  1. Capture your data from an image. There are three methods:

Take a screenshot

Take a screenshot of the table, then click Data > Data From Picture > Picture From Clipboard.

Scan data using your iPhone (Requires iPhone configured to use Continuity Camera.)

  1. In Excel, right-click a cell, then click Scan Documents.
  2. Aim your iPhone camera at the data. Adjust the lighting and focus, then tap the button to take a picture.
  3. Make any further adjustments to the image, then tap Save.

Scenarios to try

Picture of tabular data

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Get Started

Open Excel on your phone or tablet and tap the Insert data from picture button to get started

Insert data from picture button

Next, narrow in on your data until you see it surrounded by a red border, then tap the capture button. If needed, you can use the sizing handles around the edges of the image to crop it to size first.

Ready to take a picture on an Android device

Excel's powerful AI engine will process the image and convert it to a table. When it first imports your data, it will give you a chance to correct any issues it discovered during the conversion process. Tap Ignore to move on to the next issue, or Edit to correct the issue.

Excel import data from picture gives you the ability to correct any issues it found when converting your data.

Press Insert when you're done, and Excel will finish the conversion process, and display your data.

Excel has converted your data, and returns it to the grid.

Use the Microsoft 365 app

If you like using the Microsoft 365 app, you can do the same thing from there.

  1. Open the Microsoft 365 app on your phone and select Actions >Image to Table.
  2. Point the camera at the table you need and tap the capture button. The app automatically crops the picture so that only the table is included. If necessary, adjust the crop with the sizing handles around the edges of the image. Select Confirm when you are done. The app extracts the data from the picture and displays a preview of the table.
  3. Select Open to open the table in Excel. If the Microsoft 365 app found any issues in the table, such as typos caused by the extraction process, it asks how you want to handle them. Do one of the following:
  4. After editing the table to your liking, remember to save it.
Supported Languages

Important: Only the following character sets are supported: English, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.