Inserting Data from a Picture Directly into Excel and Saving Time

Did your boss just ask you to manually enter a chunk of data into Excel? If you know this trick, you won't need to type that data for hours. Your phone's Excel app has a hidden feature for capturing data from a piece of paper and automatically converting it into an Excel table.

Let's see if we can insert data from your phone into an excel document.

A picture can be used to add data to Excel

Microsoft Excel is compatible with both a computer and a smartphone. Using the Excel app on your phone, you might already be able to import data from a picture into Excel. A computer does not have this capability.

You must first install Microsoft Excel on your smartphone before you can use it. Microsoft Excel is available on Google Play Store or Apple App Store, depending on your device.

Create a new workbook in Excel on your smartphone. I used the iPhone app for this example. Similar instructions apply to Android phones as well.

Tap the tile icon at the bottom left corner of the screen.

At the bottom, you'll see a number of icons. On the bottom right, tap the three dots.

You will find a new menu with many options here. Select Home.

Tap Insert in the small pop-up menu (in green).

Tap Data from Picture from the list of options displayed.

If you allow the Excel app to access your photos, you might see a pop-up prompt. Select your photos or provide full access.

Put the paper with the data on a flat surface and tap the white button to take a picture. When you focus, a green marking appears around the data you want to capture.

You will see "Extracting Data" for a few seconds after the image is captured before the image preview appears on your screen.

If necessary, you can crop the image. On the bottom right, tap Confirm. You can tap Cancel and take the photo again if you aren't satisfied with the preview.

In the next screen, you will see the original image and the captured image preview. Click Insert.

You will see the options Open Anyway and Review on the next screen. Select Open Anyway.

That's all there is to it. The image you captured has been successfully inserted into the Excel spreadsheet. You may adjust the alignment of the cells as necessary.

The feature eliminates the need to view and type data from paper to a computer. It's free to use the Excel app on your phone if you don't have a Google Sheets account. With the excel app, you can import any data from an image.