Convert Text to Table

With the Text To Table Converter Add-On, you can effortlessly transform plain text into a proper table. It handles everything from neatly structured CSV data and basic Markdown tables to less organized text, all directly within Google Docs™, Google Slides™, and Google Sheets™.

Note

Looking to copy a table directly from a PDF? Check out our blog post: How to copy a table from PDF to Google Docs™.

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Convert Unstructured Text to a Table

Dealing with unstructured text from emails or websites? The Selected Text to Table function uses AI to analyze and organize it into a table.

This capability also extends to converting text already formatted as JSON, YAML, HTML, or XML.

Example: Messy Contact List

Consider this text copied from an email or a document:

Alice Johnson (HR) [email protected] Bob Smith (IT), [email protected], Clara Lee (FIN), [email protected], David Kim (MKT), [email protected], Emma Davis (OPS), [email protected], Frank Miller (ENG), [email protected], Grace Chen (R&D), [email protected], Henry Walker (QA), [email protected], Irene Scott (SALES), [email protected], Jack Turner (CS), [email protected]

Steps to Convert:

1. Select the unstructured text you want to convert within your document.

   

2. Go to Extensions > Text To Table Converter > 🔤 ➜ 🔡 Selected Text to Table.

Result:

The Add-On analyzes the selected text and inserts a structured table below it, extracting the key information it identifies:

Tip

This feature is particularly useful for quickly organizing lists, contact details, meeting notes, or any text where information isn’t neatly delimited.

Define Column Headers

You can further instruct the Add-On to split the data into predefined column headers.

As an example, we can split the employee name into ‘First Name’ and ‘Last Name’.

Result:

Convert Structured Text to a Table

Structured text typically uses consistent separators (like commas, tabs, or semicolons) for columns and new lines for rows. Our Add-On makes converting this easy using the 🔤 ➜ 🔡 Selected Text to Table feature. Note that this feature does not rely on AI usage if the text is clearly structured.

1. Select your text Highlight the block of structured text within your Google Docs™, Google Slides™, or Google Sheets™ file that you wish to convert into a table.

   Example Text:

   First Name,Last Name,Department,E-Mail
   Alice,Johnson,HR,[email protected]
   Bob,Smith,IT,[email protected]
   Clara,Lee,FIN,[email protected]
   David,Kim,MKT,[email protected]

   Tip

   By default, the add-on intelligently decides when to use AI. It processes clearly structured text using its standard parser and only activates AI for messy data. You can override this behavior and force AI processing for all text via the settings.

   

2. Run the Converter Navigate through the menu: Extensions > Text To Table Converter > 🔤 ➜ 🔡 Selected Text to Table.

   

3. View the Result The Add-On will instantly create and insert a new table based on your selected text, usually placing it right below your original selection.

   

Managing AI Permissions

Because converting unstructured text relies on AI, the add-on is configured by default to automatically use AI when needed.

You have full control over this. In the settings, you can change this to Ask, which will prompt you for permission before each AI operation, or to Deny, which will disable all AI features entirely.

Language & Settings: AI Permissions

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Handling Commas Within Your Data

What if your data for a single cell needs to contain a comma? For example, you might list multiple email addresses in one field: [email protected], [email protected].

Solution: To prevent the comma from being treated as a column separator, simply enclose the entire cell’s content in double quotes ("). Our Selected Text to Table feature recognizes this standard convention (CSV standard RFC 4180) and will keep the quoted text together in a single cell.

Example:

First Name,Last Name,Department,E-Mail
Alice,Johnson,HR,[email protected]
Bob,Smith,IT,[email protected]
Clara,Lee,FIN,[email protected]
David,Kim,MKT,"[email protected], [email protected]"

Resulting Table Cell:

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Text to Table Options (Settings)

The Add-On includes powerful options to give you precise control over the final table. You can adjust these settings by navigating to Extensions > Text To Table Converter > ⚙️ Language & Settings.

Language & Settings

In the settings dialog, click on the Text to Table Options accordion to see the available options.

Always use AI

This is a primary processing control. By default, the Add-On is smart about when to use AI, applying a standard parser for clearly structured text (like CSV) and only activating AI for messy, unstructured text.

Enabling this option forces every conversion through the AI processor, even for text that looks well-structured. This is useful if your “structured” text has subtle inconsistencies, or if you want to apply other AI-powered refinements (like date formatting or grammar correction) to all your data.

• Inactive (Default): Only use AI for messy text, not for text with clear delimiters (e.g., CSV).
• Active: Always use AI, even for text with clear delimiters (e.g., CSV).

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Enable AI Refinement

This master switch, enabled by default, controls a suite of advanced AI formatting options. Disabling it will make AI conversions faster but more basic. When enabled, you gain precise control over the final table with the following settings:

Table Orientation Preference

This setting controls how the extracted data is arranged in the resulting table. It is especially relevant for lists of key-value pairs.

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Row-Based

Each row is a complete set of facts for one data item. Each column is a dimension.

Example input:

Subject Biology Teacher Mr. Darwin Room 101
Subject Physics Teacher Mrs. Curie Room 204

Row-Based Result:

Subject	Teacher	Room
Biology	Mr. Darwin	101
Physics	Mrs. Curie	204

In this example, there are 3 dimensions (Subject, Teacher, Room) and 2 sets of facts (Biology…, Physics…).

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Column-Based

Each row is a dimension, listed in the first column. Each column after that contains the facts for one data item.

Example:

Subject Biology Teacher Mr. Darwin Room 101
Subject Physics Teacher Mrs. Curie Room 204

Column-Based Result:

Property	Biology	Physics
Teacher	Mr. Darwin	Mrs. Curie
Room	101	204

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Auto-Detect

The AI analyzes the data and chooses the most logical structure, which is typically Row-Based.

Date & Time Formatting

This option finds any cells that look like dates or times and standardizes them to a consistent format. If a cell contains only a date, it will not add a default time (like 00:00).

• Off: No formatting is applied.
• Auto-Detect: The AI detects the most common format in your data and applies it to all date/time cells.
• Specific Formats (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss): Forces all dates and times into the exact format you choose.

Number Formatting

This standardizes how numbers are displayed, which is especially useful for data with mixed decimal or thousand separators.

• Off: No formatting is applied.
• Auto-Detect: The AI detects the most common number style in your data (e.g., 1,234.56 vs 1.234,56) and applies it consistently.
• Specific Formats: Forces all numbers into the chosen style.

Data Cleaning

Select one or more actions to clean up text data in your table. The actions are performed in order.

• Trim Whitespace: Removes extra spaces from the beginning and end of each cell.
• Remove Currency Symbols: Strips currency symbols (like $, €, £) from cells.
• Case Formatting (To Title Case, to lower case, TO UPPER CASE): Converts text to the selected case. You can only choose one case formatting option at a time.

Correct Spelling & Grammar

When checked, the AI will proofread and correct spelling and grammatical errors in text cells, improving the overall quality and readability of your table content.

Convert Markdown Text to a Table

The versatile Selected Text to Table function also recognizes and converts basic Markdown table syntax.

1. Select Markdown Table Text Select the text formatted as a Markdown table in your document.

   Example Markdown:

   | Customer    | Order         | Milk           | Notes                      |
   |-------------|---------------|----------------|----------------------------|
   | Alice       | Latte         | Oat            | *Extra shot requested*     |
   | Bob         | Americano     | **None**       |                            |
   | Charlie     | Cappuccino    | ~~Soy~~ Almond | Use `promo_code_BOGO`      |
   | Diana       | Flat White    | Whole          | **Decaf**; *Handle w/ care* |

   

2. Run the Converter Navigate through the menu: Extensions > Text To Table Converter > 🔤 ➜ 🔡 Selected Text to Table.

3. View the Result The Add-On creates a table based on the Markdown structure, applying common formatting like bold, italics, strikethrough, and code styles found within the cells.

More on Markdown Table Conversion

For a more detailed look at converting Markdown tables, including comparisons with native features in Google Docs™ and specific considerations for each application, please see our dedicated blog posts:

• Markdown Tables in Google Docs™
• Markdown Tables in Google Slides™
• Markdown Tables in Google Sheets™

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