Why Converted PDF Tables Break in Excel and Word (And How to Fix '=SUM() = 0')

Converting PDF tables to Excel or Word often results in errors where =SUM() returns 0, numbers become dates, and accounting parentheses are treated as text. These issues disrupt data alignment for analysts. Separately, comparing PDF contracts is difficult because they lack track changes. While pixel or line comparisons exist, word-by-word analysis using Python, PyMuPDF, and difflib is the most reliable method to identify specific changes when text re-flows across different versions of a document.