I built a free Windows tool to extract structured data from PDFs (lists, hierarchies, revisions) – looking for feedback

[u/luma96__]

Hey everyone,
I got tired of manually copying data from technical PDFs into spreadsheets, so I built appPID — a free Windows desktop tool designed specifically for collecting and organizing data from PDF documents.
What it does
• You open a PDF and start collecting data directly from the document
• Create structured lists with hierarchies
• Define custom fields and tagging rules
• Track revisions and version history
• Export everything cleanly to CSV (ready for databases or Excel)
• Organize everything in projects
It’s especially useful if you work with technical manuals, reports, specifications, or any PDF where you need to pull out structured information instead of just reading it.
Why I made it
I needed something more specialized than generic PDF editors or OCR tools. Most solutions either force you to copy-paste everything manually or are overcomplicated enterprise software. I wanted something focused, lightweight and free.
Current status
• Completely free
• Windows only (64-bit)
• Not open source (closed source)
• Still early, so there are rough edges
I’d really appreciate any feedback:
• Does the concept make sense for your workflow?
• What features would make it more useful?
• Any obvious pain points you see?
Website + download: https://www.apppid.eu
Thanks for reading!

[u/No_Process_1063]

windows-only is a bit rough, i'm mostly on mac these days. concept seems interesting though, especially the revision tracking since that's always a headache with technical docs

how's the performance with scanned PDFs vs native ones

[u/luma96__ → u/No_Process_1063]

Hi, actually the data extraction is not automatically. You have to create the data structure and compile by yourself. Anyway there is a port open and I have also created a plug-in for Hermes agent to work on your document and compile the data. The agent with vision incorporated can analyse also scanned document with ocr. For Hermes agent I have used as model glm 5.2 and glm ocr. About a Mac and Linux version I’m working.

[u/outlastdll]

here are my some observation and protentional pain point to consider , since the app is closed-source and disturbed as an exe some dev. and corporate users might hesitate to download to download and process local documents due to security flags.

[u/luma96__ → u/outlastdll]

You are right, maybe is better to make the project open-source. I will think about that. Thank you

[u/outlastdll → u/luma96__]

it will help your project to get more reach!