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Documents, spreadsheets, and data conversion

PDF and document tools, spreadsheets, CSV and tabular data, extraction, conversion, and document automation.

2,910 stories · 76 in 30 days · Updated Sep 28, 2026

The pace of conversation

Posts per month

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2020-012026-09

Posts per month · first and latest months may be partial.

01 / EXPLORE THROUGH TIME

Timeline

Start with the latest. Scroll back through time, or zoom in for more.

Year by yearUp to 5 stories per year
2026564 stories
Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell↗ techcommunity.microsoft.com · HN · 194 comments · 275 points · Sep 25, 2026
Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions↗ github.com · HN · 79 comments · 211 points · Jul 31, 2026
Sheets: Terminal based spreadsheet tool↗ github.com · HN · 54 comments · 208 points · Apr 04, 2026
VisiCalc Reconstructed↗ zserge.com · HN · 80 comments · 231 points · Mar 17, 2026
10 years of personal finances in plain text files↗ sgoel.dev · HN · 193 comments · 502 points · Jan 02, 2026
2025482 stories
Claude for Excel↗ claude.com · HN · 459 comments · 684 points · Oct 27, 2025
I only use Google Sheets↗ mayberay.bearblog.dev · HN · 353 comments · 370 points · Oct 01, 2025
So you want to parse a PDF?↗ eliot-jones.com · HN · 230 comments · 408 points · Aug 03, 2025
PDF to Text, a challenging problem↗ marginalia.nu · HN · 201 comments · 357 points · May 13, 2025
Mathesar – an intutive spreadsheet-like interface to Postgres data↗ github.com · HN · 80 comments · 323 points · Jan 30, 2025
2024418 stories
I keep turning my Google Sheets into phone-friendly webapps↗ arstechnica.com · HN · 228 comments · 708 points · Dec 30, 2024
IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine↗ ironcalc.com · HN · 227 comments · 726 points · Nov 09, 2024
Diff-pdf: tool to visually compare two PDFs↗ github.com · HN · 80 comments · 589 points · Jul 02, 2024
Spreadsheets are all you need↗ spreadsheets-are-all-you-need.ai · HN · 164 comments · 1493 points · Mar 14, 2024
Making a PDF that's larger than Germany↗ alexwlchan.net · HN · 149 comments · 712 points · Jan 31, 2024
2023333 stories
Show HN: Fill and sign PDF from any website with a single line of code↗ simplepdf.github.io · HN · 2 comments · 16 points · Dec 30, 2023
Stirling-PDF: local web application to perform various operations on PDFs↗ github.com · HN · 231 comments · 507 points · Dec 25, 2023
The pivot table, the spreadsheet's most powerful tool (2020)↗ qz.com · HN · 4 comments · 18 points · Oct 09, 2023
Modern CSV version 2 is now available↗ moderncsv.com · HN · 2 comments · 17 points · Aug 15, 2023
Show HN: Invoice Dragon – An Open Source App to Create PDF Invoices for Free↗ invoicedragon.com · HN · 8 comments · 30 points · Jul 25, 2023
2022347 stories
Excel is pretty dang cool↗ buttondown.email · HN · 253 comments · 376 points · Aug 12, 2022
GnuCash – Open-source personal and small-business accounting software↗ gnucash.org · HN · 151 comments · 331 points · Jul 18, 2022
Grist – Open core alternative to Airtable and Google Sheets↗ github.com · HN · 107 comments · 580 points · Feb 18, 2022
No one cared about my spreadsheets↗ econlib.org · HN · 392 comments · 341 points · Feb 15, 2022
Free public domain ebooks in PDf, ePub, mobi formats↗ globalgreyebooks.com · HN · 80 comments · 337 points · Feb 15, 2022
2021332 stories
Show HN: Tidy Viewer – a cross-platform CSV pretty printer for viewer enjoyment↗ github.com · HN · 136 comments · 391 points · Sep 27, 2021
Spreadsheet formulas for personal finance↗ bou.ke · HN · 117 comments · 616 points · Aug 02, 2021
The Tyranny of Spreadsheets↗ timharford.com · HN · 276 comments · 405 points · Jul 22, 2021
Show HN: PDFs from HTML↗ pdf.math.dev · HN · 265 comments · 742 points · Apr 04, 2021
Excel Never Dies↗ notboring.co · HN · 300 comments · 429 points · Mar 08, 2021
2020434 stories
What's so hard about PDF text extraction?↗ filingdb.com · HN · 235 comments · 406 points · Sep 13, 2020
Show HN: SheetUI – Turn Google Sheets into Web Pages↗ sheetui.com · HN · 147 comments · 425 points · Jul 07, 2020
Dangerzone: Convert potentially dangerous PDFs, documents, or images to safe PDF↗ github.com · HN · 56 comments · 317 points · Mar 08, 2020
What's so hard about PDF text extraction?↗ filingdb.com · HN · 342 comments · 733 points · Mar 03, 2020
Wildcard: Spreadsheet-Driven Customization of Web Applications↗ geoffreylitt.com · HN · 50 comments · 400 points · Feb 27, 2020
Scroll through time ↕

02 / CATCH UP

The conversation now

Popular stories, with attention fading over roughly two weeks.

Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell↗ techcommunity.microsoft.com · HN · 194 comments · 275 points · Sep 25, 2026
Every invoice in Brazil's economy runs on SOAP 1.2↗ github.com · HN · 74 comments · 90 points · Sep 13, 2026
Show HN: Gdocs-me-up: a high-fidelity Google Docs exporter↗ github.com · HN · 8 comments · 23 points · Sep 21, 2026
LibreOffice dev explains why it cannot display some Microsoft Office charts↗ neowin.net · HN · 2 comments · 18 points · Sep 22, 2026
A browser-based viewer for Office Open XML documents↗ ooxml.silurus.dev · HN · 13 comments · 55 points · Sep 01, 2026

03 / GO DEEPER

Follow your curiosity

Find a particular story, revisit a year, or see what resonated.

Highest rated · the last 30 days

Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell↗ techcommunity.microsoft.com · HN · 194 comments · 275 points · Sep 25, 2026
Every invoice in Brazil's economy runs on SOAP 1.2↗ github.com · HN · 74 comments · 90 points · Sep 13, 2026
Kale: A Transformation-Safe Spreadsheet System↗ arxiv.org · HN · 21 comments · 57 points · Sep 01, 2026
A browser-based viewer for Office Open XML documents↗ ooxml.silurus.dev · HN · 13 comments · 55 points · Sep 01, 2026
Show HN: Gdocs-me-up: a high-fidelity Google Docs exporter↗ github.com · HN · 8 comments · 23 points · Sep 21, 2026
LibreOffice dev explains why it cannot display some Microsoft Office charts↗ neowin.net · HN · 2 comments · 18 points · Sep 22, 2026
A4 paper format / International standard paper sizes (2025)↗ cl.cam.ac.uk · HN · 1 comments · 9 points · Sep 26, 2026
Show HN: Pull every comment out of a Google Sheet, in the browser↗ bensunter.com · HN · 1 comments · 7 points · Sep 14, 2026
Show HN: PDFidelity – Translate PDFs while preserving the original layout↗ pdfidelity.com · HN · 1 comments · 7 points · Sep 12, 2026
Show HN: Paper-docx – agent-native Python-docx fork with 78% fewer DOCX failures↗ github.com · HN · 0 comments · 6 points · Sep 25, 2026

10 stories shown.

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