# Quickstart: Your First Structured Table, Step by Step > The shortest path through the web app from creating an account to exporting your first structured table: sign up, upload a file, choose or accept the columns, process it, check the result, and download it as an Excel workbook. This is the shortest path through the web app, from creating an account to holding your first structured table. Each step links to the page that explains it in full — this page keeps only the sequence. The walkthrough uses the default **To Table** mode and a single document. ## Step 1 — Create an account or log in Click **Log In** in the site header to open the sign-in page. If you are new, click **No account? Sign up** to switch to the registration form and fill in **Username**, **Email**, **Password**, and **Confirm Password**. New accounts are confirmed by a six-digit code sent to your email: type it into the **Enter code** dialog and click **Verify**. Already have an account? Stay on the sign-in form, enter your details, and click **Log In**. You can also use **Sign in with Google** instead of a password. Either way, you land on the dashboard. ## Step 2 — Upload your first file On the dashboard, open the **Files** panel and add a file. Click **Upload** to choose one, or drag files onto the drop area that reads *Drop Images/PDF/Word/TXT here or click to upload*. A PDF is held back first: the **Select PDF Pages** dialog opens so you can tick the pages you want and click **Confirm Selection (N)**. When the upload finishes, the app shows *Upload complete!* and asks *Process now?*. The full set of supported types, the other ways to add files, and the per-batch page cap are on [Uploading Documents](/docs/guides/uploading-documents). For a first run, one image or one page is the easiest starting point. ## Step 3 — What happens if you don't pick a template [**Columns**](/docs/reference/glossary#column) are the values **To Table** mode extracts: you name what you want and the AI fills it in. A saved list of columns is a [**template**](/docs/reference/glossary#template). You do not have to prepare one before your first upload — the app covers the empty case for you, and what it does depends on how many files are in the [batch](/docs/reference/glossary#batch): - **A template with columns is already selected.** Processing uses that column list; go straight to Step 4. - **No columns yet, and the batch has two or more files.** When you start processing, the **AI-Suggested Columns** dialog opens first. It reads a sample of your files and proposes a column list; review the names, edit, add, or delete any of them, then click **Apply & Process**. The columns are saved into the template and processing begins. - **No columns yet, and the batch has a single file.** No suggestion dialog appears. Processing starts directly and the AI works out the table structure from the document itself, so there is no column list to approve first. You can also name the columns yourself at any time in the **Data Columns** panel using **Add Column**. See [Templates & Columns](/docs/concepts/templates-and-columns) for how columns are named, ordered, and saved, and [Custom Columns](/docs/concepts/custom-columns) for columns that calculate or infer a value instead of reading one directly. The API handles this differently: leaving out both a template and a column list always lets the AI infer the columns, with no suggestion step in between. That path is documented on the [API quickstart](/developers/quickstart). ## Step 4 — Process and view the result Processing begins when you click **Start** in the *Process now?* prompt, **Apply & Process** in the suggestion dialog, or **Run** on the batch header (its tooltip reads *Process N images*). Each file moves from queued to processing and then to completed, and the batch's status panel counts the **Done**, **Running**, and **Error** files as it goes. Processing a file uses [credits](/docs/reference/glossary#credits), which is why the Run tooltip names the cost. To read a result, select the file in the **Files** panel; the extracted table appears in the results panel alongside it. Click **Review** (its tooltip reads *Review Extracted Data*) to open the full-screen **Review Extracted Data** dialog, where the table sits above the original document so you can check each value against its source and correct it in place. The full walkthrough is on [Review & Verification](/docs/guides/review-and-verification), and [Batches](/docs/concepts/batches) explains what the statuses mean. ## Step 5 — Export the result Every batch header carries a download control labelled **Exp** (tooltip *Export batch data*). Click it and the app checks that the batch has finished before preparing the file and downloading it through your browser. To export several batches together, click **Export** at the top of the **Files** panel, tick the batches in the **Batch Export** dialog, and click **Export Selected (N)**. A **To Table** batch comes back as an Excel workbook (`.xlsx`). There is no format choice at export time — the file follows the mode the batch was processed in, so a To Table batch never produces a Word document. The formats, the completeness check before a single-batch export, and the [Multi-Page Merge](/docs/concepts/multi-page-merge) confirmation are all covered on [Export](/docs/guides/export). ## Next steps The pages that explain what you just did in full: - [Uploading Documents](/docs/guides/uploading-documents) — file types, the PDF page picker, drag and drop, and which batch a file joins. - [Templates & Columns](/docs/concepts/templates-and-columns) — saving a column list, reordering it, and reusing a template. - [Custom Columns](/docs/concepts/custom-columns) — columns that calculate or infer a value rather than read one. - [Review & Verification](/docs/guides/review-and-verification) — locating a value on the image and restoring an original value. - [Export](/docs/guides/export) — single and multi-batch export, and the completeness check. - [Batches](/docs/concepts/batches) — what a batch is and how it progresses. For term lookup and the hard limits, see [Glossary](/docs/reference/glossary) and [Limits & Specs](/docs/reference/limits-and-specs). --- Source: https://imagetotable.ai/docs/quickstart