Converting many files to PDFs at once
Convert a batch of files in one go with PDF by Zaweba, one PDF for each, saved into a folder you choose rather than opened one at a time.
Converting one file to PDF is easy. Converting forty is where the time goes, if you have to open each, choose the option, pick a name and save. PDF by Zaweba has a batch route for exactly that: it converts several files at once, one PDF each, into a folder you choose.
When batch conversion helps
Scans saved as pictures are a common case. A phone app or scanner may give you a folder full of JPEGs, one per document, and you want each as its own PDF for filing.
Notes and records are another. A folder of text or Markdown files, perhaps a year of meeting notes, can become a matching set of PDFs in one go.
Saved web pages and HTML reports are a third. Some programs export a report per customer or per month as HTML, and a PDF of each is easier to send and keep.
One PDF each, not one big PDF
This route makes a separate PDF for each file, which is the right choice when each file is its own document: an invoice, a receipt, a letter. If you want everything joined into one document instead, use File > Combine files, which gives one PDF with a bookmark for each original.
You can also do both. Convert the batch first, then combine the PDFs you need into a pack, while keeping the individual files for your records.
Folders in, folders out
Start with a clean folder of source files. Remove anything you do not want converted, and check the names, because the PDFs will be easier to find if the originals are named sensibly.
Choose an empty output folder. Putting the PDFs in their own folder keeps them apart from the originals and makes it obvious when the batch is done.
Run the conversion and then open a few of the results, especially the first and last and one from the middle. If they look right, the rest almost certainly do. If something is off, such as pages the wrong size, you can fix the settings and run it again without having touched the originals.
How each kind of file comes out
Each file is converted the way the matching single-file route would do it. Pictures get a page each at their own resolution, with JPEGs stored byte for byte so they lose nothing. Text files go onto A4 in Consolas, and Markdown files keep their headings, lists and code blocks. HTML files are printed to A4 with WebView2.
Knowing that helps you predict the result. If you want pictures on a standard paper size, for example, plan to change the page size afterwards.
After the batch
Once you have the PDFs, the rest of the app is ready. Open them in tabs and add stamps or notes. Combine a selection into a single pack. Export pages as pictures if someone needs them in another form.
Because everything happens offline, a batch of private documents such as bank statements or medical letters never leaves your PC.
Two batch slips to avoid
Do not send the output to the same folder as the inputs if you might run the batch again. Mixing PDFs and sources makes it easy to convert a PDF by mistake or lose track of what is new.
Do not assume a scan becomes searchable just because it is now a PDF. A picture of a page is still a picture until text is recognised.
With a clean folder in and an empty folder out, batch conversion in PDF by Zaweba turns an afternoon of clicking into a few seconds.
