How to automate PDF tasks on many files

Automating PDF jobs in PDF by Zaweba is done with Tools > Actions. An Action is a saved list of steps that you run on a set of files, a whole folder or the open document, and for work that keeps arriving, Tools > Watched folders runs an Action on each new PDF dropped into a folder. Both work offline on your own PC.

Most people meet the need for this the same way. Fifty invoices need their hidden information stripped before they go out, or a box of scanned paperwork needs making smaller, and doing each file by hand takes the whole afternoon. Saving the steps once and letting the app repeat them is quicker and more consistent.

What an Action can do

The steps cover the jobs people repeat most. You can remove hidden information, sanitise, reduce the size, protect a file with a password or remove security, flatten, turn or delete pages, find and redact, set document details, calculate form fields, and export text, Word documents or pictures.

Four Actions come built in: Prepare for distribution, Optimise scanned documents, Prepare for web publishing, and Make accessible. They are a good starting point, and opening one shows you how steps fit together before you build your own.

Building and running an Action

Open Tools > Actions. Either pick a built-in Action or start a new one and add the steps you need in the order they should happen. Give it a clear name, such as "Clean and shrink for email", so you can find it later.

Choose what to run it on: a list of files, a folder, or just the document that's open. Running it on the open document first is a sensible test. Check the result, adjust the steps if anything is wrong, and then run it on the whole batch.

If you run an Action often, turn it into a command of its own. It then sits with the app's other commands, so it is there alongside the menus whenever you need it, rather than buried in the Actions list.

Order matters

Think about the sequence. Redact before you remove hidden information, so nothing of the redacted text survives in the leftovers. Reduce the size near the end, after pages have been deleted or turned, so the work isn't done twice. And protect with a password last, because a protected file may stop later steps from changing it.

Keep originals. An Action that deletes pages or flattens form fields changes files in ways you can't easily undo after saving, so run it on copies, or on a folder of copies, until you trust it.

When files keep arriving

For a steady stream rather than a single batch, use Tools > Watched folders. You link a folder to an Action, and while the app is open, each PDF put into that folder goes through the Action. The finished file goes into a Processed folder and the original is moved into Originals, so you always have both.

That suits a scanner that saves into a shared folder, or a colleague who drops in files for you to clean up. The only condition to remember is that the app has to be open for the folder to be watched.

Testing before the big run

Start small. Build an Action with two or three steps, test it, then add more. It is far easier to see which step caused a surprise when there are only a few.

Use the built-in Make accessible Action for a batch of reports, but still check each file's alternate text afterwards, since describing pictures well needs a person.

Between Actions and watched folders, PDF by Zaweba turns repetitive PDF work into something you set up once and then leave alone.