Automate your PDF files with a PDF converter

This article is about PDF automation in connection with PDF creation. We take a look at the possibilities and advantages of a PDF converter that can automate a vast amount of functionalities surrounding PDF batch processing.

For users who need to process a high volume of documents, it is extremely helpful to have the option of adding additional steps to their workflow when working with PDF documents.

But let’s start at the beginning. PDF has become the standard when it comes to sharing documents and nowadays it is an easy task to create a PDF file. Most tools already contain a ‘save as PDF’ option. However, if you want to create a PDF from various sources (e.g. Microsoft Office, images, screen captures) and combine all of the files into one document, you need the right software that helps you to manage this easily and quickly. Provided the files are printable, you can use a PDF converter and generate a PDF.

After the PDF creation, you can take advantage of intelligent automation features that PDF automation software like PDFCreator has to offer.

On top of the ability to batch convert multiple files to PDF, many of the features that are included in PDFCreator can be automated. Let’s take a look at the most important ones:

If you don’t want to save your file, for example to save space on your local device or you want to save it and also send your PDF to a predefined e-mail address, you can set this up in the settings and it will be done automatically each time you convert a PDF. This can be done for different profiles, so depending on where you print from, you can choose individual settings. For example, you can send all your invoices to your billing e-mail address and automatically send reports to another address.

If you work with PDFs on a regular basis and they all have a similar pattern, user tokens can save you a lot of unnecessary steps and repetitions. They work as place holders for certain values which you define according to your requirements. This means that you can skip all interaction with your PDF converter as it automatically fills in these values.

One example would be, if you create many invoices as PDF, user tokens can automatically insert the invoice number, customer name, or other information in the file name of the invoice. This is easy to set up in a few steps.

It is possible to add multiple files as attachment pages to your PDF files. This can be preconfigured so that it all happens automatically before or after the conversion. You can also add additional attachments to e-mails sent with PDFCreator. This skips the step of sending an additional e-mail and it helps to keep everything gathered in one place.

You can also add multiple pages as cover or background pages to your PDFs. Depending on how many pages your cover or background file consists of, you select the type of repetition for the pages. This means, if your first page has a different layout than the rest of the pages, the first cover or background pages will be set, while the last one will be repeated until the end of the document.

 If you want to combine several PDF files to one, there is the option to auto-merge new files when you save to an existing file. What it means is that when the target file already exists, the new document will automatically be merged with the existing one, without any required interaction from you.

Another very practical and helpful feature is a user token for splitting a document. When inserting this token into a document, the PDF gets automatically split at the specified part where the token was placed, and a new document will be created with the subsequent content.

Data security and protection is one of the most important factors for companies and also for many private users who need to protect sensitive data. Therefore, the security aspect of the PDF format is one of the main reasons for its popularity. You can encrypt your PDF files and secure them with a password, and you can even digitally sign PDF files. All of this can be set up manually or automatically in PDFCreator.

An alternative option for data security is the possibility to add watermarks to your PDF files.

Another possibility in regards to security is uploading your files to an FTP server via SFTP. That means your data is end-to-end encrypted, which provides yet another layer of security.

PDFCreator is a desktop application that is installed and deployed in local IT infrastructures. Unlike SAAS and cloud solutions, that allow control in the companies' own network.

When using a Proxy Server, you have an extra level of security.

 Tip: On request we offer a solution for local environments for self-sufficient, independent work without having to rely on a cloud or internet connection.

PDFCreator allows any COM enabled application to make use of its functionality. It allows users to write their own C# scripts with access to the entire job data. These custom scripts can be integrated before and after the conversion. It allows full access to the .NET-framework and can reference compatible external libraries.

Many of the features mentioned above, along with several others can easily be integrated into your workflow with PDFCreator’s ‘Action’ function. It lets you quickly enable work steps (actions) and allows you to configure a custom order of how these actions will be executed before or after each conversion. This is a complete list of all available actions in the PDFCreator:

PDF automation helps you to improve a lot of your document-based processes. A PDF converter with automation

• includes the necessary features to process and automate a high volume of documents
• frees your workflow from repetitive steps
• lets you get to your goals faster by saving you time and money

Although you can use automation features in PDFCreator Free, in order to make the most of these features for your business, we recommend the use of one of our full-blown PDFCreator business editions that are available for every IT environment.

Intelligent PDF automation is used in many different industries that deal with a high volume of digital documents on a regular basis. , e.g. insurances, financial institutes and the healthcare sector. Regardless of which sector your business is in, if you are looking to batch process documents in a secure way and if your business could benefit from automating repetitive steps in your workflow, try PDFCreator yourself. Besides Adobe it has been THE number 1 tool that has been helping many companies worldwide for more than 15 years.