Need to automatically batch convert .doc to .pdf (Any platform)

Forums › Desktop computing › Need to automatically batch convert .doc to .pdf (Any platform)

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
8476 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#21327 23-Apr-2008 08:41

With OSX, Linux and Windows at my disposal, I have about 1000 Word 2003 documents that require converting to .pdf.

To save some poor sap at work (and it won't be me if it comes down to it - I can tell you that for free right now!) from manually doing it with Office PDF addin or OOo or something equally tedious - are there any free/oss ways of doing this in one hit?

Would love to hear about it. Have seen some commercial software, but this needs to be a zero-budget project.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80646 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41030

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#125775 23-Apr-2008 08:50

Check PDF995. They have some good tools - I have their software for PDF generation from any Windows software.

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

chiefie

I iz your trusted friend
5877 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 151

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#125786 23-Apr-2008 09:14

If cost is not the issue, Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard or Professional has batch process (and you can code the macro yourself).

Also when producing PDF, make sure the metadata are filled. A timesaving tip is make sure the source documents were properly metatagged.

Internet is my backyard...

«Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...»

Please read the Geekzone's FUG

HairyScot

182 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#125808 23-Apr-2008 10:32

Perhaps something like CutePDF writer can be customised to perform unattended operation.

www.cutepdf.com

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 555

#125886 23-Apr-2008 13:53

If you allready have one of those Print to PDF programs installed you could probably make the "PDF Printer" your default printer, then select all the files in explorer, right click on the highlighted files and choose "Print" ... would gues it would send all the files to the PDFing virtual printer ... then go have lunch.

Mark

PS. Not tried it as I've started a new job and have no software installed yet :-)

gehenna

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#125896 23-Apr-2008 14:33

Mark: If you allready have one of those Print to PDF programs installed you could probably make the "PDF Printer" your default printer, then select all the files in explorer, right click on the highlighted files and choose "Print" ... would gues it would send all the files to the PDFing virtual printer ... then go have lunch.

Mark

PS. Not tried it as I've started a new job and have no software installed yet :-)

you'd need to script that somehow as each print job would open a save dialog box asking for a filename to write to.

chiefie

I iz your trusted friend
5877 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 151

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#125905 23-Apr-2008 15:27

Which is why I suggest Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard/Professional and use the batch processing function, where you can tell it to save PDF files with their original filename.

Internet is my backyard...

«Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...»

Please read the Geekzone's FUG

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

xcubed

195 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 17

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#125915 23-Apr-2008 16:07

I can recommend PDF Factory 2 as a cheap solution. It allows you to automate a lot of the options by setting registry keys.

I wrote a VBScript a while ago that takes a bunch of .DOC files, opens them in Word by using COM, and prints them to the PDF Factory printer. (Sorry I don't have the source code around, but it was pretty straightforward).

Carey

SightUnseen

130 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#125920 23-Apr-2008 16:58

tonyhughes: With OSX, Linux and Windows at my disposal, I have about 1000 Word 2003 documents that require converting to .pdf.

To save some poor sap at work (and it won't be me if it comes down to it - I can tell you that for free right now!) from manually doing it with Office PDF addin or OOo or something equally tedious - are there any free/oss ways of doing this in one hit?

Would love to hear about it. Have seen some commercial software, but this needs to be a zero-budget project.

How complex are the Word documents? Automator in Mac OS X will do this relatively easily, but you will have to use TextEdit to open the files, so if they're mainly or exclusively text, no problems. Otherwise, find a Student Job Search person ;-)

Edit:

A quick search revealed this: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070315023808642

If you have Office 2004 (which supports macros) this should work just fine.

The blog that never changes

exportgoldman

1202 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3

Trusted

#125944 23-Apr-2008 18:44

Doing a google search for "batch convert doc to pdf" or "batch convert doc to pdf open source" had a whole lot of good options.

Here is a open source one which has code examples for all programming languages to automate

http://www.print-driver.com/sdk/

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.