Convert a folder of PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF

Our last post focused on quickly converting multiple PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF to Word. But what if you have dozens or even hundreds of PDF files in a folder that you need to convert to DOC? This kind of situation may call for a batch file.

What is a batch file? Simply put, a batch file is a script that can control programs on your computer. Solid Converter PDF has several options that can be controlled via batch files, including converting PDF files to DOC.

Convert all of the PDF files in a folder to DOC

To see this in action open up Notepad (Start | All Programs | Accessories | Notepad) and copy the two lines below into a blank page:

set scpdf="c:\Program Files\SolidDocuments\SolidConverterPDF\SCPDF\SolidConverterPDF.exe"
for %%p in (*.pdf) do %scpdf% /i ./%%p /n

Next, save the file in a folder that contains PDF files that you want to convert to DOC. We recommend using a name ending in .bat such as bulk_pdf_converter.bat.

You can then open My Computer, browse to the batch file you just made and double click it. A command prompt will appear and Solid Converter PDF will attempt to convert all of the PDF files that are in the same folder at the batch file to DOC.

More Information

If you want to learn about the command line options of Solid Converter PDF please visit the documentation page for it. You can learn more about batch files at http://www.computerhope.com/batch.htm.

PDF Timesavers: Convert Multiple PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF

Normally in Solid Converter PDF you'll use a wizard menu to convert PDF files to DOC. As you progress through this wizard many conversion options will be made available to you. This is useful if you convert PDF files infrequently, as it reminds you what options are available and provides an idea of what they do.

The downside to this is that if you have to convert several files (5, 10 or even more) you have to click through the wizard for each and every PDF file. This obviously isn't optimal.

A better solution is to disable the wizard in Solid Converter PDF to Word when you need to convert several PDF files to DOC. You can then select a range of PDF files in a folder and convert them all at once.

Convert Multiple PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF:

1. Open Solid Converter PDF and go into Options General Uncheck "Use Wizard" and "Launch Editor", then click OK.

2. Browse to a folder with several PDF files, use ctrl+click to select the PDF files you wish to convert and click the Convert button:



3. Select the folder you wish to place the converted Word DOCs and click OK. Your PDF files will be automatically converted to DOC.

If you're happy with the conversion you may wish to go back into the Options menu and re-enable the options you disabled in step 1.

Adobe Acrobat vs. Solid PDF Creator Plus: Password Protect an Existing PDF File

This comparison focuses on encrypting and password protecting an existing PDF file using Solid PDF Creator Plus and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional.

Both applications are more than up to the task. However, using the default settings of Adobe Acrobat require that you click through many popup windows to accomplish your goal.

Solid PDF Creator Plus is designed to reduce the amount of time it takes to accomplish a task, while at the same time protecting the end user from doing something that they may regret (overwriting an existing PDF file, making a typo in a password, providing undo wherever practical, etc.).

Please note that there are ways to crack password protection in PDF files. Although there is no perfect way to protect a PDF file, following the instructions below should protect your PDF file from most end users.


Solid PDF Creator Plus:

1. Open the PDF file you wish to protect in Solid PDF Creator Plus.

2. Go into Document | Document Properties | Security:



3. Check "Require user password to open the document":



4. Type in the password you want to secure the document with twice and click OK.

5. Save the file.

Your file will now require that you supply the password you entered in order to open it.


Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional:

1. Open the PDF file you wish to protect in Adobe Acrobat.

2. Go into Advanced | Security | Password Encrypt:



3. Click Yes:



4. Check "require a password to open the document".

5. Type in the password you want to secure the document with and click OK:



6. In the popup window that appears, type in the password again and click OK.

7. Click OK:



8. Save the file.

Your file will now require that you supply the password you entered in order to open it.

Adobe Acrobat vs. Solid PDF Creator Plus: Extracting Pages from a PDF File

This comparison focuses on extracting pages 1-10 and 20-30 from a PDF file and placing it in a new PDF file.

Why would you want to do this? You might have a price list or catalog that you want to customize for a customer. Or you might have some documentation that is rather large and you only need to refer to certain sections of it. Whatever your reason you can use both Solid PDF Creator Plus and Adobe Acrobat to accomplish this goal.

Adobe Acrobat allows you to do this with some effort. You need to extract each set of pages as PDF files, save them and then use a wizard to combine them into a single PDF file. In Solid PDF Creator Plus you simply select the page range you want to extract and in one easy step the pages are extracted into one PDF file ready to be saved. As a result performing this task in Solid PDF Creator Plus is both simpler and faster than in Adobe Acrobat.

Solid PDF Creator Plus:

1. Open the original PDF file in Solid PDF Creator Plus:



2. Go into Document | Extract Pages:



3. Select the page range (1-10,20-30) and click OK:



4. Your new PDF file will open in Solid PDF Creator Plus:



5. Save it if you are happy with it.


Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional:

1. Open the original PDF file in Adobe Acrobat:



2. Go into Document | Extract Pages:



3. Select a page range of 1-10 and click OK:



4. A new PDF file will appear in a new Adobe Acrobat Window. Save the file and close it:



5. Back in the original PDF file go into Document | Extract Pages.

6. Select a page range of 20-30 and click OK:



7. Save the second new file and close it:



8. Click Combine Files:



9. Click Add Files, select the files you extracted in the window that appears and click Add Files:



10. Select your compression options and click Next:



11. Select Merge files into a single PDF and click Create:



12. Review your new PDF file. Assuming that you're happy with it click Save:



13. Name your file and click Save:

CutePDF Professional vs. Solid PDF Creator Plus: Deleting a Page in a PDF File

This comparison focuses on deleting an individual page from a PDF file using CutePDF Professional and Solid PDF Creator Plus. If you haven't yet read the first post in this series, we recommend that you do so to see how Solid PDF Creator Plus performs. We also have a complete feature comparison of the free version of CutePDF verses Solid PDF Creator and Solid PDF Creator Plus which is well worth reading.

CutePDF allows you to delete a single page from a PDF file, and so does Solid PDF Creator Plus. The main difference between them is in how you are forced to accomplish the task. In Solid PDF Creator Plus you can simply select a page and press delete. In Cute PDF Professional you have to go through several menus to delete a single page.

If you need to perform complicated or large operations, a menu is really useful (We put one for deleting pages in Solid PDF Creator Plus for this reason). When you just need to work with a page or two, a WYSIWYG interface is faster, more intuitive and easier to use.

CutePDF Professional:

1. Open PDF file in Cute PDF Professional:



2. Click Page Tool | Delete Pages:



3. Select the Page you wish to delete and click OK:



.. and the page is deleted.

4. If you need to undo the operation, you can click the undo button:

Adobe Acrobat vs. Solid PDF Creator Plus: Deleting a Page in a PDF File

As we just released a new PDF creation and modification utility (Solid PDF Creator Plus), we thought it might be helpful to compare how certain features of the product compare with our competitor's products.

This comparison focuses on deleting an individual page from a PDF file using Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional and Solid PDF Creator Plus.

Although both applications allow you to delete pages, Adobe Acrobat does not let you undo a page deletion. Rather, each time you attempt to delete a page it offers a pop-up message that you need to click to confirm that you really want to delete it.

Solid PDF Creator Plus allows you to delete pages as needed. Should you make a mistake you can easily reverse the change by using undo.

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional:

1. Open PDF file and click the Pages button:



2. Select a page and press the delete key.

3. Click OK when prompted:


(Click image for full size view)

...and the page is deleted:



4. Decide that you want to undo the page deletion? Unfortunately, this isn't available in Acrobat.


Solid PDF Creator Plus:

1. Open PDF file and click the Pages button:



2. Select a page and press the delete key.

...and the page is deleted:



3. Decide that you want to undo the page deletion? Go into Edit | Undo and the page will be put back:

Creating Archivable PDF/A Files using Solid PDF Creator

One of the features in the new version of Solid PDF Creator is the ability to create PDF/A compliant documents.

What is a PDF/A file? Why does this matter to me?

Many, if not the majority of, businesses are sold on the benefits of storing their documents digitally. However, most digital storage and management systems have one major flaw: long-term reproducibility is not guaranteed.

This is where the PDF/A standard comes into play. It's a subset of the PDF standard, optimized for the long term archival of documents. They are always device and operating system independent, provide guaranteed color reproduction and contain everything needed to accurately display them.

PDF/A files must include:

- Embedded fonts
- Device-independent color
- XMP metadata

This allows them to achieve the above goal, accurately reproducing documents long after the computers and software that produced them are no longer available.

PDF/A files must not include:

- Encryption
- LZW compression
- Embedded files
- External content references
- Transparency
- Multi-media
- JavaScript

All of the above items can exist in standard PDF files, which may make them less suited to archival than a PDF/A file.

Using Solid PDF Creator to Create Archivable PDF/A Files:

Once you've purchased and installed the latest version of Solid PDF Creator go into Start Control Panel Printers (Printers and Faxes in Windows XP).

In the folder that appears you'll see all of your installed printers. Right click the Solid PDF Creator printer driver and select Printing Preferences.

In the window that appears, go into the Compliance tab and select "PDF/A-1b...":


(click image for full size view)

You have the option of either canceling PDF creation or just displaying a warning when you attempt to create a file that will not be PDF/A compliant. Click OK to close the window.

Once this is complete, simply print your documents to the Solid PDF Creator printer driver and it will attempt to create PDF/A compliant files from them.

Alternately, you can also create PDF/A files without changing the default settings above. To do so, print to the Solid PDF Creator printer driver from your Windows application.

When the Create PDF window appears, click "PDF files..." next to Save as type and select "PDF/A files...":


(click image for full size view)

Next, click the Create button to make the PDF/A file. This is useful when you only need to create PDF/A compliant files occasionally.

Comparing Adobe Reader to Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF

In order to view a PDF file, you need a PDF reader (theoretically you could use Solid Converter PDF to Word to convert it to DOC and view it, but this is not needed if you just need to view the document and not edit it).

Most customers we work with are using the free Adobe Reader, but we've heard a great deal about some alternate readers out there. The two most commonly mentioned alternatives are Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF.

Why would you want to use a PDF reader other than Adobe Reader? Unfortunately, Adobe Reader isn't the fastest program on earth and it can take up more memory than you'd like. The alternative programs available try to provide a PDF with a smaller footprint on your computer.

There are workarounds to improve this (If you're curious try googling "speed up Adobe Reader"), but most people just want to install a program and go.

With the introduction out of the way, let's see how the readers compare:

Training tips:
(you can download the PDF at http://www.soliddocuments.com/samples/pdf_cadtips.pdf)

- Viewed in Adobe Reader 8


(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~34MB.

- Viewed in Foxit

(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~11MB.

- Viewed in Sumatra PDF


(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~14MB.

Foxit Reader is almost as good as Adobe in this case, but Sumatra fails to render the tables correctly.


Legal document:
(you can download the PDF at http://www.soliddocuments.com/samples/pdf_dmca.pdf)

- Viewed in Adobe Reader 8


(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~42MB.

- Viewed in Foxit

(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~10MB.

- Viewed in Sumatra PDF

(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~20MB.

In this case neither Sumatra nor Foxit rendered the text correctly.


Product information sheet:
You can download the PDF at http://www.soliddocuments.com/samples/pdf_turbocad.pdf)

- Viewed in Adobe Reader 8


(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~54MB.

- Viewed in Foxit

(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~21MB.

- Viewed in Sumatra PDF


(click image for full size)

Memory used on our test machine: ~38MB.

The image in this PDF is rendered correctly by Adobe Reader and Foxit, but not by Sumatra PDF.


Clearly Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF are more lightweight programs than Adobe Reader. Although neither program felt significantly more responsive to us than Adobe Reader did, your mileage may vary. On a computer with 256-512MBs of RAM, either one might be a good alternative if you really need to squeeze out as much performance as possible.

If you have RAM to spare, we'd honestly recommend sticking with Adobe Reader. If you want to ensure that a PDF file looks and prints as it should we don't see an alternative to Adobe Reader at this point.

Creating Encrypted PDF files using Solid Converter PDF

PDF files can contain information with varying levels of sensitivity.

You may have flyers that you wish anyone and everyone to open, print and use as needed. Or you may have documents that only a few key individuals should be able to open. You may also have files that you want people to be able to view, but not change using a PDF editor (invoices come to mind, as you don't want people to remove a couple zeros from a bill you sent them).

PDF files can be secured easily, restricting the options of most users. Please note that no encryption technology [wikipedia.org] is perfect, and there is software available that people can use to illicitly crack PDF files. The steps below can make it much harder for people to open or alter your documents, but they will not make it impossible.

This guide assumes that you have Solid Converter PDF v3 Professional installed. If you have not purchased the program, you can download a free 15 day trial [soliddocuments.com].

1. Open the document you wish to convert to PDF and go into File | Print | Select the Solid Converter PDF printer driver and click OK.

Below is an example window of what this looks like in Microsoft Word 2003:



2. In the window that appears, select the name and location of your PDF file, check "Prompt for password and security settings" and click Create:



The next window that appears will have several security options. If you feel intimidated don't worry; we'll narrow down things very quickly.


(Configuring security settings in a PDF file using Solid Converter PDF to Word)

3. First, determine if you need to prevent someone from opening your new PDF file without a password, or doing something with the PDF without a password (print, edit, extract contents, etc).

- If you need to do the former, check "Require user password to open the document" and enter a user password. Anyone who wants to open the PDF file in Adobe Reader will need this password.

- If you need to do the latter, check "Use owner password to restrict printing, editing and extraction". Next, enter an owner password and uncheck the items that you don't want people to do.

You can restrict:

• Printing (printing the document to a paper printer, for example).
• Editing of contents (changing the PDF file using a PDF editor).
• Copying and extraction of contents (to prevent copy/pasting from the PDF file, or using a program to convert the PDF to DOC).
• Adding or editing of comments.

4. Finally, you can set the encryption level at the top of the window. If you select either password option it will automatically default to "High (128-bit RC4)". Opening this kind of file requires Adobe Reader 5.0 or higher.

If you want to apply a stronger encryption method, select the drop down menu next to Encryption Level and select "High (128-bit AES)". This requires that viewers of the file have Adobe Reader 7.x or higher installed (you may download the latest Adobe Reader for free [adobe.com]).

Finally, you can select a weak encryption method (40-bit RC4), but we don't recommend this, unless you have to make the PDF file display in Adobe Acrobat 3 or 4.

5. Once you've setup how you want to secure the PDF file, click OK and the file will be created.

What is the PDF File Format?

If a file has an extension of .pdf then it most likely using the Portable Document Format (PDF), developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. PDF files maintain the original document formatting for both printing and viewing on a multiple computing platforms, including Windows, UNIX and Mac.

Viewing PDFs

An easy way to view PDF files is to download the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader,which is free software for viewing and printing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files on major hardware and operating system platforms.

PDF Navigation Features

Certain features built into the PDF specification allow authors to expand the usefulness of a document. For example, you can add bookmarks, thumbnails of each page, internal and external links, form fields, article threads, buttons for navigation, notes to annotate information, and views to magnify or reduce a page to fit within the user's computer screen. PDF allows users to magnify up to 800% on screen with no loss of clarity.

PDF Size and Performance

For the Web, smaller files are better since download time depends on file size. PDF files can be optimized to reduce file sizes and can create files up to 80% smaller than their HTML counterparts.

PDF files can be "linearized" to allow the user to start viewing the document before it is fully downloaded, similar to the process used to deliver streaming video over the internet.

PDF can be interwoven seamlessly into most Web sites. This combination of HTML and PDF formats enables authors to serve content in its most appropriate format based on the demands of content versus technology. Also, on most popular Web servers there is no compression, translation, or filtering penalty for serving PDF files.

PDF Security

PDF has a well-established security feature set. Authors of PDF files can prevent users from editing, printing, and/or copying content (text and graphics). Software developers can create their own software to read, create, or modify PDF files without special permission or licensing. The only condition that Adobe insists on is that the document author's PDF security settings be respected.