Can I use DevonThink to apply OCR to a PDF without importing it?

DEVONthink
1

I’ve started getting into using Hazel. I would like to run a series of scripts on my downloads folder to:

-Unzip anything dropped there
-Check for PDFs
-Check if they have been OCR’d yet or not
-If not, Apply OCR and trash the original PDF
-Then decide where to file it (depending on content it will go to DT or elsewhere)

I know that I can apply OCR to PDFs imported into DTP, but I’m not sure if I would like to import all of them yet. That determination happens after OCR. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to make this happen?

Thanks.

2

You could index the Downloads folder, a smart rule could be used to process not yet searchable PDF documents then:

Screenshot 2020-07-27 at 10.20.14
Screenshot 2020-07-27 at 10.20.141344×688 117 KB

2 Likes
3

Great start, thanks!
If I understand correctly this will only apply the OCR the next time I open DT, right? Is there any way to engage the OCR engine automatically with a script - maybe using Hazel or Keyboard Maestro?
Appreciate it.

4

A script would launch DEVONthink too. But a folder action in the Finder should be able to perform this. However, folder actions are not always that reliable, I would definitely recommend to use smart rules instead.