Thanks for catching the unnecessary OCR! - in fact, it even degrades the pdf quality, I think. So I changed the DT action to just import and delete.
Did you manage to make the smart rule work with Import & Delete?
Oh yeah, working perfectly- thanks for asking!
Can you share a screenshot of your rule and folder action as they currently stand?
My one doesn’t work yet, so hopefully I can understand what I am doing wrong for yours!
Sure, here they are. Rule: I settled on checking the Inbox contents every minute (a small price to pay, but could eventually make it hourly) for files starting with “job_”
The /Users/Shared/PDFwriter/myusername folder has Christian’s (included with DT) folder action applescript “Import & Delete”
Ha, that’s definitely not the solution I was hoping for! On the other hand, it seems like RTWS-PDFwriter developers have figured it out natively. I still have to find the time to try to see if it’s working, though let me know if this new solution works for any of you
This all seems needlessly complicated, but it’s highly likely I’m missing something. Am I right in thinking you just want to print to PDF and it magically turn up in your database, where it gets renamed?
If so, Apple software and DT provide this all for free.
Apple OS on both Mac and iOS has a print to pdf function built into the native software. On a Mac you can set a shortcut that runs in the print menu when you do cmd P to print to pdf (it’s in the OS accessibility shortcuts). You could do a really simple one to do this in 2 seconds: mine is CMD+P+P (CMD and P pressed twice). First CMD P opens the print menu, second CMD P Prints to PDF.
The Print to PDF option can be set to your Inbox, which imports all files, no indexing needed. Once you’ve done this once it will default to the Inbox every time unless instructed otherwise.
Once a file hits your Inbox, any smart rule you’ve set up will run as normal. I have numerous smart rules running that process files in my inbox.
The Print to PDF feature works on iOS too, but you can’t set up a keyboard shortcut on there, and you have to say which app to send it to. Mac is far easier, the whole process from viewing the page to it appearing as a renamed PDF in your Database takes maybe 10 seconds and doesn’t require any scripts or third party software.
Because the Mac Print to PDF function is native, it works from any app on Mac: Safari, Mail, etc. Etc.
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Hi MsLogica,
It works fantastically as you described. I also use the (CMD+P)^2 approach a lot and I love it when processing single files from within any application.
However, my wish was to print files directly from the Finder(!) with a (CMD+P) shortcut. Then no printer dialogue window opens, where we might apply the second CMP+P to send to DTP. The first print command sends files directly to the standard printer.
Why printing from Finder? I wanted to print multiple files at the same time. Also I wanted to easily convert multiple(!) Word documents into PDFs and send them to DTP with just 1-2 clicks.
Cheers.
I misunderstood, apologies. I’ve just tested printing from finder myself and my Mac also tries to find a default printer. I hadn’t done this before and didn’t know it did that!
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Hi,
after accidentally deleting the printer (old version 1.0.1) I found out that the RWTS-PDFwriter from Rod Yager made it to version 3.1 recently. The installation is straight forward and asks for a PDF destination folder. I pointed it to my DT3-Inbox folder. This approach doesn’t need the extra folder action any more.
Batch converting DOCs per drag and drop (to printer icon) from outside Word (Finder) to PDFs still works like a charm. However, Word needs to be open on your machine.
Love it.
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Interesting. Thanks for sharing this.