A small script to automate PDF tasks using an instruction file
Create a file named instructions.txt.
In this file, list all operations that you want to do, one line by operation.
You can use the caracter # to start comments.
All operations are executed in a buffer. You can do successive operations on a same document. Some operations will then allow you to open a file and load it into the buffer, save the buffer in a pdf file, or store and load a buffer temporarily in memory.
You will find the list of all available operations below
OPEN <filename>
This operation open the file specified as filename and load it's content into the buffer.
Example :
- Open the file mypdf.pdf
OPEN mypdf.pdf
MERGE <list of file patterns>
This operation open successively all the specified files and add them to the bottom of
the existing buffer. You can use wildcards (*) in the file names to designate multiple
files at the same time
Example :
- Merge 2 more part into the existing mypdf.pdf
OPEN mypdf.pdf
MERGE mypdf-part2.pdf mypdf-part3.pdf
- Merge all the document beginning with part into a new document
MERGE part*.pdf
SWAP <pageA> <pageB>
This operation exchange the place of two pages.
If you want to reorder pages in the document, don't forget that after each swap the
page order will not be the same anymore.
Example :
- Swapping page 1 and 7
SWAP 1 7
REMOVE <list of page numbers>
This operation remove the pages specified from the buffer.
It is the opposite of KEEP.
Example :
- Removing page 1, 2, 5 and 7
REMOVE 1 2 5 7
WRITE <filename>
This operation save the content of the buffer in a file
Example :
- Save in the file mynewpdf.pdf
WRITE mynewpdf.pdf
REMOVE <list of page numbers>
This operation keeps only the pages specified in the buffer.
It is the opposite of REMOVE.
Example :
- Removing page 1, 2, 5 and 7
REMOVE 1 2 5 7
CACHE <filename>
This operation save the content of the buffer in the memory to be used later
Example :
- Extract some page in a file and save the other pages in another file
OPEN source.pdf
CACHE source
KEEP 1 2 3 5 10
SAVE extract.pdf
LOAD source
REMOVE 1 2 3 5 10
SAVE remains.pdf
LOAD <cacheID>
This operation load the content of a cache in the buffer.
Example :
- Extract some page in a file and save the other pages in another file
OPEN source.pdf
CACHE source
KEEP 1 2 3 5 10
SAVE extract.pdf
LOAD source
REMOVE 1 2 3 5 10
SAVE remains.pdf
QUIT
This operation close the application. It is mainly used when in interactive mode.
RESET
This operation clears the buffer.
HISTORY
This operation shows the operations' history. The history goes up to 100 operations.
There is a marker at the beginning of the history with the version of PDFAutomate.
SAVEHIST <filename>
This operation save the history in a file.
You can use this to save your operations for later.
Example :
- Save the history in a file named history.txt
SAVEHIST history.txt