Office to PDF - speed up

weblike

Hi,

In my apps I use often Ms Word documents and HTML documents for reporting, both of them I'm converting in PDF's.

The speed of HTML conversion is ok - 1,2 seconds. I use http://wkhtmltopdf.org
The speed of converting MS Word Documents is from 10,11 seconds which is not suitable.

Anyone knows a tool which is much faster and has command line feature?

Thank you.

kklosson

There is quite a bit of discussion on the board about this. I use PDFToolKit (PDFtk)
https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/

and other use various PDF tools from CoolUtils:
http://www.coolutils.com/TotalPDFConverter

Both are good command line tools and easily employed using AwareIM's Execute program command.

customaware

PDFCombineProX

weblike

Hi Kingsley, Hi Mark,

Thank you both for your replies.

I will test these tools, but from your experience can you tell how fast are these converters?
I'm looking for a fast solution in converting .doc, .docx in PDF...
Thank you.

customaware

Hi George,

With mine, in a Process....

I create a temporary folder unique to the selected RegularUser
Export a report to it
Export all my attachments to is, be they PDF, Image, Spreasheets, Word.docs etc
Call the executable which creates the combined PDF
Import the resultant PDF in Aware
Delete the Temp folder
I think it is a second or two but dont display anything on the screen and it all happens in the background so dont even notice it.

I guess if you had many many docs to combine it might take a little longer.

Download the trial and try it out.

weblike

Thx Mark,

I'll give it a try.

Nice day,

weblike

Hi Mark,

A bit of stuck with EXECUTE PROGRAM:

In PDFCombinePROX if I use the source paths of documents without double quotes, it doesn't do anything.

EXECUTE PROGRAM '<<SystemSettings.PDFCombinePROX_InstallPath>>\PDFCombinePROX.exe <<SourcePath>>\Contract-Pag1.pdf <<SourcePath>>\Contract-Pag2.doc <<DestinationPath>>\Contract-final.pdf'

Even tested in command prompt:

without double quotes in source paths it doesn't do anything.
with double quotes, the destination file is made ok...

Can you advise please how you managed with this?

Thank you.

customaware

Not near my computer George but will send you how
I do it in the morning. I am at GMT +9

Gabbitas

Hi George,

I don't use PDFCombinePROX and I'm also out and about at the mo so can't check my setup...

But...

I remember getting stuck with a similar problem to yours. It turned out that I had to use forward slash "/" instead of "\" when using the EXECUTE_PROGRAM command I think.

Might be worth a try?

Thanks

weblike

Hi Gabbitas,

Thank you for the reply.
I have tried that, too. Initially I have used 7PDF as convertor, but now I need to combine different files: .docx, doc, html, pdf and seems that PDFCombinePROX does that.. I'm testing it right now...

If you have better solution, please share 🙂

thx.

customaware

Here is how I do it.

EXPORT DOCUMENT 'EXPENSE CLAIM' TO FOLDER 'C:\'+ExpenseClaim.ExpenseClaimNumber+'\'
FIND ExpenseClaimLines WHERE (ExpenseClaimLines.OB_ExpenseClaim=ExpenseClaim AND ExpenseClaimLines.ReceiptPDF IS DEFINED)
EXPORT DOCUMENT ExpenseClaimLines.ReceiptPDF TO FOLDER 'C:\'+ExpenseClaimLines.OB_ExpenseClaim.ExpenseClaimNumber

EXECUTE PROGRAM 'C:\Program Files (x86)\PDF Combine Pro X\PDFCombineProX.exe C:\'+ExpenseClaim.ExpenseClaimNumber+'\ C:\'+ExpenseClaim.ExpenseClaimNumber+'\'+ExpenseClaim.ExpenseClaimNumber+'.pdf'

IMPORT DOCUMENT ExpenseClaim.Receipt FROM 'C:\'+ExpenseClaim.ExpenseClaimNumber+'\'+ExpenseClaim.ExpenseClaimNumber+'.pdf'

Course course you could use a path from SystemSettings as a prefix.

I delete the unique folder that I create elsewhere.

Hope that helps

weblike

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your tips..I got it working..🙂

So, now I have passed to level2-> FineTunes and of course got stick in some details..

PDFCombinePROX - has the feature to add footers, headers, page numbers:

....PDFCombineProx.exe C:\Folder1\ C:\Dest.PDF -HeadText "[page] of [count]" -HeadAlign Center

Inside ...EXECUTE PROGRAM I need to put double quotations, square brackets, but in Rule editor this is not permited...or sure I don't know how...........yet....

Have you teste these features?
If you come with a solution on this, I own you a lot + 6 pack's of beer. 🙂
Thx.

customaware

If you need to add special characters like a double quote to a string.....

Create a text Attribute in SystemSettings. For example SystemSettings.DQ

Run the app and Edit SystemSettings and enter a " in that attribute.

From then one the Rule is..

....PDFCombineProx.exe C:\Folder1\ C:\Dest.PDF -HeadText'+SystemSettings.DQ+'[page] of [count]'+SystemSettings.DQ+' -HeadAlign Center'

BenHayat

Gorge, even when I use MS Word to convert a Word file to PDF, I notice it takes a long time. I think it has something to do with PDF conversion system.

weblike

Thank you Mark,

Brilliant ... 6 packs is yours... 🙂

Very intuitive and simple solution..

Thanks again,

Nice day, Mark.

weblike

BenHayat wrote
Gorge, even when I use MS Word to convert a Word file to PDF, I notice it takes a long time. I think it has something to do with PDF conversion system.

About MS Word to PDF..well, I think though that the MS word it's taking more time to be created than the PDF. The MS Office engine takes too long..

From html to PDF is almost instant->1,5 seconds.
From Word to PDF is 8-10 seconds.

I'll keep reading about this and let you know if I find anything... I'm sure I'll find because I'm digging the net 🙂

Nice day, Ben.

hpl123

weblike wrote
Hi Gabbitas,

Thank you for the reply.
I have tried that, too. Initially I have used 7PDF as convertor, but now I need to combine different files: .docx, doc, html, pdf and seems that PDFCombinePROX does that.. I'm testing it right now...

If you have better solution, please share 🙂

thx.

George,
I am using 7PDF and it crashed today (1st time). Have you experienced this before using 7PDF? (and should I keep using it or look at another tool?).

Thanks

hpl123

eagles9999 wrote
If you need to add special characters like a double quote to a string.....

Create a text Attribute in SystemSettings. For example SystemSettings.DQ

Run the app and Edit SystemSettings and enter a " in that attribute.

From then one the Rule is..

....PDFCombineProx.exe C:\Folder1\ C:\Dest.PDF -HeadText'+SystemSettings.DQ+'[page] of [count]'+SystemSettings.DQ+' -HeadAlign Center'

A tip for you guys. It is possible to use HTML entities instead of the SystemSettings option. When you need to add " to a string add the following:
"