Automatically converting documents in a 'watched folder'?

[shawninvancouver]

Many years ago I once used a cool Adobe Pro feature that allowed me to set up a 'watch folder' and Adobe would automatically convert any compatible file dropped into this folder.

Is there a similar feature in Adobe Pro DC? I can't find it.

I have hundreds of PDF documents that I wish to optimize and individually opening each to save as optimized is not a good use of my time. a

Because the PDFs are not all available immediately, I will need to optimize them all, over a period of several months. So, processing by dragging the PDFs into a 'watched folder' will be the most efficient way of optimizing the PDFs.

I have experimented with the Action Wizard, but without deeper knowledge, this seems like a ridiculously convoluted tool. I did manage to get it to optimize files in a specific folder and save them with a _v2 prefix, but only when I manually select Start. But I can't seem to find a way to automatically watch this folder for new files, save the optimized versions in a specific folder, and move the originals into a backup folder.

Has Adobe taken this feature away? I searched help for 'watch folder' and 'batch' processing and nothing appears.

I know that watch folders do work in Adobe Media Encoder CC. Surely this feature is also available in Adobe?

Thank you,

Shawn

[try67]

Acrobat itself doesn't have such a feature, but I believe that Distiller does. The files you want to convert have to be in (E)PS format for it to work, though.

[shawninvancouver]

Thank you. Yes, I remember Distiller. But I seem to recall it converting multiple formats to PDF. I guess I am recalling incorrectly.

Obviously, Distiller isn't suitable.

Is there any way to automate/batch process/optimize multiple PDF documents?

Thank you

[try67]

In Acrobat only using the Action Wizard.

[jane-e]

shawninvancouver  wrote

Many years ago I once used a cool Adobe Pro feature that allowed me to set up a 'watch folder' and Adobe would automatically convert any compatible file dropped into this folder.

Hi Shawn,

I remember using that Watch folder for .ps files, but the Distiller is obsolete now. It would be a great feature request for the engineers: Share your feedback on Acrobat DC

In the meantime, you could drop those pdfs into a folder called “Watched” and when you are ready, Select all in Finder or Windows File Explorer > Right Click > Convert to PDF > move to a new folder. It wouldn’t be too awful.

Jane

[Dov Isaacs]

jane-e  wrote

…

I remember using that Watch folder for .ps files, but the Distiller is obsolete now. …

Jane

Distiller is hardly obsolete now! There are very many commercial applications that do not have native PDF creation capability on Windows and for which the only way to produce PDF is to print PostScript to Adobe PDF (or alternatively create PostScript and feed to the Distiller independently).

In any case, the Distiller only takes PostScript files, not existing PDF files. And to optimize PDF files in any way, you really don't want to refry them.

The actions route suggested is the route to go or alternatively, develop a custom Javascript for this purpose.

          - Dov