Create New Action

Custom actions can be created to streamline work performed in PDF Studio by automating a series of routine tasks that need to be done to a PDF. Once an action has been created it can be started with a single click to process single (or multiple) documents.

Saved actions can also be exported and imported using Manage Actions if it needs be shared with others.

How to Create a New Action Sequence

Go to File Tab > Action Wizard and click on Create New Action to open the New Action wizard
Choose the Files to Process
- Current open file as default: starts the action using the currently opened file
- Single File: specific file to begin processing the action
- Folder: begins processing the action on all PDF files found in the specified folder
Select the tool in the from the Tool List on the left and click on Add > to add the step to your action
Choose the settings you wish to use for the selected action
- Specify Settings: Opens the tool dialog (when applicable) to specify the default settings to use in that step
- Prompt User: When checked will display the tool settings dialog to the user when the action is processed
Continue adding any additional tools as needed
Once completed click on Save and specify the name and description for your new action

New Action Options

The following options are available when creating your new action:

Files to Process

Select the default files to use when running the action. If none are selected, the currently open file can be used as the default. If needed, you can also choose any of the other Supported file types to process (i.e. to convert Word files to PDF). All files will be immediately converted to a PDF when the action is started using the default conversion settings for the file types based on settings in Preferences.

Current open file as default: starts the action using the currently opened file
Single File: choose a specific file to use when starting the action
Folder: begins processing the action on all PDF files found in the specified folder

Default Option - defines the default button behavior for adding additional files when running the action

Add Files - displays a file chooser to add individual files to the list of files to be processed
Add Folder - displays a file chooser that adds the contents of a directory to the list of files to be processed
Add Open Files - adds any files opened before the action was started ot the list of files to be processed

Steps Options

Add > - moves the selected tool to the list of steps to run in the action

Specify Settings - when available allows you to specify the default settings to use in the action for the selected tool

Prompt User - when checked will prompt the user for input before completing the step in the action

Move Up - moves the selected action up the list

Move Down - moves the selected action down the list

Remove - deletes the selected action from the list

Action Tools to Add

Below is a list of tools available to be added as steps in your action.

Comments

Delete Comments: Delete all comments on the current page or entire document

Flatten Comments: Flatten Comments directly on the page to which they belong so they are not editable anymore.

Add Stamp: Used to place a rubber stamp on the document.

Document

OCR: Allows you to add text to scanned documents or images so that the document can be searched or marked up as you would any other text document.

Optimize: Compress images or remove objects in order to reduce the PDF file size.

Preflight: Compliance verification to verify the document meets various archival compliances defined by ISO PDF standards.

Initial View - Set the initial view settings for a batch of PDFs

Document Security: Change passwords and permissions on PDF documents

Sign Document: Allows you to Digitally Sign the current PDF

Sanitize: Sanitize PDF documents to remove all hidden sensitive information from the PDF

Mark for Redaction: Add redaction annotations to the document provides a preview of what the document will look like after redaction

Apply Redactions: "Burns in" the annotations and removes any text, image, annotations, form fields or drawings from the document that is underneath the annotation's area.