Category: Plug-Ins

Win2PDF Now Supports PDF Direct Printing

What is PDF Direct printing?

PDF Direct is a feature available on many printers that allows PDF files to be sent straight to the printer without being processed through any software first. There may be slightly different names used by each printer company, but it’s typically referred to as PDF Direct Print or Direct PDF printing.

This feature is useful because it is a much faster way for printers to print PDF files since there is no intermediate conversion process needed by software.

Most business class printers from HP, OKI, Kyocera, Ricoh, Canon, and Xerox support PDF Direct printing, but most consumer inkjet printers do not support it. Look up your printer’s documentation for the specific model to see if it supports PDF Direct printing or not. If you aren’t sure, it’s safer to use the Win2PDF Print PDF command line. This is slower but will work for all printers.

One important caveat: If you attempt to use this feature on a paper printer that does not support PDF Direct printing, many pages of garbled text will be printed instead of the PDF.

This feature is available in the Win2PDF 10.0.142 version or higher, and it is a free update to all Win2PDF 10 users.

There are 2 ways to use the latest Win2PDF software to print PDF files directly.

  1. Use the command line option for Win2PDF PDF Print Direct [link goes to documentation for this feature].

This is probably most useful for larger organizations that are batching many PDF files to the printers, perhaps along with other Win2PDF command line options.

  1. Use the new Win2PDF Direct Print Plug-In [link goes to download page for plug-in].

This is probably most useful for users interactively generating PDF files.

When you install the plug-in setup, you will be prompted to select a PDF Direct Printer.

After this is selected and saved, a copy of each printed Win2PDF PDF file will be sent automatically to this PDF Direct Printer until disabled. To disable this feature, you can remove the Win2PDF Direct Print Plug-In using the Windows control panel.

This feature may not be useful to all PDF users, but for organizations that are processing large volumes of PDF files it can dramatically reduce the time needed for printing.

When we presented this for testing to a customer who wanted this feature, he replied:

There is no question why I highly recommend Win2PDF to all my clients and will continue to do so! Unbelievable service for an outstanding product!

Brian H., Hawaii

New Win2PDF Plug-In Adds a Terms & Conditions Sheet to a PO

We recently created a new Win2PDF Plug-In for a customer and it’s useful enough to share with all Win2PDF users. The Win2PDF Append File Plug-In allows you to append a standard file to any new PDF created using Win2PDF. While this Plug-In can be used for a variety of situations, here’s what the customer wanted:

When members of their accounting team printed a new purchase order (PO), they wanted to easily attach a standard company-specific Terms and Conditions sheet to each PO, like this:

While the Win2PDF Append feature has always been available, the new Plug-In streamlines the process to just a simple check-box. When the Plug-In is installed, a check-box for Append PDF appears on the main Win2PDF File Save Window, as shown here:

By simply checking this Append PDF checkbox on the main screen, the customer can add their Terms and Conditions sheet to POs without having to go through any extra steps. When printing other types of documents that do not need this extra sheet, they just uncheck this box.

To activate this Plug-In, download the Win2PDF Append File Plug-In setup file. Then run the compiled setup program and choose your pre-set file to append (e.g., “Terms and Conditions.pdf”).

While this particular customer had a Terms and Conditions sheet they needed to add to POs, the same Plug-In could be used for a variety of other applications, like:

  • Add a customer contact sheet to certain documents,
  • Add instructions to a specific form that is generated for clients,
  • Add a tax-exemption form to purchase orders,
  • Add payment options, bank details, etc. to invoices, or
  • Add any type of legal certificate or contract or addendum that may be commonly attached.

Do you have something in your PDF workflow that could be improved? If so, let us know.

Amazon S3 Upload Plug-In for Win2PDF

Win2PDF has a new Plug-In available to automatically upload PDF (or image) files to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket. Amazon S3 is a scalable, cloud-based object storage service that is part of Amazon Web Services (AWS). While Win2PDF itself is not cloud-based, it can save files to cloud-based services like Amazon S3, Dropbox, Slack, etc. This S3 Plug-In is a free optional extension to Win2PDF and must be installed separately from the main Win2PDF software.

With the new Configure Amazon S3 Plug-in, users can upload PDF or image files directly to their Amazon S3 buckets after the file has been created without any additional steps. This can be useful for distributing PDFs, modifying on PDFs using cloud based software, or integrating with 3rd party software such as Zapier.com.

To use this new feature, download and install the free Plug-In from our web site here:

https://get.win2pdf.com/plug-in/Win2PDF-S3-Upload-PDF-Plug-In.exe

When you run the Configure Amazon S3 Plug-In setup program, you will be presented with the following configuration window:

Configure Amazon S3 Upload Settings

The configuration options available are:

  • PDF Upload: Allows you to either Move or Copy the PDF file to S3, depending on whether or not you wish to keep a local copy.
  • Access Key ID & Secret Access ID: Your access Key ID and Secret Access ID are part of Amazon’s security credentials to verify who you are and whether you have permission to access the resources that you are requesting. AWS uses the security credentials to authenticate and authorize your requests.
  • Bucket Name: A bucket is a container for objects stored in Amazon S3, and needs to exist in your Amazon S3 account.
  • Folder Name (Optional): If you wish to upload the PDF file to a specific folder in the bucket, it can be specified here.
  • AWS Region: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has the concept of a Region, which is a physical location around the world where data centers are clustered. This setting must match the location of the specified bucket.

Once the Configure Amazon S3 Plug-In has been installed, you’ll have the option to select Send to S3 on the main Win2PDF file save window.

Win2PDF file save window with S3 Plug-In enabled

When this option is checked, the file will automatically be uploaded to your S3 bucket (using your configuration settings and access keys) without any further user interaction. If unchecked, it will only create a local PDF file and will not upload the file to your S3 bucket.

If you need to change your configuration settings in the future, you can return the Configure Amazon S3 Plug-In setup screen by selecting it from the Win2PDF Windows Start program group. (Please note you will need to re-enter your security access keys when you return to this screen. This is for security reasons, as the access keys will not be visible once saved.)

Configure Win2PDF S3 Upload Plug-In in Windows Start Menu

Also, we’ve had several blog posts previously that covered the Win2PDF Plug-In capabilities and how it can be used to extend the functionality of Win2PDF to do customer specific tasks or interface with other applications and services. Other Win2PDF Plug-Ins are available on our GitHub repository here:

https://github.com/win2pdf/Win2PDF.Samples/tree/master/plug-in

Like many Win2PDF features, this feature started with a suggestion from a Win2PDF user. Any questions, comments, or suggestions? Let us know.

Get Into Your PDF Flow using Microsoft’s Power Automate Desktop Software

Soooo many requests:

“I wish there was an easy way to convert all of these text files to PDF automatically.”

“Why can’t I just save an entire series of web pages as searchable PDF files?”

“How can I consolidate weekly reports from different applications and formats to a single PDF file without spending my whole afternoon doing so?”

These and other questions arrive in our email inbox daily. It seems everybody has some level of repetitive PDF processing that they do and are looking for an easier way to get it done. And since many of these issues are specific to a particular application or to your own business process, it’s not easy to find a one-size-fits-all solution that gives you the type of “push button” solution you really want.

That’s one reason why we’ve been so focused on creating tools like Win2PDF Auto-name, Win2PDF command-line processing, Win2PDF Plug-ins, and Win2PDF mail integrations. All of these features give powerful automation control to the user to eliminate repetitive steps and reduce processing errors.

Now, there’s something that combines all of these Win2PDF “tools” into a single problem-solving toolkit that works with all of your files and other applications. And best yet, it won’t cost you a penny!

Microsoft’s new Power Automate Desktop software is a free download for Windows 10 users that allows you to easily automate any repetitive tasks from your desktop, including the creation or manipulation of PDF files using Win2PDF. Once installed, you just need to create a desktop flow (the series of steps that automate a specific action or task). And no, you don’t need to be a coder to use it. Microsoft has a simple interface that most anyone can use.

It’s quite easy to build your first desktop flow using either pre-built drag-and-drop actions or by recording your own desktop flows to run later. For this latter method, it works similar to macros in Microsoft Office, by recording repetitive actions from your desktop across multiple applications—like your web browser, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Win2PDF, etc.—and then lets you replay the automation whenever needed.

For example, a quick desktop flow to convert all TXT files in a folder to PDF using Win2PDF (using the Win2PDF Auto-name feature) might look something like this:

A very simple recipe like this could save you a lot of time if you are currently working with PDF files regularly and in the same manner.

We’ll be diving into this topic in a bit more detail in future posts, including some more detailed examples where this might be useful. In the meantime, get into the flow and download the Power Automate Desktop software today and look at the Win2PDF Power Automate documentation to see what it can do for you.

Win2PDF Plug-Ins Extend Features Specific to Customers’ Needs

Last month we introduced a new Win2PDF Plug-In for Slack, and this month we’re back with several new Win2PDF Plug-Ins.

A Win2PDF Plug-In is simply a small customizable program that can be created, modified, or installed that will give the user an option to automatically take some action with the PDF file after it has been created. It allows Win2PDF’s functionality to be extended to address specific customer needs or workflow integrations. For example, it has already been used by customers to upload PDF files to a content management system, automatically make archival copies of PDFs, store PDF in cloud-based services, delete blank pages, split PDF files into single page documents, use multiple watermarks, and send a PDF file to a specific email program.

Why use Plug-Ins? Why not just add these features directly to Win2PDF?

The Win2PDF Plug-Ins were created specifically to add capabilities that might be unique to each customer. Most of the new Plug-Ins were unique or very specific to a customer request, so they may not be useful to the user base at large. Rather than clutter the main Win2PDF program with these types of unique features, we allow them to be created, customized and added as needed for each customer.

As of today, there are 8 additional Plug-Ins available for download at our GitHub page. [GitHub is a central code repository for our Plug-In samples — you can download compiled Plug-Ins that are ready to use, or, if you are a developer, you can download and modify the source code to build your own Plug-Ins specific to your needs. These examples show what can be done with Win2PDF, and provide a template for future solutions.]

The new Plug-Ins are:

  • PDF Send To Outlook – Add a “Send To Outlook” option to Win2PDF File Save window to automatically attach a PDF to an Outlook email message.
  • PDF Duplicate File – Automatically make a duplicate copy of the newly created PDF file in a designated duplicate file folder which may reside on a shared network location or in a cloud based folder (OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive).
  • PDF Print Logger – Automatically log files created by Win2PDF to the Windows Event Log.
  • PDF Archive File – Automatically archive newly created PDF files created by Win2PDF in a designated archive file folder which may reside on a shared network location or in a cloud based folder (OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive). Files are appended to an archive PDF named based on the current date.
  • PDF Delete Pages – Automatically deletes extra pages from a newly created PDF.
  • PDF Split Pages – Automatically splits a multi-page PDF into separate one page PDFs.
  • PDF Apply Multiple Watermarks – Automatically apply different watermarks to separate sections of a PDF [Requires Win2PDF Pro].
  • PDF Image Only Flattener – Automatically merge watermark layers into a single layer Image Only PDF [Requires Win2PDF Pro].

A few other notes:

  • The samples only allow one Win2PDF Plug-In used for each instance of the Win2PDF printer.
  • If you wish to remove a particular Win2PDF Plug-In, you can use the Windows Add/Remove Programs feature to uninstall.
  • All of the Win2PDF Plug-Ins hosted on this page can be used at no charge. Some only work with licensed versions of Win2PDF. Contact [email protected] for a 30 day evaluation license.
  • An evaluation version of Win2PDF can be downloaded for free at https://www.win2pdf.com/download/

If you have any requests for Plug-Ins, let us know. We’re interested in building out this capability with more examples, so if you have a particular integration or special need, send an email to [email protected] and tell us about your requirements. If it’s something we can assist with, we’ll be happy to help.

For now, hop over to the Win2PDF Plug-Ins page and take a look.