Refry a Folder Full of PDFs (Acrobat 6 Pro)

Before publishing a PDF online for wide distribution, you should try reducing its file size by refrying it . With Acrobat 6, you can refry a PDF using its Optimizer feature (Advanced PDF Optimizer . . . ). Let's create an Acrobat 6 batch sequence that applies the Optimizer to an entire folder of PDF documents. While we're at it, we can also add metadata or other finishing touches .

Create a batch sequence in Acrobat 6 Professional by selecting Advanced Batch Processing . . . and clicking New Sequence . . . . Name the new sequence Refry and click OK. The Batch Edit Sequence dialog will open.

If you want to also add metadata (title, subject, author, or keywords) to the PDFs, click Select Commands . . . and the Edit Sequence dialog will open. Select the Description command from the list on the left and click Add. In the right column, double-click this command and a dialog opens where you can set the metadata values. Click OK to close the Edit Sequence dialog and to return to the Batch Edit Sequence dialog.

Fine-tune a batch sequence using the Execute JavaScript batch command. If JavaScript is not powerful enough, you can develop your own batch processing commands using an Acrobat plug-in. See the BatchCommand and BatchMetadata plug-in samples that come with the Acrobat SDK.

Set Run Commands On to Ask When Sequence is Run. Set Select Output Location to Same Folder as Original(s). Click Output Options . . . .

On the Output Options dialog, select Add to Original Base Name(s) and then set Insert After to .opt. Under Output Format, set Save File As to Adobe PDF Files. Place checkmarks next to Fast Web View and PDF Optimizer. Click Settings . . . to configure the Optimizer.

Configure the Optimizer to suit your requirements. Set its compatibility to Acrobat 5.0 and Later or Acrobat 4.0 and Later for maximum PDF portability. Click OK when you're done.

Click OK to close the Output Options dialog. Click OK to close the Batch Edit Sequence dialog. Your new Refry batch sequence now should be visible in the Batch Sequences dialog.

To make a batch sequence recurse into subfolders, set Run Commands On to Selected Folder. Then click Browse . . . to select the folder you want to process. Whenever you run the sequence, it will process that same folder (and its subfolders).

Test your batch sequence on a temporary folder of disposable PDFs. In the Batch Sequences dialog, select Refry and click Run Sequence. Click OK on the Confirmation dialog. A file selector will open. Select one or more PDFs and click Select to continue. Acrobat will create new PDFs based on your Optimizer settings. The new PDFs will have the same filenames as the original PDFs, except they will have .opt.pdf instead of .pdf at the end. When Acrobat is done, check the new PDFs to make sure the results are satisfactory.

Disable the batch processing confirmation dialog using the Acrobat preferences: Edit>Preferences>General . . . Batch Processing.