Ok, I have a fairly large collection of docx and odt files. Minutes from meetings etc. Now I want to convert them to pdfs for distrobution. and also into one combined pdf.

At the momement I'm using Adobe Acrobat 8 (Pro iirc). and on another machine I'm using foxit pdf printer. To do this I have to print them each individually to pdfs. and then I can combine them with Acrobat, cos acrobat doesn't support conversion stright from docx or odt to pdf - only via printing.

Now this is annoying if you have to do it on a regular basis, since i don't keep the pdfs around (I have the orignals source controlled :-D) cos they go out of date pretty quick as I often have to go back and modify old versions (like ridiculously often). e Eg When I find out I've got something in the minutes wrong or I want to add more context for clarifaction.

Anyone got a better solution? My main problem is Combining multiple docx and odt's into one pdf, batch convert them each in to pdfs. I don't want to have to oepn them all by hand. Currently there are 14 douments. each week I add ~ 2/3. Opeing then all is a pain. even opening and converting then merging five is pretty annoying if you have to do it more than once.

Oh I should add I'm OS agnostic so, linux, windows (even Mac, if i don't have to leave the command line) solutions are all good.

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4 Answers

Take a look at pdf creator it does combining and batch conversion i believe. http://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator

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Why not store them all locally in a weekly/monthly "working file" in Open Office/MS Office? You can then only convert the whole file to .pdf for distribution when you've modfiied or added something. The .pdf file name can also identify the latest version to the recipients.

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explain furthur? I don't understand – Oxinabox Apr 29 '10 at 4:14
I´m suggesting you keep all your minutes in (say) a Word document. There you can edit/add to them easily. When you want to distribute them, make a PDF version and send that out. Modify the PDF file name to give a version date so everyone can see what the latest version is. – BrianA Apr 30 '10 at 4:58
That is what I do. except I don't keep them all in one document, because, tht would make it annoying to finda particular meeting. (and the document would become large and unwieldy) – Oxinabox May 8 '10 at 3:44
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novaPDF Lite is an app that behaves like a generic printer that lets you print anything to a PDF. It also allows you to append or prepend the current printout to an existing file.

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Not bad, still requires me to open them all up individually to print though – Oxinabox Apr 26 '10 at 13:06
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Right from inside of Office 2007 you can do Save As > PDF. What's wrong with this approach?

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It does nothing to address my main problem of Combining multiple docx and odt's into one pdf, or batch convert them each in to pdfs.. I have now editted my question to clarify this being my problem – Oxinabox Apr 26 '10 at 12:14
My mistake, I misread the question. It is much clearer since the edit. – MDMarra Apr 27 '10 at 6:21
thanks for helping me clarify – Oxinabox Apr 29 '10 at 4:13
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