Batch Link

Batch Link can be run against any number of PDFs or a single, multi-paged PDF. There is no need for these documents to be grouped; the user can select individual documents or entire folders (including, if desired, subfolders) from a variety of locations.

PDFs do not need to be open in Revu when the batch process is run. If a document is open in Revu, any changes resulting from the batch process will be made to the document, but the document will not be saved or checked in (if relevant); the user will need to save and check in the document manually. If a document is not open in Revu, and it is not checked out/locked by another user, changes will be applied and saved to the document automatically (without opening the document in Revu).

There is a specific process for running Batch Link on a Set. See Running Batch Link on a Set below.

To run Batch Link:

1. Go to File > Batch > Link > New. The Batch Link wizard opens.

   

2. Add PDFs to be processed using one or more of the following methods:

   • To add all PDFs that are currently open in Revu, click Add Open Files.
   • To select files from a local or network drive, click Add.
   • To add all PDFs that are in a folder on a local or network drive, click Add Folder. Select Add subfolders to automatically add subfolders as well.
   • To manually enter the path to a PDF or a folder, right-click inside the Path list and select Insert New.
3. By default, any item added to the Path list will be selected for processing. Uncheck the box to the left of any item to exclude it from processing.
   • It is possible to include both the path to a specific document and to that document's parent folder. When that happens, there are specific behaviors governing what is processed when one is checked and the other is not:
     • If the path to the document is selected and the path to its parent folder is not, the document will be processed but nothing else in the folder will be.
     • If the path to the document is not selected but the path to its parent folder is, all PDFs in the folder, except that document, will be processed.

4. Click Next. The second page of the Batch Link wizard opens.

   

5. To import a set of search terms and destinations that were previously saved as a CSV file (see Saving and Using Saved Batch Link Configurations), click Import. Otherwise, use one of the following options to generate search terms and destinations:

   • Filename: Uses the file name for each PDF included in the batch process as a Search Term with the Destination being the page itself.
   • Page Region: Uses the text found within user-defined regions as a Search Term with the Destination being the page itself. To define a region:
   1. Click Select. The dialog box disappears, replaced with a crosshair cursor.

   2. Click and drag to define a region on the PDF. Generally speaking, the data in this region should be located in the same place on each PDF. When the region has been defined, the AutoMark dialog box appears.

      

   3. To add another region, click Add. The AutoMark dialog box disappears, replaced with a crosshair cursor again. Click and drag to define another region. The AutoMark dialog box reappears with the new region added to the Selection field. There is no limit to the number of regions that can be added.
      • Review the sample page label, as shown under Preview. If desired, click in the Selection field to add text before, after or between [Regions].
   4. When all regions have been defined, click OK. The AutoMark dialog box closes, replaced by the previous dialog box.

      Note: AutoMark is most suitable for documents that are vector-based, are the same size and have the same registration. AutoMark might not work as expected if the pages are different sizes, if some of the pages are not searchable or if the scans are not properly registered.
      

   • Page Label: Uses the predefined page label for each PDF included in the batch process as a Search Term with the Destination being the page itself.

6. Click Settings. The Search Terms Settings dialog box appears.

   Select a combination of Filter Mode and Filter Character to automatically filter search terms, as desired. Filter Mode: First from start: Keeps all text from the start of the Scan Result to the first occurrence of the Filter Character. Filter Mode: First from end: Keeps all text from the last occurrence of the Filter Character to the end of the Scan Result. Filter Character: Select one of the available characters or manually enter one. See the Preview for an example of the results. Click OK.

7. Click Generate. The Manage Links list is automatically populated.

8. Select any Search Term or Destination to edit it. To manually enter a Search Term and Destination, right-click inside the Manage Links list and select Insert New to add a new row. There are four types of hyperlinks that are supported and each requires specific syntax. Based on the type of hyperlink desired, use the appropriate syntax as shown below:

   Type of Hyperlink	Syntax
   Link to file	<filename>
   Link to page in file	page <#> in <filename>
   Link to place1 in file	place "<place name>" in <filename>
   Link to URL	web <url>

   ¹ It is recommended, but not mandatory, that the place name be surrounded by quotes (") as in the example.

9. Click Link Options. The Link Options dialog box appears.

   Select any or all of the desired Search Options. Select Use relative paths to create links that use relative paths or leave this box unchecked to use full paths instead. To place rectangular highlights over hyperlinks placed by Batch Link, select Highlight Links and choose a color by clicking the box immediately to its right. Choose an Overlap behavior that will determine what the process will do when it attempts to place a hyperlink where one already exists. To set appearance properties for the links that will be placed, select Include Appearance Properties and choose the desired appearance properties. Color indicates the color of the outline, highlight, or fill of the links. Line Width sets the width of the outline of the links, when applicable. Style sets the style of the outline or places highlights or fills instead of outlines. Select Highlight to place a highlight markup over the links. Select one of the other options to create an outline or fill effect that will be visible when the PDF is viewed, but will not show up in the Markups list or when the PDF is printed. Flatten Highlight: Select to automatically flatten the highlight markup placed over the links when Highlight is chosen as the Style. Click OK. The Link Options dialog box closes.

10. To save the current list of search terms and destinations, click Export.

11. To save the current Batch Link configuration, including selected PDFs, search terms and destinations, as well as settings and link options, click Save Config.

12. Click Run. The Batch Link Summary report opens (see Batch Link Summary below for more information regarding the report).

To run Batch Link on a Set:

1. Open the Set to be processed.

2. Go to File > Batch > Link > Current Set. The Batch Link wizard opens to the second page.

   

3. To import a set of search terms and destinations that were previously saved as a CSV file (see Saving and Using Saved Batch Link Configurations), click Import. Otherwise, use one of the following options to generate search terms and destinations:

   • Filename: Uses the file name for each PDF included in the batch process as a Search Term with the Destination being the page itself.
   • Page Region: Uses the text found within user-defined regions as a Search Term with the Destination being the page itself. To define a region:
   1. Click Select. The dialog box disappears, replaced with a crosshair cursor.

   2. Click and drag to define a region on the PDF. Generally speaking, the data in this region should be located in the same place on each PDF. When the region has been defined, the AutoMark dialog box appears.

      

   3. To add another region, click Add. The AutoMark dialog box disappears, replaced with a crosshair cursor again. Click and drag to define another region. The AutoMark dialog box reappears with the new region added to the Selection field. There is no limit to the number of regions that can be added.
      • Review the sample page label, as shown under Preview. If desired, click in the Selection field to add text before, after or between [Regions].
   4. When all regions have been defined, click OK. The AutoMark dialog box closes, replaced by the previous dialog box.

      Note: AutoMark is most suitable for documents that are vector-based, are the same size and have the same registration. AutoMark might not work as expected if the pages are different sizes, if some of the pages are not searchable or if the scans are not properly registered.
      

   • Page Label: Uses the predefined page label for each PDF included in the batch process as a Search Term with the Destination being the page itself.

4. Click Settings. The Search Terms Settings dialog box appears.

   Select a combination of Filter Mode and Filter Character to automatically filter search terms, as desired. Filter Mode: First from start: Keeps all text from the start of the Scan Result to the first occurrence of the Filter Character. Filter Mode: First from end: Keeps all text from the last occurrence of the Filter Character to the end of the Scan Result. Filter Character: Select one of the available characters or manually enter one. See the Preview for an example of the results. Click OK.

5. Click Generate. The Manage Links list is automatically populated.

6. Select any Search Term or Destination to edit it. To manually enter a Search Term and Destination, right-click inside the Manage Links list and select Insert New to add a new row. There are four types of hyperlinks that are supported and each requires specific syntax. Based on the type of hyperlink desired, use the appropriate syntax as shown below:

   Type of Hyperlink	Syntax
   Link to file	<filename>
   Link to page in file	page <#> in <filename>
   Link to place1 in file	place "<place name>" in <filename>
   Link to URL	web <url>

   ¹ It is recommended, but not mandatory, that the place name be surrounded by quotes (") as in the example.

7. Click Link Options. The Link Options dialog box appears.

   Select any or all of the desired Search Options. Select Use relative paths to create links that use relative paths or leave this box unchecked to use full paths instead. To place rectangular highlights over hyperlinks placed by Batch Link, select Highlight Links and choose a color by clicking the box immediately to its right. Choose an Overlap behavior that will determine what the process will do when it attempts to place a hyperlink where one already exists. To set appearance properties for the links that will be placed, select Include Appearance Properties and choose the desired appearance properties. Color indicates the color of the outline, highlight, or fill of the links. Line Width sets the width of the outline of the links, when applicable. Style sets the style of the outline or places highlights or fills instead of outlines. Select Highlight to place a highlight markup over the links. Select one of the other options to create an outline or fill effect that will be visible when the PDF is viewed, but will not show up in the Markups list or when the PDF is printed. Flatten Highlight: Select to automatically flatten the highlight markup placed over the links when Highlight is chosen as the Style. Click OK. The Link Options dialog box closes.

8. To save the current list of search terms and destinations, click Export.
9. To save the current Batch Link configuration, including selected PDFs, search terms and destinations, as well as settings and link options, click Save to Set.
10. Click Run. The Batch Link Summary report opens (see Batch Link Summary below for more information regarding the report).

Batch Link configurations can be saved as XML files at any time after file selection is done. Any configurations that have been set (PDF selection, Search Term Settings, Search Terms, Destinations and Link Options) will be saved and can be reused at a later time (for example, to update hyperlinks after document revisions come in). These XML files can be used to initiate a Batch Link process.

Configurations for Sets are an exception: instead of saving full configurations to a separate XML file, configurations for Sets are saved directly to the Set's .bex file and opened automatically along with the Set.

Alternately, just search terms and destinations can be exported to a CSV file. This can be useful when a list of search terms and destinations needs to be audited or edited and it would be easier to do it in a spreadsheet application. These CSV files can then be imported into a Batch Link process without affecting any other settings.

After Batch Link has been run, a Batch Link Summary dialog box appears and reports the results of the process.

The following information is provided:

• Hyperlinks Created: The number of new hyperlinks created by the process.
• Hyperlinks Deleted: The number of old hyperlinks that were deleted (according to the Overlap Behavior defined in the Link Options) by the process.
• Pages Skipped: The number of PDF pages that were skipped by the process because they did not contain searchable text.
• Files that could not be opened: The number of PDFs that could not be opened by the process.

Click Details to view an expanded report of the Batch Link results.

Click Back to return to the Batch Link wizard and take the opportunity to correct any issues detected and re-run the process or save a configuration.

Tip: In the Batch Link wizard, click either the Search Terms or Destinations column header to bring all flagged issues to the top.

Click Finish and Close to close Batch Link.