Generating a PDF and other document format from a selected Outlook item |
|
The easiest way to generate a PDF or document format is to simply select an Outlook item, either from the Explorer window or by opening the Outlook item in its inspector window, and clicking one of the document format from the 'Export to File...' drop down menu.In Outlook 2010, these menu items are available under the context menu (i.e., popup menu you get when you right-click the selected items)Context menu when a single item is selected:And you can then export the selected Outlook item to a PDF or other support document format. In the 'Save As' dialog, the file name of the document to be generated is pre-filled with metadata information of the selected Outlook item. For example, below in the screenshot, the file name is in the format Subject + Underscore (_) + Received Time. This way you don't even need to input and key in the name of the document.You can of course customize what metadata information is used from the Outlook item to name the generated document fromOutlook > Document Exporter toolbar/ribbon > Settings. You can customize the default naming scheme for different type of Outlook items such as mails, appointments or tasks separately . |
Generating PDF files and other other document formats in batch from multiple selected Outlook items |
|
When you select multiple Outlook items, the drop down options under the 'Export to File' menu will change to reflect the varied way of batch processing the items and export to a document format. One of these options is to generate individual PDF or document format from each of the selected Outlook item in batch. Context menu when multiple Outlook items are selected:This 'Batch Export' dialog enables you to specify the destination folder where all the document files would be saved. You also have the option to choose what file title the generated documents would take - either a defined generic name or use metadata information extracted from the Outlook item, such as Subject, Sendername, ReceivedTime etc.
|
Generating a merged single PDF file or other document format containing all the selected Outlook items. |
|
When you select multiple Outlook items, the drop down options under the 'Export to File' menu will change to reflect the varied way of batch processing the items and export to a document format. One of these options is to generate individual PDF or document format from each of the selected Outlook item in batch.Choose any one of this option if all you want is to merge all the selected mail (or post) items to a single document. You will be prompted to specify a filename and the folder location to save the document. |
Appending selected Outlook items to an existing PDF file |
|
Document Exporter supports appending any selected Outlook items, single or multiple, to a specified existing PDF file. The selected items will be converted to PDF format and would be appended at the end of the specified existing PDF file. |
Converting attachments to PDF |
|
You can set Document Exporter add-in to include attachments when generated PDF document from Outlook items. There are three ways attachments can be outputted to PDF - as separate PDF file for each attachment, or, merge all attachments to a single PDF file, or merge all the attachments along with the email content to one single PDF file. Whether the attachments are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Web, images or simply plain text documents, Document Exporter would automatically convert to PDF.
Attachment formats that are supported for conversion to PDF files:
- Word Files (*.docx, *.docm, *.doc, *.dot, *.dotx, *.dot, *.dotm)
- Excel files (*.xl, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb, *.xlam, *.xltx, *.xltm, *.xls, *.xlt, *.xla, *.xlm, *.xlw
- PowerPoint Presentation files (*.pptx, *.ppt, *.pptm, *.ppsx, *.pps, *.ppsm, *.potx, *.pot, *.potm, *.odp)
- Images (*.bmp, *.gif, *.png, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.tif, *.tiff, *.pcx, *.psd)
- Single File Web Page (*.mht; *.mhtml)
- Web Page (*.htm; *.html)
- Rich Text Format (*.rtf)
- Plain Text (*.txtl *.prn; *.csv)
- XML Document (*.xml)
- OpenDocument Text (*.odt)
- Works 6.0 - 9.0 (*.wps)
|
Embed PDF version of the attachments back to the Outlook item |
|
If you have an iPad, iPhone or other tablet devices, you would have probably experience the inability to view various attachment file formats from within your email. PDF format support, is however built-in natively in most of these devices and you can easily preview the PDF attachment within the email. Keeping this limitation in mind, Document Exporter now supports embedding the PDF version of the attachments back to the email item, so that you can easily preview all the non-PDF attachments in your hand-held device. You can choose to merge all attachments to a single PDF, or to separate PDF files, and embed to the original email.PDF Embedding options under Output Settings
Email before embedding the PDF version of the attachments:Email after embedding a single PDF version, merged of all the attachments:Email after embedding separate PDF version of each non-PDF attachment: |
Automatic embedding of PDF version of attachments back to the Outlook items |
|
You can also automate this embedding of PDF version of the attachments to incoming emails without requiring your action, from under Document Exporter toolbar/ribbon > 'Automations' drop down > 'Automatic Embedding of PDF version of the attachments'. |
Automatic export of PDF and other formats from incoming emails |
|
A major feature of Document Exporter is the real-time monitoring of any number of Outlook folders or Exchange mailboxes. This will automatically process incoming mails or newly added appointment and task items and generate PDF or other documents based on the user chosen format, without any intervention from the user. This automatic conversion of Outlook items to PDF or XPS documents requires no input and intervention from the user. Now, you can easily maintain a parallel copy or backup of your current Outlook items.Automatic export works by allowing Document Exporter to monitor user specified Outlook folders or Exchange mailboxes, such that, when new emails are received or new appointments or tasks are added, Document Exporter automatically processes those items in real time and generate document files as per the user pre-settings for that particular Outlook folder or mailbox.To add a new Outlook folder, for automatic export
When you press the ‘Select Folder...’ button, you will be prompted to choose an Outlook folder, which you want Document Exporter to monitor for automatic export. You can select a Mail/Post items folder ( ), or an appointment folder ( ), or a task folder ( ). This folder can be a public folder or a shared mailbox folder also.To add a new Exchange mailbox, for automatic exportFor adding a new Exchange mailbox for automatic export, you will be prompted to choose a particular user (or mailbox name) from the global address list. Make sure that you have access permission to the chosen mailbox, otherwise, Document Exporter won’t be able to process incoming emails on that mailbox and no document files would be generated. |
How to maintain a single PDF file for the automatic export for a folder/mailbox |
|
With the PDF option, you can opt to output a separate PDF file for each Outlook item received or added (just like for other format such as DOC, XPS), or you can opt to maintain a single PDF file, on which, every new Outlook item received or added will be appended over this single PDF file, just like an e-book.
|
The entire appending of new Outlook items to this particular PDF file is seamless to the user, and if you have checked the option for saving attachments to subfolder in Setttings, all the attachment files from the appended items will be outputted to the PDF_Attachments subfolder. (Eg. Sales Report_Attachments) |
|
Control over the generated documents |
|
You have complete control over the PDF/XPS document generation. You can customize the default file naming scheme by choosing your own metadata fields, specify the attachments output behaviour, choose single or multiple PDF merge options and modify the page setup and layout etc.There are five portions in this Settings Panel:1) Convert Attachments to PDF
A new feature added in version 5 release is the support for converting attachments to PDF files. The conversion of attachments to PDF files works for all scenarios i.e., single or multiple mails export, merging multiple mails, forwarding single or merged emails etc. The PDF output can be controlled in three ways:
|
Output to individual PDF - Each attachment can be converted to individual PDF file. The PDF files will be placed under a subfolder (eg. 'documentName_Attachments_PDF' assuming the PDF document of the email was saved as 'documentName.pdf').
|
|
Merge all attachments to a single PDF - All attachments can be merged to a single PDF. This single PDF file will be placed under a subfolder (eg. 'documentName_Attachments_PDF' assuming the PDF document of the email was saved as 'documentName.pdf'. The single PDF file that has all the merged attachments will have a name like 'Documents_mergedAttachments.pdf').When multiple mails or appointments are merged and exported, all the attachments of each of the mail or appointment item would be converted and saved to the same subfolder (eg. 'MergedDocumentName_Attachments_PDF' assuming the document was saved as 'MergeDocumentName.pdf'). |
|
Append all attachments to the email PDF - All attachments can be appended to the PDF document of the mail item. This result PDF file will contain the email, as well as all the attachment files.If multiple mails or appointments are selected for a single merged PDF document, all the attachments of each of the mail or appointment item would also be merged to the PDF document. |
Only attachments having the following extensions are supported for converting to PDF format.
docx, docm, doc, dot, dotx, dot, htm, html, mht, mhtl, rtf, txt, odt, wpd, wps, xl, xlsx, xlsm, xlsb, xlam, xltx, xltm, xls, xlt, xla, xlm, xlw, odc, uxdc, ods, csv, prn, pptx, ppt, pptm, ppsx, pps, ppsm, potx, pot, potm, odp, bmp, gif, png, tif, tiff, jpg, jpeg, pcx, psdIf the attachment is a PDF file, then it is directly outputted or merged along with the other attachments format.Additionally, you can exclude PDF attachments from being included when a PDF email is forwarded.2) PDF optimization
Here, you can specify the optimization for published PDF files. If you use the first option 'Optimize for Quality', the output file will be larger, but will be in high quality. This is useful for printing purposes. On the other hand, the second option 'Optimize for Publishing' gives you a minimum size of the PDF file, by compromising in the quality a bit. This is ideal for sharing over the internet, email etc.3) Append PDF options
You can now append selected Outlook items to an existing PDF file. You can choose if to output the final document file (containing the appended pages) as a new PDF file, or to overwrite the existing (original) PDF file.4) Default file naming scheme based on metadata information
You can customize the default naming scheme of the generated documents for different type of Outlook items such as mails, appointments or tasks separately. There are two drop downs from which you can choose two metadata fields, and these two portions would be concatenated by the chosen symbol of the separator drop down. The availability of the fields would depend on the Outlook item type. For example, for appointment, you will have fields specific to that Outlook type, such as Start time, End time, Organizer etc.
5) Page Setup
You can define the orientation - landscape or portrait, as well as choose between the following paper size for the generated documents:
|
Letter |
|
Tabloid |
|
Ledger |
|
Legal |
|
Executive |
|
A3 |
|
A4 |
|
11 x 17 |
|
10 x 14 |
6) Output Attachments in original state to a subfolderExport Attachments to a subfolder when saving a mail, appointment or task item to a document format. If you enable this option, and when you save an email to a document, it would also export all the available attachments of the item, to a subfolder (eg. 'documentName_Attachments' assuming the document was saved as 'documentName.pdf'). You can also optionally exclude inline image and hidden attachments from exporting.If multiple mails or appointments are merged and exported as a single document, then, all the attachments of each of the mail or appointment item would be saved to the same subfolder (eg. 'MergedDocumentName_Attachments' assuming the document was saved as 'MergeDocumentName.pdf'). |
|