PDF creation has become ubiquitous. Many common business systems can now generate PDF as part of their normal operation.  The problem is they often don’t do PDF conversion properly.

Many of the PDFs created are extremely important to the consumer or the systems they have been created for.  The shoddy creation of a PDF can significantly impair the intended benefit that an organization could achieve from an automated document workflow.

By way of example, many companies have deployed multi-function devices (MFDs) which can scan, copy, print etc. Scanned images can even be routed via email as PDF attachments. There are significant limitations though. One example is that the PDFs created are often too large in size, overloading networks and storage systems. Even worse, they are sent as non-searchable image documents. We’ve seen many customers who bypass the limited image to PDF capabilities of their MFD devices choosing instead to seamlessly integrate superior conversion and recognition (OCR) capabilities into the process. Server-based tools like Adlib Express render the images to high quality, searchable PDFs that are compressed and optimized for distribution and consumption.

A second example relates to high-end payroll systems which can also generate PDF output. The functionality is, again, very limited which caps the potential benefits the organization can achieve. These systems might create a single PDF output containing payroll information for all employee payrolls instead of as individual PDF's that can be distributed or processed. To make matters worse the content for any given employee is scattered throughout the PDF. Our customers have discovered that they can automate the process of splitting up the document merging employee specific documents back together then instantly delivering them as PDF email attachments. This gives employees the benefit of having an electronic copy to store. It also eliminates costly manual processing and print/mail distribution.

ECM vendors have long had PDF capability - as long as the customer purchased, integrated and maintained the software separately. Many ECM vendors today have embedded PDF conversion, stamping, recognition capabilities tightly integrated into their solution. Look under the covers and you’ll often find Adlib software working transparently in the background.

Be wary when choosing a system. Most will have the 'PDF Conversion' box checked on the feature sheet. Be sure you know more about the depth and breadth of what that means and ensure it meets your current and future needs. If you don't you're limiting your options for extracting maximum benefit from the automation of key business processes.

Collaboration is a word that is often used to describe the core capabilities of SharePoint.  It makes documents readily available to all employees working on a project and prevents multiple people from simultaneously making changes to them. However, just because we are collaborating on a project, doesn’t mean I want to allow anyone working on the project to make changes to my documents. One way to prevent this is to maintain a parallel library of PDF versions of source documents. These can be made available to anyone that needs to access the information but is not (or should not be) involved in updating this information. This process can be automated using PDF for SharePoint document transformation workflows.  A “Convert to PDF” workflow can be configured to automatically convert documents to PDF and deposit them into a separate document library whenever a new document is added to the source library and/or whenever a document is updated.  This will automatically maintain a library of secure, non-editable versions of your source documents for collaboration.

Paul Dyck
Product Manager
Adlib Software

Adlib Software’s virtual booth at Power Up With SharePoint

Power Up With SharePoint is an online one-day conference for developers, administrators, managers and users of SharePoint taking place on December 8, 2009.  Adlib Software will have a virtual presence at the show, along with other well-known SharePoint technology vendors such as K2, AvePoint, metalogix, and Quest Software. Please drop by our virtual space and learn more about how using PDF for SharePoint to automate rendering of documents in SharePoint to PDF can help your business.  You can register for the show at www.officesharepointpro.com

Virtual events like are relatively new and offer some key advantages, we are interested to see how effective these shows are for you the consumer.  As someone who has done their share of tradeshows and conferences, I will miss the face to face discussions that happen at live events however, I won’t miss is the travel, bad food, and aching feet.

Power Up With SharePoint information and free registration.

Regards,

Paul Dyck
Product Manager
Adlib Software

When implementing a server-based Document Transformation solution, the simplest approach is a ‘Watched Folder’, where you configure your Transformation Application to monitor a folder, and whenever a document appears in that folder, apply the same actions against that document.

Many modern server-based transformation engines such as Adlib Express can provide the ability to create multiple ‘Watched Folders’, but when you have more than a few variations on the transformation requirements, it can become difficult to manage through this approach.

Perhaps we want to have options enabled or disabled based on the file type, or date, or even based on values that are found in a separate file.  In this case, we would need a better approach.

XML Job Tickets with Express is an excellent solution for problems like this because they are fairly simple to create, and provide the ultimate flexibility in defining your transformation parameters.

Case Study: 

                A hospital needed to convert physical, tabbed documents into electronic PDF, but they needed to retain the navigation of the documents that was previously possible with the material tabs. They knew that with Express they were able to retain this function by converting the documents into PDF Bookmarks.

The challenge was to then identify the location of the tab sheets, and replace them with a bookmark in the PDF that points to the page immediately following the tab sheet.

                Here is how Express and XML Job Tickets solved the problem:

1. The tab Sheets were replaced with slip-sheets which contained two barcodes.  One barcode identified the sheet as a ‘Bookmark’, and the second contained the text that was on the tab.  (This became the text of the Bookmark)
2. The documents were then scanned with the resulting multi-page TIFF documents being directed automatically to the input folder of Adlib Express Server.
3. Express was configured to find all of the barcodes in the document, and export a file containing all of the pages that contained the ‘Bookmark’ barcode as well as the text that was on that document.
4. Express Server was also configured to launch a post-processing script.  This is a simple script in VBScript that reads the resulting file and then generates an XML Job Ticket based on the first scan.
5. The new XML Job Ticket instructed Express to create a bookmark for each of the pages, perform an OCR of the text found on all of the contents, and to remove the physical barcode pages, so the bookmarks could navigate directly to the first page in each section.

 From this example you can see, using XML Job Tickets in addition to VBScripts, adding flexibility and customized logic to your Document Transformation workflow is easy.

Jeff Brand
Senior Technical Account Manager

In my day to day work I come across many stories from our customers about how they are using Adlib Express in their businesses. I would like to share a series of articles that highlight some interesting solutions throughout a variety of industries, each with specific problems. This week I introduce the Financial Industry.

Sitting atop a heap of seemingly endless files and forms is the financial industry. In financial services, being able to provide proper documentation quickly to a client delivers peace of mind, assuring them that their investment is being efficiently taken care of. Speedy service and customer relationships are the cornerstones of profit in the financial industry; however, internal business synergy is vital to a company’s success.

With over a thousand employees unable to share files created on different software applications, document accessibility was a major challenge for Assurant, a provider of specialty risk management products throughout North America, Latin America, and Europe. The inability to share files between employees can often lead to confusion, delay, and an overall drop in productivity. Adlib Express brought Assurant a one-stop solution that empowered employees to easily convert multiple documents from any original format to universally accessible PDFs which could then be easily forwarded to colleagues or customers. Adlib’s centralized solution eliminated the cost and IT hassle of multiple desktop licenses, and dramatically reduced the workload of the document preparation center. Employees at Assurant were able to quickly convert and share documents, ensuring high efficiency within the office.

Assurant also took advantage of Express’ publishing capabilities and applied watermarks and headers/footers to their converted documents.
 
Next time we will take a look at an example of Express within the government industry.

Scott Mackey 
Director of Product Management 

One problem that we hear about from customers when we talk about document conversion to PDF in SharePoint is the inability to merge multiple documents into a single PDF file.

There are a lot of uses for document assembly, the most common being the creation of proposals for RFPs (Requests for Proposals), and Meeting Books for Boards or Trustees. Creating a single, cohesive PDF file from a collection of documents in different formats such as  Microsoft Word, financial information in Excel, engineering data in AutoCAD DWG format, PowerPoint presentations, etc., produces a more professional looking result, and makes it much more efficient for the reader to use this information.  The merged PDF file can be made much easier for users to navigate through its contents with the addition of a table of contents and PDF bookmarks for the entire document, and an index of terms used along with a hyperlink to the exact location.

PDF for SharePoint includes a workflow that enables the merging of documents in a document library into a single PDF file.  A “Merge Documents” column is used to include/exclude documents in the library from the merge. A “Merge Order” column is used to define the order of the documents to be merged in the resulting PDF.

Using this method, instead of extracting documents from SharePoint to merge them using a desktop application, will make multiple document assembly of SharePoint content much more efficient and reliable.

Paul Dyck
Product Manager
Adlib Software

I’m a technology fan. For personal use, computers, home theatre, digital photography all require endless (but enjoyable) research to figure out which new toy offers the best value. For business use, technology requires no less research but, the process tends to be less enjoyable. This could be because technology is an ever moving target.

Whether you’re talking about hardware and software for the office or the latest in home theatre technology – it seems the product evolves faster than it can be implemented. For an IT Administrator it can take months or even years to deploy and get users to actually adopt a new technology. By the time they become proficient it has become out of date. It is also a frustration for the knowledge worker being asked to change from the familiar. Spouses often react the same way when a new TV appears at home but, I digress.

Bottom line, technology is confusing. Open OfficeTM for example showed a lot of promise against the mighty Microsoft office. Adoption; however, has been slower than many expected. Now, new products are entering the fray in an attempt to become the productivity environment that business users ‘live in.’ There are new online alternatives to Microsoft from Google Docs, Adobe Buzzword and even Cisco. We all simply want the best tool to get our jobs done without having to think too much about it.

Transparent technology makes everyone’s life easier. Success can be achieved by implementing technology that adds efficiency or functionality without affecting a one’s daily job. The challenge for vendors and the IT staff who wade through all the marketing – is to determine which products will give the most benefit to users, without disrupting the core work process. They also need to be able to do this with shrinking budgets and project timelines.

As a server software vendor, our success is partially due to the fact that we provide a tool with broad functionality and flexibility that is tightly integrated with whatever core business applications the knowledge workers are used to - even if it changes over time. It is often transparent to the user that anything has been installed - they get the functionality they need without changing the way they work.

Might I also suggest switching to a digital TV signal at home? You’ll see how a little 'transparent technology' upgrade can enrich your life away from work too.

Are you heading to Las Vegas in October for the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009? Adlib Software will be there so be sure to come by booth 816 and see us. I will also be hosting a breakout session about (you guessed it), “PDF Conversion in SharePoint – Make Content More Accessible Through Automated Document Transformation.” If that’s not enough of a reason for you to spend five days in the desert, then you should also know that this will be a great opportunity to learn about SharePoint 2010. It looks like this release is going to include some interesting new features like the ability to select and perform operations on multiple files at a one time. I am tremendously interested in learning more about SharePoint 2010 so that we can be ready to support it and take advantage of all the new capabilities found in this new release.

Hope to see you in Vegas.

 


Paul Dyck
Product Manager

When thinking of the benefits associated with software maintenance, two often prominently come to mind; free upgrades and product maintenance. With these two benefits, staying current with the latest software is virtually cost-free and in the event of a technical issue, there is the support to fix the problem. Software maintenance also brings the added value of customer support that can aid in the integration of the product and the way you operate it.

What you may not know is that there is often additional support available beyond that of your standard maintenance for an additional fee. Adlib for example has onsite training available which is a great way to maximize your investment. Personal, interactive training can optimize your software use by uncovering features you may not have noticed before. Another way to get the most out of any product is to know as much about it as possible. Online presentations are a great way to learn more about a product and the support that comes along with it. Webinars are one presentation type and are used by Adlib. To learn about the next upcoming Webinar, contact your Account Representative.

I hope I’ve shown that whichever way you slice it, having and maintaining your software maintenance is a great way to have support for any issues that could arise.

Peter Jonak
Customer Loyalty Representative

There are 2 issues with the way SharePoint 2007 handles PDF files out of the box that significantly reduces the value and usability of PDF files which are stored there.  Fortunately, both of these problems are easily solved, and the solution is readily available and documented on the web.

Let’s say that you have finished setting up a document transformation process in SharePoint to automatically convert your Microsoft Word files to PDF for publishing on the web, or to create searchable PDF files from scanned images using OCR. At this point, you may have experienced some problems because of the way SharePoint treats PDF files.

Problem #1 – The icon for PDF files is a generic blank document instead of the usual icon for PDF, making it difficult to quickly scan document libraries and visually identified them. This problem is easily solved by getting a .GIF version of the PDF icon and registering it in SharePoint.

Problem #2 – PDF files are not showing up in search results. This is because by default, SharePoint 2007 search indexes only the document metadata, and not the contents. This negates the value of using OCR to convert scanned documents or image-only PDFs to searchable PDF and makes finding information in SharePoint much more difficult.

To enable full text searching of PDF documents, a PDF iFilter must be installed and configured. There are several options, including a free PDF iFilter from Adobe and the purchasable Foxit PDF iFilter.

Paul Dyck
Product Manager
Adlib Software