Three tools live under Tools in the sidebar: Make a PDF, Convert files and Batch jobs. You can also find them in the command palette (Ctrl+K). They all run on your computer, and none of them changes your original files.
Put several files into one PDF
Sidebar › Tools › Make a PDF
Drop in PDFs, pictures, Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, arrange them, and get one PDF. Nothing is uploaded. You can also start it from the Sopycat icon's jump list in the Windows taskbar.
- Press Add files, or drop files onto the page.
- Drag the rows into the order you want, or use each row's ⋯ menu: Move up, Move down or Remove.
- For a PDF, you can name just the pages you want, for example "1-3, 5". Leave it empty for all of them.
- For pictures, choose the page size (Letter, A4, Legal or Size of the picture), which way the page turns (Always upright, Always sideways or To suit each picture) and the margin (None, Small, Normal or Wide).
- Choose Put it in my library or Save it as a file….
- Press Make the PDF.
What the labels on each row mean
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Its pages go in as they are. | |
| Picture, one page | The picture gets a page of its own. |
| Converted by LibreOffice | Converted by the Office pack. |
| Printed as a page | A text file, Markdown note or web page, laid out as pages. |
| Word, approximate layout (no Office pack) | A Word file converted without the Office pack. The words are right; the layout may differ. |
| Needs the Office pack | Excel and PowerPoint files can't go in until you add the Office pack. |
A PDF with a password can't be added. Open it in Sopycat, remove the password first, then add it. See removing a password.
Change a file to another format
Sidebar › Tools › Convert files
- Press Add files or drop files onto the page. You can add many at once.
- Under Turn it into (or Turn them into), choose a format. Only formats that suit all the files are listed. If the files have nothing in common, convert them in two goes.
- For pictures, set the Quality (40 to 100). When a PDF becomes pictures, choose the Sharpness for pages: Screen (96 dpi), Good (150 dpi) or Print (300 dpi).
- Under Where the results go, choose Beside the originals or A folder…. Tick Add the results to my library too if you want them there as well.
- Press the Convert button. It shows how many files, for example Convert 3 files.
Convert files never overwrites anything. If a file with the same name is already there, it adds "(2)" to the new one.
What can I convert to what?
| From | Without the Office pack | With the Office pack, also |
|---|---|---|
| Pictures (PNG, JPG, WebP, TIFF, GIF, BMP, HEIC, HEIF, AVIF) | PNG, JPG, WebP, TIFF, PDF | Nothing extra needed |
| Pictures (one per page), plain text (.txt) | Word (.docx), OpenDocument (.odt), rich text (.rtf), web page (.html). The layout is approximate. | |
| Word (.docx) | PDF (approximate layout), plain text, web page, pictures | OpenDocument, rich text |
| Other Office files (.doc, .odt, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, .ppt, .pptx, .odp) | Nothing | Everything in the list |
| Text and web pages (.txt, .md, .html) | PDF, web page, plain text, pictures | Word, OpenDocument, rich text |
A scanned PDF has no words in it, so converting it to plain text gives you nothing. Make it searchable first: open it and choose More › Make it searchable (OCR)….
Run one job across a whole folder
Sidebar › Tools › Batch jobs
Batch jobs work through every suitable file in a folder. Your files are never changed; the results go to a folder of their own, with the same file names.
| Job | What it does |
|---|---|
| Make smaller | Shrinks every PDF, using Screen, Print or Maximum quality. See making a PDF smaller. |
| Make searchable | Runs text recognition (OCR) on scanned PDFs and pictures. English only. |
| Convert to PDF | Turns Word, Excel, PowerPoint, pictures and notes into PDFs. |
- Choose the job.
- Under Folder to work through, press Choose… and pick the folder. Tick Include subfolders to go into folders inside it too, up to six levels deep.
- Under Put the results in, keep the suggested Sopycat output folder, or press Choose… to pick another.
- Press Start. The button shows how many files will be worked on.
Each file's result appears as it finishes. Stop after this file ends the job once the current file is done. When it's finished, Open the output folder takes you to the results.
Why were some files skipped?
- Password-protected files are skipped.
- Excel and PowerPoint files are skipped if the Office pack isn't added. Word files convert approximately without it.
- If the folder has nothing the job can work on, Sopycat says "Nothing in that folder this job can work on."
Only one batch job runs at a time.
The Office pack
Settings › Converting Office files
Sopycat uses LibreOffice, a free office suite, to convert Excel, PowerPoint, older Word and OpenDocument files. You can add it in one of three ways:
- Press Download the Office pack (about 350 MB). It doesn't need installing or administrator rights.
- If LibreOffice is already installed on the computer, Sopycat finds it. Press Look again if you've just installed it.
- Press Choose soffice.exe… to point Sopycat at a copy of LibreOffice somewhere else. Forget that path undoes this.
Remove the pack deletes the downloaded pack if you no longer need it.
What needs the Office pack?
- Adding .doc, .odt, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .odp, .ppt, .pptx or .csv files to your library.
- Converting those files to anything.
- Converting a PDF to Word, OpenDocument, rich text or a web page.
- Converting anything to OpenDocument or rich text, and text or web pages to Word.
You don't need it for Word (.docx) to PDF, text and web pages to PDF, pictures, or PDFs to pictures or text.
Each conversion has up to four minutes. A very large file that takes longer stops with an error. For more help, see setting up the Office pack.
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