Document Editor Plus – Conversion & OCR

Part 5 of 7 · Conversion & OCR

Batch conversion

The Convert page holds three independent queues — one per direction. Switching tabs never loses the list you already built.

TabAcceptsProducesOCR
DOC/XLS/PPT → PDF .docx .doc .dotx .dot .rtf .txt .htm .html .xlsx .xlsm .xlsb .xls .xltx .xltm .xlt .csv .tsv .pptx .pptm .potx .potm .pdf No
PDF → DOC .pdf .docx Optional
PDF → XLS .pdf .xlsx Optional

Convert a batch

  1. Pick the direction tab. Each tab has its own file list, progress and status.
  2. Add files: drag them onto the drop area, or use Browse files. Files that do not belong to that direction are skipped with a message and never enter the list.
  3. Check the output directory at the bottom. It defaults to each file’s own folder; Browse changes it for the whole queue.
  4. Press Start Convert. Rows move from Queued to Converting to Done, and the bar below counts finished files.
  5. When the batch ends, the output folder opens with the converted files selected (if the setting is on).

Queue rules worth knowing

BehaviorDetails
One job at a time Only one conversion runs in the whole app, whichever tab started it. Other queues stay usable but cannot start until the running batch finishes.
Start re-runs the queue Every press starts again from the first file and resets statuses; it is not a “resume”. Files already converted keep their output path unless you changed the output folder.
Never overwrites If the target name exists, the output becomes name (2).pdf, then name (3).pdf, and so on. Nothing in the folder is replaced.
Cancel Appears only while a batch is running. It stops the queue; files finished before the cancel stay on disk.
Clear list Empties the current tab when it is idle. Other tabs are untouched.
Progress The engine reports no live percentage, so an active row reads “converting…”. The bar tracks how many files are finished, not bytes.
Failures The row’s status turns red — hover it for the reason. A summary appears under the status bar, and details are written to the app log.
Skipped files Empty files (0 bytes) and containers that are not valid Office packages are rejected up front, with the reason shown instead of a failed row.

OCR for scanned PDFs

The two PDF directions can recognise text in scans. The controls sit on the same row as the file count, under the PDF → DOC and PDF → XLS tabs.

ControlWhat it does
Use OCR Turns recognition on for the queue. It is greyed out when the recognition engine or its language data is missing — hover it for the exact reason.
Language One choice per run. Chinese, Japanese and Korean recognisers automatically pair with English so mixed lines still work.
Skip text PDFs On by default. A PDF that already carries selectable text on every page is converted directly: faster, and the original characters are kept instead of being re-recognised. Clear it to force recognition, for example when the text layer is garbled or empty.

When to turn OCR on

  • Scanned documents and photos of pages — there is no text layer, so without OCR the output would contain images only.
  • Mixed batches — leave Skip text PDFs on. Born-digital files take the fast path while scans are recognised.
  • Broken text layers — turn skipping off to rebuild the text from the page image.

Adding a language

  1. Open the tessdata folder next to the application.
  2. Drop in the language file you need — for example chi_sim.traineddata for Simplified Chinese. English ships with the app.
  3. Restart the app. The list is read from disk at startup, so the new language simply appears in the dropdown — there is nothing to configure.

Recognition is per page and can be slow. Pages are rendered at high resolution before being recognised, which is what makes small type readable. A 200–300 dpi scan with straight pages gives the best results; skewed or low-contrast phone photos lose accuracy quickly.