Ideas about renaming a folder of pdf files

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hi,
I am looking for ideas on the various methods of renaming a number of files based on their contents. The files are pdf files created by a scanner and associated OCR software. My aim is to look at the file by selecting it in the Finder and have it renamed and then stored in the correct folder depending on its contents. For example when I view a scan of a document from my bank I want to have it renamed with the creation date and name of bank and then moved to a folder of other files from the bank.

At the moment I am experimenting with Noodlesoft’s Hazel. I have set up a drop folder for each document type and Hazel renames the file and moves it to the final storage folder. While this works it has the drawback of requiring multiple drop folders coupled to multiple hazel actions which get error prone when setting up multiple drop folders. I realise that there are many other ways to achieve the end result using other tools. So what do you or would you use?

best wishes

Simon

#2

What type of document do you want to target? Automation tackles patterns, not randomness. If it’s a financial report, bank statement or similar, you most probably have a spot with the word “bank” pegged.

Please provide an example.

#3

I’m not sure what you mean by “spot” but certainly the PDF documents contain account numbers etc. Actually I was not thinking of parsing the text of the documents but I can see that it would be an excellent solution. Instead I was thinking of having some form of user interface that would allow me to select the document type which would then control how the document was renamed.

Call me old fashioned but I would rather not post an example from my bank account :wink:

#4

#scrutinizer82 Thanks for the nudge. I’m going to see what I can come up with using PDFkit.