Chain PDF Steps Into One Workflow
If a document always needs rotating, cropping, watermarking and compressing, the sequence is the job. A workflow stores it once and runs it on demand.
What this tool does
Chains the one-shot tools into a pipeline and runs it on a document in a single pass — rotate, crop, resize, n-up, flip, grayscale, deskew, watermark, header and footer, page numbers, Bates, metadata, bookmarks, annotation removal, compress, repair, flatten, protect and unlock.
How it works
Write one step per line, either the tool name alone or with settings (name:key=value,...), then run the file through it. Steps execute in the order they appear, so put repair before compress and protect last. Save the pipeline when the same job arrives every week — the point of a workflow is that the next file needs no decisions.
- Choose the PDF, or drag it onto the page.
- Set steps (one per line) — the settings below explain what each one changes.
- Run the tool and download the result.
Settings that decide the result
- Steps (one per line) — One step per line as name or name:key=value,... Valid steps: rotate, crop, resize, n-up, flip, grayscale, deskew, watermark, header-footer, page-numbers, bates, metadata, bookmarks, remove-annotations, compress, repair, flatten, protect, unlock.
When to reach for it
- Every incoming document gets the same treatment. Save the chain instead of repeating five tools.
- A batch must be processed identically. One workflow, applied to each file.
Questions we get
What can a workflow chain together?
Several tools in one pass — rotate then compress, watermark then protect, and so on. Build the chain once and run any document through it; the chain runs in your browser.
Where it fits
The tools people usually open next to Workflows:
- Resize — Change PDF page size and add margins/padding.
- PDF to Text — Extract text from PDF. Copies all text from the PDF document and extracts it to a separate text file
- Alternate & Mix — Mixes pages from 2 or more documents, alternating between them.
Every tool works on a copy, so the original file is never modified. Uploads are stored under an unguessable id and deleted automatically two hours after you last open them; nothing is listed, shared or indexed. More on the security page.