Introduction

Actions in pdfToolbox are different entities than fixups. Generally they provide access to functionality that wouldn't be easy to integrate into a preflight profile; often because they work with non-PDF files, or work with multiple files on the input or output side. Examples are:

  • Save as image
  • Convert to PDF
  • Split PDF
  • Merge PDF
  • ...

Actions started out as the items on the Switchboard, but over the years have migrated to different parts of pdfToolbox. This is where they can be found today.

Switchboard

Many actions can be created on the Switchboard. In the example below, the "Image export" pane of the Switchboard is used. Clicking on the hamburger menu at the bottom left, opens a menu. The menu item "Create a new Switchboard action..." allows saving the current Switchboard settings into an action. If you have already created actions of this type, they show up in the menu as well and you can rename or delete them.

While the Switchboard can still be used for this, it is no longer the best way to work with actions.

Fixups window

In the Fixups window, all actions in the current library show up with a green icon in front of the name of the action.

You can use the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the fixups window to:

  • Create a new action
  • Duplicate an existing action
  • Delete an action
  • Delete an action together with all resources it may be using

When creating a new action, or editing an existing one, the action editor dialog gives access to all action types (1). Each action type then comes with its own set of properties.

Command line or SDK

All actions are available as separate command-line commands for pdfToolbox CLI, and as separate functions in pdfToolbox SDK. Refer to the chapters for pdfToolbox CLI or pdfToolbox SDK for more information.