Our popular PDF Converter for SharePoint and PDF Converter Services (for Java, C#, PHP, Ruby), as well as the PDF Converter for SharePoint Online / Office 365 is used in almost any imaginable industry. Local and federal government, financial industry, retail, engineering, space exploration etc. Some of these industries have pretty strict requirements when it comes to submitting or archiving documents.

One of the industries that specify such requirements is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In their specifications for Providing Regulatory Submissions in Electronic Format — Certain Human Pharmaceutical Product Applications and Related Submissions Using the eCTD Specifications they list the following requirements. 

• PDF versions 1.4 through 1.7, PDF/A-1 and PDF/A-2: We support all these versions, and more, and can even convert existing PDF files to PDF 1.1 – 1.7 as well as PDF/A1b & A2b for long term archiving.
• Do not activate security settings or password protection: Although we support a range of PDF Security, Restriction and encryption facilities. The FDA’s recommendation is to not apply any security to the generated documents.
• Fully embed all non-standard fonts:  Embedding or stripping of embedded fonts is fully supported by our software. Even better, just use PDF/A output which automatically takes care of most requirements.
• Avoid image-based PDF files whenever possible: Image based content can be hard to read on screen and – even worse – is not searchable. As a result people cannot copy its contents or find it using whatever search engine they happen to use. When dealing with image based content such as scans and faxes, use our Optical Character Recognition (OCR) abilities to automatically recognise all text and include it in the PDF file.
• Optimize the PDF for fast web view: Many PDF files are accessed via the internet. To prevent long downloads, PDF files can be Linearized / Optimised for fast web view. This reduces the loading time of the initial pages considerably.
• Table of contents (TOC): The ability to merge multiple files is probably the second most used feature provided by our software. However, the result of a merge operation may result in a document that is hundreds of pages long, which can make navigation a bit difficult. Our software automatically adds PDF bookmarks to ease navigation, but even better can automatically generate a full featured Table Of Contents.
• Initial View Settings: Making sure that the PDF is displayed in the most optimal manner when the document is opened removes the effort from the end user and reduces the need for training. Naturally we fully support this. 
• Page Numbering: Especially in large documents, page numbering is extremely important. Most documents already contain page numbers, but when merging multiple documents together these page numbers do not reflect the reality. Use our extensive watermarking facilities to automatically calculate and display page numbers

If you have any questions then please leave a comment below or contact our friendly support desk, we love to talk to our customers.

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The new features introduced with version 7.1 of the PDF Converter for SharePoint have proven to be popular with our customers. Today we are happy to announce version 7.2, which takes the existing features and elevates them to the next level while staying compatible with all SharePoint versions including SharePoint 2007, 2010 and 2013.

In addition to a number of bug fixes, the main new features are OCR Workflow Actions for SharePoint Designer and Nintex workflow, the ability to extract text from bitmap based content using OCR as well as further improvements to the MSG and EML based converters, specifically in the area of embedded (OLE) content and calendar entries.

• Converting MSG based Calendar entries to PDF including embedded content.
• Extract text from scanned content using OCR and Nintex Workflow
• Extract text from scanned content using OCR and SharePoint Designer Workflows
• Converting scans and images to searchable PDFs using OCR & Nintex Workflow
• Converting scans and images to searchable PDFs using SharePoint Designer Workflows

 
For those not familiar with the product, the PDF Converter for SharePoint is a lightweight solution that allows end-users to merge, split, watermark, secure, OCR and convert common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email) MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF as well as other formats from within SharePoint using a friendly user interface, workflows or a web service call without the need to install any client side software or Adobe Acrobat. It integrates at a deep level with SharePoint and leverages facilities such as the Audit log, Nintex Workflow, localisation, security and tracing. It runs on SharePoint 2007, 2010 & 2013 and is available in English, German, Dutch, French, Traditional Chinese and Japanese. For detailed information check out the product page.
 

 
Example of a converted Calendar entry with an (OLE) embedded Excel sheet

In addition to the changes listed above, some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Installation & Administration Guide.
• User Guide.
• Product videos.
• Screenshots.
• Discussion Forum.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (46MB). .

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Anyone who has ever looked at product packaging is familiar with basic barcodes, those black and white vertical stripes that have made such a positive impact on cash registers. (I am old enough to remember pre-barcode days, oh the horror). Although first introduced in in 1997, QR Codes - a variation on the traditional barcode - have become really popular in the last few years as they allow much more data to be stored, with a very high level of error correction.

A popular use for QR codes is to embed them in documents. They can store all kind of information (almost 3KB at the time of writing) including meta-data such as a Document ID, last update time, author, anything really. However, to create these codes and add them to your documents, that is tricky, especially in SharePoint, what to do….. what to do!

Here is what to do, download the latest version of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint or Muhimbi PDF Converter Services and use a workflow (SharePoint Designer, Nintex, K2, Visual Studio), the SharePoint User interface or our API to add QR codes to documents. It just works!

Support for QR codes is part of the upcoming 8.0 release, if you would like early access then please contact us.

Have a look at the examples below. The various facilities are largely self-describing so there is no need to go into too much detail. For more information and examples related to watermarking in general, see the Watermarking hub in our Knowledge Base.

Regardless of the method used to apply the QR watermark, you always need to specify the following information:

• Content: The content to embed in the QR code. This will need to match the specified input mode.
• Version: Over the years many different QR versions have been introduced. Select the one appropriate to your needs, either Auto or Version01 – Version40.
• Input mode: Specify the appropriate mode for your content:
  - Binary: Any value including text, URLs etc.
  - AlphaNumeric: Numbers, (Upper case) characters and SPACE, $, %, *, +, -, ., /, :
  - Numeric: Numbers only
• Error correction level: Select the appropriate level for your needs: Low, Medium, Quartile, High

SharePoint Designer workflows

Adding a QR Code using a SharePoint Designer workflow is similar to adding any of our other watermarking workflow actions.

Nintex Workflow

When using Nintex Workflow there is only a single Watermark PDF workflow action. In the action’s configuration screen select QR Code as the Watermark Type and fill in the blanks. For details about adding watermarks using Nintex Workflow see this blog post.

Muhimbi’s real-time watermarking facilities

The PDF Converter for SharePoint comes with this cool facility to add a watermark the moment a PDF is opened. If the information embedded in the QR Code is user-specific or time sensitive (e.g. the name of the user who opened the PDF, or the current date / time) then you may want to consider using this facility instead of a workflow. QR codes can be added using our XML based watermarking syntax.

K2 Workflows

Adding a QR code using K2 blackpearl is easy as well. For details about how to integrate the Muhimbi PDF Converter with K2, as well as some examples, see this article.

Muhimbi’s Web Services based API

QR codes can also be added using our flexible web services based API, regardless of platform (C#, Java, PHP, Ruby etc). The associated class and enumerations can be found below. For an example of how to create watermarks from code see this blog post.

Any questions or comments? Leave an update below or contact our friendly support desk, we love to talk to our customers!

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It is no secret that the real power of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint comes from the ability to automate processes using workflows, it takes the human error factor out of the equation. Automatically convert, watermark and secure a file and write it to the Record Center when it changes? No problem, all fully automatic, nice, easy, repeatable, just what you need.

When the product was originally released customers were quick to request workflow support. First for SharePoint Designer Workflows, then Nintex Workflow followed by Visual Studio Workflows, K2 workflows and even in SharePoint Online. We were pretty pleased with ourselves, we support the whole lot across all SharePoint versions, well done to us…..

Then Microsoft introduced SharePoint 2013, which – in addition to the legacy workflow engine that we already support – comes with the optional Workflow Manager. You know… because things were just not complicated enough. This Workflow Manager only works on some SharePoint editions (not on SharePoint Foundation), must be deployed manually and uses a completely different architecture, who is going to use that? Well, it turns out that some people actually use it and – as we hate to say ‘no’ to our customers – we went back to the drawing board and hammered out support for Workflow Manager Workflows.
 

Support for Workflow Manager workflows is part of the upcoming 8.0 release. Want early access? Please contact us.

 
So, how does this work? Well pretty much the way you expect it to. When deploying the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint on SharePoint 2013, Central Admin’s Farm Solutions screen will show that a new Solution named ‘muhimbi.pdfconverter.workflow
manager.sp2013.wsp’ has been deployed automatically. On systems that do not have the Workflow Manager installed this Solution is ignored, but those lucky enough to be running the Workflow Manager will see a range of new Workflow Activities in SharePoint Designer when selecting ‘SharePoint 2013 workflow’ as the Platform Type when creating a new workflow.
 

Workflows using the SharePoint 2013 Workflow Platform Type now show the same range of PDF related workflow actions that are present for workflows using the SharePoint 2010 Workflow type. The only difference is that the legacy Convert to PDF workflow action is no longer present as this has been replaced by the more flexible Convert Document action.

Building a workflow is a matter of selecting the appropriate action and filling in the blanks. All actions are self-describing and do pretty much what you expect them to do. Links to the documentation for the SharePoint 2010 equivalents can be found below:

• Convert Document: Convert document to PDF as well as non-PDF Files.
• All watermark actions, excluding the Add Composite Watermark to PDF action.
• Add Composite Watermark to PDF: Apply several watermarks in a single action.
• Convert HTML to PDF: Convert HTML fragments or URLs such as List items or SharePoint Pages.
• Convert to OCRed PDF: Make scans or faxes discoverable by your search engine.
• Copy MetaData: Control which meta-data is copied when generating files.
• Extract text using OCR: Carry out OCR on part of a page and return the text.
• Merge Documents into PDF: Convert multiple files and merge them into a single PDF.
• Secure PDF: Encrypt a file and restrict the ability to print or copy content.
• Split PDF: Split a single, larger, file into multiple small ones.

 
It is possible to ‘chain’ multiple operations together by capturing the List Item ID of the output of one operation and use that to lookup an item, by its ID, in a follow up action. This way you can convert a document to PDF and then watermark or secure the generated PDF, all in a single workflow.

Most workflow actions require input or output files to be specified. For details about specifying file names and paths see this Knowledge Base Article.

SharePoint 2013 Workflow Manager workflows allow more complex scenarios than SharePoint 2010 workflows. For example it is possible to iterate over multiple files and convert them to individual PDFs, or build a list of file paths to feed into our Merge Documents into PDF action.

Pretty cool stuff. If you have any questions then please leave a comment below or contact our friendly support desk, we love to help.

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Today is a big milestone for Muhimbi, it is the day that we are releasing version 8.0 of the PDF Converter for SharePoint, the biggest release in our 8 year history.

The number of new features and changes is almost too large to list, but highlights include a completely overhauled InfoPath converter, a new setup experience, support for the new workflow engine introduced in SharePoint 2013, Support for SharePoint Online / Office 365 and much much more. 

The following blog posts provide more detail:

• New InfoPath conversion engine.
• SharePoint 2013 Workflow Manager support.
• New Installation experience.
• Add QR Codes as watermarks.
• Automatically insert empty (padding) pages when merging files.
• SharePoint Online / Office 365 support.
   

When upgrading from an older (pre 8.0) release, read this Knowledge Base article first.

For those not familiar with the product, the PDF Converter for SharePoint is a lightweight solution that allows end-users to merge, split, watermark, secure, OCR and convert common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email) MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF as well as other formats from within SharePoint using a friendly user interface, workflows or a web service call without the need to install any client side software or Adobe Acrobat. It integrates at a deep level with SharePoint and leverages facilities such as the Audit log, Nintex Workflow, K2 blackpearl, localisation, security and tracing. It runs on SharePoint 2007, 2010, 2013 & SharePoint Online and is available in English, German, Dutch, French, Traditional Chinese and Japanese. For detailed information check out the product page.

  New InfoPath converter on the right (old on the left), no more rendering inconsistencies.

In addition to the changes listed above, some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Installation & Administration Guide.
• User Guide.
• Product videos.
• Screenshots.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (61MB). .

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We are happy to announce the new 8.0 release of the Muhimbi PDF Converter Services (New releases for the PDF Converter for SharePoint and PDF Converter for SharePoint Online are available as well) 

The number of new features and changes are considerable and include a completely overhauled InfoPath converter, a new setup experience, Support for SharePoint Online / Office 365 and much much more. 

The following blog posts provide more detail:

• New InfoPath conversion engine.
• New Installation experience.
• Add QR Codes as watermarks.
• Automatically insert empty (padding) pages when merging files.
• SharePoint Online / Office 365 support. 
   

A quick introduction for those not familiar with the product: The Muhimbi PDF Converter Services is an ‘on premises’ server based SDK that allows software developers to convert typical Office files to PDF format using a robust, scalable but friendly Web Services interface from Java, .NET, Ruby & PHP based solutions. It supports a large number of file types including MS-Office and ODF file formats as well as HTML, MSG (email), EML, AutoCAD and Image based files and is used by some of the largest organisations in the world for mission critical document conversions. In addition to converting documents the product ships with a sophisticated watermarking engine, PDF Splitting and Merging facilities, an OCR facility and the ability to secure PDF files. A separate SharePoint specific version is available as well.

  New InfoPath converter on the right (old on the left), no more rendering inconsistencies.

In addition to the changes listed above, some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• Release Notes.
• Administration Guide.
• User & Developer Guide.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• All PDF Converter Services related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (50MB). .

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One of the more popular features of the on-premise version of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint is the ability to add watermarks – including meta-data, ip-address, date/time information and user information– the moment a file is downloaded or opened. The file as it is sits in SharePoint remains untouched, but the file that is downloaded to the user includes the watermarks. At the same time the PDF file can be secured and encrypted to make sure the watermarks cannot be touched. For details about how this works for the on-premise version– largely identical to the online product – see this blog post.

Brilliant feature, quite often used for security / DRM-light purposes, but up until now only available for SharePoint on-premise as providing this functionality in SharePoint Online – which is a very restricted platform – has proven to be….well…..tricky.

Well, that ends today as we are happy to announce a preview version of this functionality for the PDF Converter for SharePoint Online. Read on for details about how it works and how to enable it.

How it works

Before we go into further detail, let’s agree on a short name for this Feature as ‘Real Time Watermarking & Security when a file is accessed’ doesn’t roll off the tongue. Internally our team calls it ‘OnOpen’ as in something happens when a file is opened. So OnOpen it is, at least for the remainder of this post.

Once OnOpen is enabled (see the end of this post for details), whenever a PDF file is downloaded our software automatically adds any configured watermarks and security settings while the file is being sent to the user. It is up to the Site Administrators and List Owners to define these settings.

When OnOpen is first enabled on a site collection the settings are restricted by default. Site Collection Administrators will need to navigate to Site Settings / PDF Watermarking Settings (and/or PDF Security Settings) to specify the default settings and optionally specify if List Owners can override these settings.

PDF Watermarking settings screen as opened from Site Settings.

 
Please note that by simply specifying this information at the Site Settings level, watermarks are NOT automatically enabled in the Site Collection’s Lists and Libraries. Although the default settings can be inherited from the Site Settings, it must be enabled on each Library or List manually and individually.

If there is no need to centrally control the content of the watermark and security settings then make sure the Allow overriding option is enabled. This makes it possible for the details to be specified manually on each list or library.

To either manually specify the settings at the List or Library level, or activate the centrally specified settings, navigate to the relevant list or library, and from the List / Library ribbon tab select Library Settings / List Settings. This screen contains two new entries,  PDF Watermarking Settings and PDF Security Settings, clicking the former shows the following screen.
 

PDF Watermarking settings screen as opened from Library Settings

This screen provides the option to inherit the centrally specified settings, or – if permitted – manually specify settings and an optional filter.

By default watermarks are applied for every PDF file that is opened, but by specifying a filter it is possible to narrow it down based on a file’s meta-data, which can be very powerful. E.g. apply a ‘DRAFT’ watermark when the document status is set as such and skip the watermark if the status is ‘Final’.

Although adding static watermarks that don’t change over time can be very useful, the same can be achieved using our workflow facilities that only apply the watermark once rather than every time the document is opened. The real power of the OnOpen facility comes from the ability to insert Meta-Data or Macros in a watermark. This allows such scenarios as:

• Apply a watermark showing when the document was opened from SharePoint.
     Opened on '{LONG_DATE} / {LONG_TIME}' 
   
• Include the name, login id and ip-number of the user who downloaded the document, a great security feature if a document shows up in a place it is not supposed to show up.
    Opened by '{LOGON_USER}' ({USER_NAME}) on '{LONG_DATE} / {LONG_TIME}' from IP '{REMOTE_ADDR}'
   
• Include the Title, file name and last modified date in a document.
    Title: {Title}, File: {FileLeafRef}, Modified: {Modified}
   
• Add hidden watermarks to a document. E.g. fully transparent text that is invisible to the user, but can be extracted at a later date in case a document is leaked or shared with an unauthorised party.
   
• A mix of any of the above or any of the other meta-data fields and macros. A full list of Field codes and Macros can be found in this Knowledge Base article.

Finally, it is not just about watermarking as anyone with basic ‘Google search’ skills can download a simple PDF editor. To prevent users from modifying watermarks, and add additional layers of security by locking down printing and content copying, a Secure OnOpen facility is available as well.
 

Apply Security when a file is opened

The concept is the same. Defaults can be specified at the Site Collection level, individual settings can then be enabled at the List or Library levels. Separate filters can be specified if needed. The available security settings are as follows:

• Open Password: The user accessing the PDF file must know a specific password to open it.
• Owner password: No password is needed to view the content, but all content is encrypted and any specified security options are locked down.
• Security Options: Specify which option to lock down. The most popular ones are ‘Disable Printing’ and ‘Disable Content Copying’.

How to enable

So, all in all a pretty cool feature, however it must be enabled by a Site Collection Administrator before it can be used. For details about how to do this see this Knowledge Base Article. Don’t forget to enable the Automatic PDF Processing App Feature after elevating the privileges, both steps are described in detail in the article.

Any questions or feedback? Have a look at the FAQ, leave a comment below or contact our friendly support desk.

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One of the more popular uses of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint Online is the ability to convert InfoPath and Forms Services forms to PDF, something that is particularly topical since Microsoft announced that InfoPath 2013 has reached its end-of-life and will not be developed further.

Shortly after making the original announcement, in a particularly packed session at the 2014 SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft advised customers to switch to third party products as a replacement for InfoPath. One of the third parties Microsoft recommended is the topic of today’s post, Formotus.

The main take away as far as Formotus is concerned is that it is developed by some of the original members of Microsoft’s InfoPath team and that it is compatible with InfoPath making it relatively easy to migrate. As a result Muhimbi’s range of PDF Conversion products can convert forms generated with Formotus without problem. As far as our software is concerned all it sees is InfoPath forms. No need to make any changes, you can start using it immediately, something that quite a few of our customers have already started doing.

To learn more about Formotus including mobile and offline use, integration with mobile device cameras, GPS and other sensors, see the Features page on the Formotus website.

Although Formotus is compatible with InfoPath, it provides a number of facilities that are not part of the original InfoPath platform. The majority of these facilities are supported by the Muhimbi PDF Converter with a few small exceptions. A full list can be found below:

Supported

• Client independent: Forms can be converted regardless of the source platform (iOS, Android, Windows, Web)
• Dynamic view selection: Views intended for data entry are rarely suitable for printing and PDF Conversion. Muhimbi’s standard view selection facilities are fully supported:
• Attachments: Any attachments present on the views that are being converted can automatically be converted and attached to the generated PDF. Although at the time of writing Formotus does not yet support file attachments.
• Conversion of photos: A key reason to implement Formotus is to use it as a mobile data capture solution. It is not unusual for these scenarios to include the capturing of photos, which are converted in high resolution by our software.
• Ink Control: Capture signatures and diagrams on a background image chosen by the form designer.
• Annotation Control: Camera meets ink - Capture handwriting on a snapped photo or on an image inserted by the mobile user.
• Location Control: Capture the location of the mobile device using GPS or other available methods.
• Photo Location Control: Camera Control augmented with location and compass direction info.
• Annotation Location Control: Annotation Control augmented with location and compass direction info.
• Map Control: Embed a map of the current location into the form for submission.
• Device Info Control: Capture identifying information about the mobile device such as phone number and OS.
• Barcode Control: Read barcodes and QF codes into a form from the device's camera.
• Form Version Control: Display the version number of the underlying InfoPath form template.
• Device Info Control: Capture identifying information about the mobile device such as phone number and OS.
• Copy meta-data: Similar to InfoPath, Formotus’ fields can be promoted to the SharePoint library. The Muhimbi PDF Converter can automatically copy these fields to the generated PDF file.

Not supported (on some platforms)

Formotus runs on all SharePoint versions including SharePoint Online, which has very clear security boundaries. As a result any functionality that relies on data that is not stored inside the InfoPath XML file cannot be accessed during conversion, including:

• External Data connections
• Custom Code
• Rules
• SharePoint List Connector Control: Update a SharePoint list from a repeating table in a form.
• SharePoint Picture Control: Display a picture linked from a SharePoint picture library.
• Excel Chart Control: Display a chart generated by Excel Services on SharePoint.

 
For on-premise deployments this behavior can be changed as those systems typically share the same security boundaries. For details see this Knowledge base article.

To summarize, as far as Muhimbi’s range of PDF Conversion products is concerned, Formotus is a drop-in replacement for InfoPath with some cool additional features. Getting started is easy, install the Muhimbi PDF Converter App from the SharePoint App Store (and optional workflow actions), create a free Formotus account and install a client on your Mobile Device (iOS, Android, Windows).

Once you are able to post forms to SharePoint Online you can add a basic workflow to automatically convert a form to PDF, watermark and secure it. For details see this brief video tutorial.

Any questions or feedback? Leave a comment below or contact our friendly support desk, we love to help.

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Unlike the major 8.0 version released at the end of 2015, today’s release of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint is much smaller, nicer, gentler. This maintenance release does not come with many new features, but it contains some important fixes and refinements, which are just as important.

For those not familiar with the product, the PDF Converter for SharePoint is a lightweight solution that allows end-users to merge, split, watermark, secure, OCR and convert common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email) MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF as well as other formats from within SharePoint using a friendly user interface, workflows or a web service call without the need to install any client side software or Adobe Acrobat. It integrates at a deep level with SharePoint and leverages facilities such as the Audit log, Nintex Workflow, K2 blackpearl, localisation, security and tracing. It runs on SharePoint 2007, 2010, 2013 & SharePoint Online and is available in English, German, Dutch, French, Traditional Chinese and Japanese. For detailed information check out the product page.

When upgrading from an older (pre 8.0) release, read this Knowledge Base article first.

Some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Installation & Administration Guide.
• User Guide.
• Product videos.
• Screenshots.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (61MB). .

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Similarly to the SharePoint version released yesterday, today’s release of the Muhimbi PDF Converter Services is a small, but important, upgrade that solves a number of bugs and introduces some refinements.

A quick introduction for those not familiar with the product: The Muhimbi PDF Converter Services is an ‘on premises’ server based SDK that allows software developers to convert typical Office files to PDF format using a robust, scalable but friendly Web Services interface from Java, .NET, Ruby & PHP based solutions. It supports a large number of file types including MS-Office and ODF file formats as well as HTML, MSG (email), EML, AutoCAD and Image based files and is used by some of the largest organisations in the world for mission critical document conversions. In addition to converting documents the product ships with a sophisticated watermarking engine, PDF Splitting and Merging facilities, an OCR facility and the ability to secure PDF files. A separate SharePoint specific version is available as well.

Some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• Release Notes.
• Administration Guide.
• User & Developer Guide.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• All PDF Converter Services related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (53MB). .

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Microsoft has recently made a rather sudden and fundamental change to how SharePoint Online deals with certain 3^rd party software. Our workflow actions are unfortunately affected and you may have already seen a message when trying to activate them on new site collections.

Although Microsoft is relatively good when it comes to communicating change, this time they provided no notice and even Microsoft’s internal support team was unaware judging by the following history in Microsoft’s Office 365’s Service Health center:
 

Our team has worked hard on a workaround and I am happy to announce that a new version of our Workflow Actions is now available from this Knowledge Base Article. Even though you may not be experiencing any problems at this moment, we strongly recommend upgrading to the latest version.

Mini FAQ:

• Q: My workflows appear to work fine, how am I affected?
  A: At the moment you will only see a message when trying to activate our workflow actions on a new site collection. Workflows on Site collections where our workflow actions are already deployed will continue to work just fine, but it is our understanding that these workflows may cease to work at the end of August 2016.
   
• Q: What will happen if I don’t take action?
  A: You will be unable to activate our Workflow Actions on new Site Collections and your existing workflows may cease to work completely at the end of August 2016.
   
• Q: Will I need to change my workflows?
  A: No, the new version of our Workflow Actions are backwards compatible with the existing ones. However, you may want to utilise industry best-practice by first upgrading a test environment before changing your production environment.
   
• Q: I don’t use workflows, am I affected? 
  A: No, customers that use our SharePoint Online screens to interact with Muhimbi’s PDF Converter do not need to make any changes. Everything will continue to work as before.
   
• Q: Are users of Muhimbi SharePoint on-premise solutions affected? 
  A: No, this change only affects SharePoint Online tenants.
   

For more details about the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint Online see our new website.

We are trying to persuade Microsoft to give providers such as Muhimbi more notice for fundamental changes such as this one. Please help raise awareness by voting on UserVoice.

If you have any questions then feel free to leave a comment below or contact our support desk.

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One of the key reasons our customers love our popular range of server side PDF conversion and document automation products is the ability to automate processes. A friendly user interface to convert and merge files into a single PDF is nice and all, but being able to automate business processes using SharePoint workflows is where our products really shine.

Over the years we have created workflow actions for various environments; SharePoint Designer for the SP2007 & SP2010 workflow engine, Nintex Workflow 2007-2016, K2 blackpearl, the Workflow Manager included with SP2013/2016, and more recently the SharePoint Online / Office 365 workflow engine.

To keep everything consistent for our customers, we have always made sure that - regardless of the workflow platform used - all our workflow actions look and behave exactly the same. This has always worked well for us, but sometimes the underlying workflow platform throws a spanner in the works.

This post provides more details about recent changes that affect the SharePoint 2013-2016 Workflow Manager as well as SharePoint Online’s ‘SP2013’ workflow engine.

Look at all the cool workflow actions.

 
Before going into more detail, for the sake of simplicity and clarity let’s agree that the SharePoint 2013-2016 Workflow Manager and SharePoint Online’s ‘SP2013’ workflow engine are identical, and refer to both these workflow engines as the Workflow Manager. (They are based on the same technology, but the implementation is different.)

The previous version of our Workflow Manager actions worked well. However there was room for improvement in the following areas:

• Reusable Workflows: In the ‘old style’ SP2007-2010 workflow engine, reusable workflows worked pretty much the same as regular list workflows. It was possible to create one generic workflow and assign them to any list with little additional effort. This behaviour was changed in the Workflow Manager, which makes it much more difficult to carry out a lookup against a list that is not fixed at design time. Our new workflow actions address this by allowing the path to the input file to be specified at run-time. Confused? Keep reading, examples are provided below.
   
• Site Workflows: As Site Workflows are not associated with a specific List or Library item, Site Workflows were previously not supported. Fortunately, the same change that allows Reusable Workflows to work bettermakes it possible to integrate our software in Site Workflows.

So what has changed? Have a look at the old and new workflow sentences for the Convert Document action (the same change has been made to all other workflow actions)

Old Workflow Sentence

 New Workflow Sentence

As you can see, the change is simple. Previously it was a requirement to specify the document using a workflow look-up. Usually the workflow developer would specify ‘Current Item’ to refer to the document that started the workflow. However, it was also possible to carry out a lookup on a different, but always the same, list. Less than ideal when it comes to reusable workflows.

The new Workflow Sentence changes ‘this document’ to ‘this document or this source file’. As a result the new workflow actions are fully backwards compatible, any workflow created using the old actions will work just fine using the new ones. However, it is no longer necessary to always use a workflow lookup as this source file is a text field that accepts a file path.

Entering static text for the input file will rarely be the right solution as very few workflows always act on the same source file. The solution is to generate the path to the source file at run time, e.g. by storing it in a workflow variable. Alternatively you can carry out a lookup for the Encoded Absolute URL on the current item as per the screenshot below.
 

 
This works particularly well for reusable workflows. Regardless of the list the workflow is associated with, this will always point to the item that the workflow was started on. For details about specifying paths using Muhimbi’s software, see this blog post.

A tutorial showing how to create re-usable workflows is outside the scope of this post, but please keep in mind that after publishing a reusable workflow it needs to be associated to a list or library using the ‘Add a Workflow’ option.

The SharePoint Online version of the new workflow actions can be found here. The new version of the on-premise Workflow Manager actions are included in version 8.2 of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint.

If you have any questions, or suggestions for additional improvements, then leave a comment below or contact us.

Converting InfoPath forms to PDF, was first introduced due to overwhelming customer requests and has been part of the Muhimbi Converter for SharePoint since 2009, back when we were only on version 3! Even though InfoPath is being retired, InfoPath to PDF conversion is still a feature we get asked about a lot. In fact, it’s so popular we completely overhauled the InfoPath Converter in the latest release!

There are plenty of reasons for InfoPath to PDF conversion, chief among them are data compliance, data storage, and data sharing.

Compliance needs are the most obvious reason for PDF conversion. SharePoint is one of the most popular platforms for professional organizations to manage their documents and once any organization gets large enough, or ventures into specific fields, they run into a slew of acronyms like SOX or HIPPAA. This means dealing with new data security and preservation regulations.

For example, HIPPAA mandates records be kept for at least six years, sometimes with very specific metadata requirements. Storing those records isn’t just about finding space for the 1’s and 0’s, but rather keeping it in a way that is useful, maintainable, and properly accessible.
 

Download our InfoPath Archiving White Paper

This brings us to the second point on archiving InfoPath data: there are two separate files to be stored, and those files have to be kept in sync.

An InfoPath form itself is an XSN file, but the data that a user enters into it is stored as an XML file. If only the XML data is kept and the XSN file lost, the data is meaningless, as the XML has no context on its own. Even if both files are kept, there are still issues that can arise.

Re-creating a completed form requires a user to have privileges to access both files, which is uncommon. Over time storage servers housing the XML data may be changed or upgraded, so server naming conventions would have to be exactly the same so that file locations are maintained. Lastly, upgrading to newer versions of SharePoint (or moving to a cloud solution) means that URL locations of the form will make life much more difficult.

Since both files are needed to recreate a completed form, sharing information can be challenging. Either both files must be sent independently and recombined by the recipient (a complex task), or another type of file needs to encapsulate the data in a meaningful way.

The most obvious solution for the InfoPath preservation problem is to keep the data as a single file type that shows both the form and the data being entered. Of the different types of files that can do this, PDFs are clearly the best choice; it is accessible, and familiar to almost every user and device. Converting to a PDF can be done as part of a Nintex, K2, SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio workflow using Muhimbi’s range of server based PDF Converters, automatically archiving data for security. Plus, advanced features like watermarking, inserting QR codes and PDF/A make Muhimbi the default choice for Converting InfoPath to PDF.

If you haven’t yet used the Muhimbi PDF Converter it’s super easy, and if you already manage workflows you won’t have any issues getting it set up.

Details can be found in our Knowledge Base. We also have a short video demo of this process for SharePoint On-line using the online version of our tool, the PDF Converter for SharePoint Online.

Although support has officially been extended till 2026, Microsoft may be slowly discontinuing InfoPath, but as long as it’s useful to our customers you can bet we’ll keep supporting it.

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From time to time our support desk is asked how to convert or move files to a different site collection in SharePoint Online / Office 365 in combination with our popular PDF Converter for SharePoint Online. Unfortunately the answer is always something along the lines of ‘this is not possible using SharePoint Designer Workflows as there are clear security boundaries between site collections’.

Although there are some hacky and difficult ways to achieve this by directly invoking a REST based interface or using SharePoint’s Content Organizer, there is a different route that fits in well with the workflow mind-set, Microsoft’s cool new Flow product.

A detailed description of Flow is beyond the scope of this post, but let’s just say that it is the spiritual successor to SharePoint Designer, at least from a workflow perspective, with the key differentiator being that it is all modern and web-based, and – more importantly – not tied into SharePoint. It can integrate with many systems (BaseCamp, DropBox, Onedrive, Dynamics CRM, SalesForce) SharePoint being just one of them.

Although our developers are working hard to directly integrate our existing SharePoint Online Workflow Actions with Microsoft Flow - basically creating Flow specific versions that can be used from any platform - for now the solution is to first create a SharePoint Designer workflow to convert a file to PDF, which in turn invokes Flow to move the file to the destination Site Collection.

Read on for details about how to achieve this. Naturally this same technique also works for copying ANY file between site collections, it doesn’t need to come out of our Converter. The same technique can be used to copy files to and from OneDrive, DropBox and any other supported system.

1. If not already done so, sign up for Microsoft Flow (Free).
    
2. If not already done so, in Flow navigate to My Connections and set up a SharePoint connection.
    
3. In SharePoint Online make sure you have access to two different site collections. In this example we have named them SourceSite and DestinationSite.
    
4. Determine the name of the source and destination Document Libraries and folders, in our example the source folder is the root of the TransferToOtherSite Document Library. The Destination folder is in the Shared Documents library, specifically the FromOtherSite folder.
    
5. In this example we first create a SharePoint Designer Workflow (on the Source Site) that converts a file to PDF and writes the resulting file to the TransferToOtherSite Document Library. Your scenario may be different, but a short video about how to create such a workflow can be found in our Knowledge Base.
    
6. With a process setup that automatically places files in the source location, it is time to create a new process in Flow. On the My Flows screen select the option to create a New flow from blank.
    
7. The trigger that starts the flow must be defined first, enter SharePoint when a file is created and select the displayed trigger. Enter the source site collection and folder (use the Folder browser if needed)
    
8. With the fields filled out, click New Step followed by Add an Action.
    
9. Enter SharePoint create file and select the appropriate action. You may be tempted to use the SharePoint Copy File action, but that is limited to copying files within the SAME site collection.
    
10. Fill in the blanks, for details see the screenshot below. Naturally substitute the sample site and folder names with your own.

That is it, enter an appropriate name for the flow at the top of the screen and click the Create Flow option. You can later extend the flow by adding a SharePoint Delete File action to delete the original file if that is no longer needed, in effect moving the source file.

On the My Flows screen make sure the newly created flow is enabled. Create a file in the source location, either by kicking off the SharePoint Designer workflow or manually placing a file in the source folder. After a few seconds a copy of the file should show up in the destination site collection.
 

This is just a start, using some very simple steps Flow allows very powerful integration scenarios. By just adding one more action I was able to also copy the source file to my OneDrive folder, which in turn synced the file to my local system.

This allowed me to create a cool Flow where I have a local OneDrive folder that I can drop any file in, which is then synced automatically to OneDrive, which kicks off a Flow that converts the file to PDF, write it to another OneDrive folder, which in turn is synced back to my local system. A universal Desktop PDF Converter using just a few Flow actions… awesome!

For more details about Muhimbi’s workflow actions for carrying our Conversion, Merging, Watermarking, Securing and OCR of files, have a look at our website.

Any questions or comments, leave a message below or contact our friendly support desk, we love to help.

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One of the key advantages of deploying Apps in SharePoint Online, or at least App Store Apps, is the ease of installation, it is absolutely trivial. A quick search in the App Store followed by another click to install a complex product and you are done. No need to involve IT staff, plan capacity, assess risk, install dependencies, monitor servers and maintain systems. It doesn’t get much easier (for the customer, now we get to do all the hard work in our hosting environment :-)

Although we pride ourselves on the comprehensive installation experience, as well as the documentation we provide for our on-premise product (SP2007-2016), rolling out our software to a typical on-premise SharePoint farm is still less than trivial. What if we could bring the same installation experience that our SharePoint Online customers enjoy to SharePoint on-premise?

Well, and I guess you can see where this is going, today we are doing exactly that. Providing your SharePoint 2013 / 2016 SharePoint environment has been set up to integrate with the Office Store, you can install both our SharePoint Online App and Workflow Actions on-premise using the click of a button. Brilliant!

While installation of the App is easy, please make sure that:

1. Your SharePoint environment is configured for Apps.
2. Server-to-server authentication has been set up between your on-premise and SharePoint Online servers. (See page 9 to 15 in this document).
3. ACS is configured properly as per this post.

None of these requirements are specific to Muhimbi’s Apps / Add-ins. Most Apps, at least the non-trivial ones, require the same one-time SharePoint configuration.
 

So, what else do you need to know?

1. Although from a functional perspective the App is largely identical to the traditional on-premise product, the license is completely different. The App is subscription based, regardless of the environment it is installed in. For details about the various subscriptions, see this overview.
2. Although we aim for full feature parity between the App and the traditional PDF Converter for SharePoint, there are some differences. The App does not directly integrate with Nintex Workflow (Nintex for Office 365 does not support 3rd party add-ins at the time of writing). Our API is also not (yet) available from the App. If you need either of these functions then please reach out to our support desk for the appropriate workarounds. An overview of the key differences and similarities can be found in this Knowledge Base article.
3. App Store integration is only available in SharePoint 2013 and later. This does not work on older SharePoint versions such as 2007 or 2010. Please install our on-premise software in those environments.

For more details about the App see the separate Muhimbi-Online website.

 
With the modern App being available on-premise, you may think that we will no longer focus development on our traditional on-premise products. This is not the case, we have a very complete and actively developed roadmap for both products and will continue to develop each separately. We pride ourselves on never leaving any customers behind, which is why every new version of our on-premise products still supports SharePoint 2007 and Windows Server 2003. (Yes, many people still run that combination, and we don’t mind that they do)

 
Any questions or comments? Please leave a message below or contact us, we love talking to our customers.

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During the previous 8+ years we have made it a habit to announce new software releases– for our on-premise software – at the time it became available for download. However, because releasing updates for an online service, where we maintain the entire back-end, doesn’t require any end-user involvement, we haven’t always done such a good job where it comes to announcing new versions of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint Online / Office 365.

That changes today as we formally announce the availability of version 9.8, the 8th release since the product first became available in June 2015. An overview of all recent and historical changes can be found below.
 

Please note that all SharePoint Online versions are numbered in the 9.X range. At the time of writing the most recent version of the on-premise software is 8.1.
 

The number of new features and changes is almost too large to list, but include support for Site Workflows, Reusable workflows, the ability to install the App in SharePoint 2013 / 2016, support for the new Document Library experience, real-time watermarking, a brand new website for SharePoint Online and much much more. 

The following blog posts provide more detail:

• Installing App Store Add-in on-premise.
• New Workflow Actions with support for Reusable and Site workflows.
• Real-time Watermarking and Security.
• Support for converting InfoPath and Formotus files.
• Add QR Codes as watermarks.

 
If you are an existing customer, or installed a trial version before October 2016, then we recommend upgrading the App and installing the latest workflow actions. (Especially as Microsoft has deprecated certain types of sandbox solutions and caused some issues when they introduce the new Document Library experience)
  
 
For those not familiar with the product, the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint Online is a lightweight subscription based solution that allows end-users to merge, split, watermark, secure, OCR and convert common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email) MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF using SharePoint Online through a friendly user interface or via workflows, without the need to install any client side software or Adobe Acrobat. More details can be found on the product page. 
  

Deploy App Store Add-in to SharePoint Online or on-premise.

In addition to the changes listed above, some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ
• Knowledge Base.
• Product videos.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Start your 30 day trial by installing the App and Workflow Actions. .

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Although at the time of writing (October 2016) Microsoft’s cool new Flow platform is not yet officially available, our support team is quickly turning into Flow junkies. Problems that are difficult to solve using regular SharePoint Designer workflows are absolutely trivial to crack using Flow.

Today we are describing a solution to what is a top 5 support request, at least for our support team, which is to automatically convert a file to PDF using a workflow and sending the result via email as an attachment. You’d think this is easy to achieve in a SharePoint Designer workflow as that comes with an e-mail action, however that action does not support attachments. Bummer!

Read on to find out how easy it is to solve this problem.

1. If not already done so, sign up for Microsoft Flow (Free).
    
2. If not already done so, in Flow navigate to My Connections and set up a SharePoint connection.
    
3. Install the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint Online App (add-in) and separate Workflow Actions.
    
4. In SharePoint Online (or on-premise if you have configured a gateway) make sure you have access to two different Document Libraries. This example can be combined to use only a single library, but things are slightly easier when using two. Let’s name our libraries Auto Convert Files and Email Files. 
    
5. As at the time of writing Muhimbi’s workflow actions are not (yet) available in Flow, we need to create a SharePoint Designer workflow to carry out the conversion to PDF. Navigate to the Auto Convert Files Library and create a new SharePoint Designer Workflow (Library tab / Workflow Settings / Create a Workflow in SharePoint Designer).
    
6. Name your workflow Convert to PDF, set it to automatically start when a new file is created, convert the Current Item to Email Files/ (including the trailing slash), in PDF format and Exclude metadata. Too cryptic, have a look at this demo video (that uses slightly different parameters, but illustrates the concept). 
   
    
7. Close SharePoint Designer and check that the new workflow works by uploading a new file to Auto Convert Files. After a few seconds the PDF rendition should be placed in the Email Files Document Library.
    
8. It is time to create the Flow that picks up the newly converted file and send it via email.  On the My Flows screen select the option to create a New flow from blank.
    
9. The trigger that starts the flow must be defined first, enter SharePoint when a file is created and select the displayed trigger. Enter the site collection and Email Files document library (use the Library picker if needed).
    
10. With the fields filled out, click New Step followed by Add an Action.
     
11. There are several built in email related actions (Outlook, Office 365 Outlook, SMTP), but in this example we use the basic Mail – Send email action. Select it and accept the terms & conditions if needed.
     
12. Fill out the recipient, subject etc and click Show Advanced options. Select the Attachment field and select File content from the Dynamic content picker. Similarly for the Attachment file name, select File name.

That is it, enter an appropriate name for the flow at the top of the screen and click the Create Flow option. You can later extend the flow by adding a SharePoint Delete File action to delete the original file if that is no longer needed.

On the My Flows screen make sure the newly created flow is enabled. Upload a file to Auto Convert Files and after a few seconds an email will be delivered with a copy of the converted file.
 

Naturally this is not limited to PDF Conversion, it works with any file generated by our various workflow actions including Merge, Watermark, Secure and OCR operations. The current flow always sends the email to the same recipient, this can easily be extended to take the recipient from a separate column by querying that column in Flow.

Any questions or remarks? Leave an update below or contact our friendly support team.

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Ever since Muhimbi was founded, we have seen a multitude of new SharePoint releases including SharePoint 2007, 2010, 2013, Online and now SharePoint 2016. It takes a lot of work and effort, but our policy is to never leave a customer behind while making sure there is an upgrade path to whatever is coming next.

As a result, we are very happy to announce the new version of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint, now compatible with SharePoint 2016 and Nintex Workflow 2016. In addition to support for these new technologies there are also fixes and improvements including the ability to use the new Workflow Manager to create Site Workflows as well as Reusable Workflows.

This version of the PDF Converter requires software to be installed on the server. Please note that if you have no server access there is always the option to deploy our SharePoint Online App to on-premise versions of SharePoint 2013 and 2016. For details see this blog post.

For those not familiar with the product, the PDF Converter for SharePoint is a lightweight solution that allows end-users to merge, split, watermark, secure, OCR and convert common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email) MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF as well as other formats from within SharePoint using a friendly user interface, workflows or a web service call without the need to install any client side software or Adobe Acrobat. It integrates at a deep level with SharePoint and leverages facilities such as the Audit log, Nintex Workflow, K2 blackpearl, localisation, security and tracing. It runs on SharePoint 2007-2016 & SharePoint Online and is available in English, German, Dutch, French, Traditional Chinese and Japanese. For detailed information check out the product page.

When upgrading from an older (pre 8.0) release, read this Knowledge Base article first.

Some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Installation & Administration Guide.
• User Guide.
• Product videos.
• Screenshots.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (62MB). .

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While Optical Character Recognition (OCR) may seem like a newer technology, it’s been around for more than 50 years. In fact, OCR has become embedded in our daily life without much fanfare. For example, if you’ve ever inserted a check directly into an ATM and the ATM displayed the amount– that was OCR working for you. Of course, OCR functionality goes well beyond depositing Grandma’s birthday check.

Due to an overwhelming amount of user requests, OCR has been an important part of Muhimbi’s range of server-side PDF Conversion products (SharePoint, SDK for Java / PHP / C#, SharePoint Online / Office 365). Implementing software to recognize images and convert them to alpha-numeric characters was no trivial task, but thankfully it’s much easier to explain than it was to actually implement!

When an image is entered into a system it is reviewed for recognizable text. That text is then deciphered by the system with its best guess for each individual character. The system then creates a hidden data layer that contains the deciphered content, synced to the appropriate space on the image.

There are a lot of ways this can be useful for a business and we have included a few examples below. Perhaps more than one will ring familiar to your organization’s needs-set.

If an organization needs to digitize old orders and invoices, doing so manually would involve discrete steps for scanning in the paper copies, renaming them, and storing them in the correct place. However, with OCR technology it’s possible to scan the images in, set rules to look for key information, rename files, and create settings to automatically store them appropriately. SharePoint workflows become super helpful with tasks like these!

Another example involves InfoPath, always a popular topic in our PDF Converter for SharePoint’s use case. It’s not uncommon for InfoPath forms to allow (or require) the attaching of relevant documents. Those docs are most often attached as images, or non-OCR PDFs. By having OCR scan and digitize the content of those files their later usability is significantly increased.

OCR also offers advantages that deal with search-ability. The content in the hidden data layer attached to the file is searchable using a PDF reader or web browser. This allows for “search by content” functionality. Additionally, this text layer can also be set to be crawl-able or index-able allowing search engines to display the OCR document as results. Naturally, this makes said documents much more convenient to work with.
 

 Scanned Document with OCRed text selected

Perhaps most meaningfully, OCR can empower visually impaired users to access content that would be otherwise impossible; the data layer can be used by a text-to-speech system to ‘read’ content to a user. Of course, even though expanding available content to the visually impaired has obvious business value, the impact goes well beyond office work.

For a bit of history in how OCR became a dominant technology in providing content access to the visually impaired, we should start by mentioning that many governments around the world have implemented standards based off Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which has helped formalize how web content should be created and accessed by any machine. Some examples of governmental implementation include US section 508 and UK Equality Act of 2010, meaning that all US and UK government websites must adhere to the standards set in the WCAG.

The WCAG is a lasting legacy of the Web Accessibility Initiative, which spun out of the personal computer boom of the 1990s. As recently as a few years ago, only about 1% of published books became available in braille, so the WCAG and Web Accessibility Initiative have played an important role in setting up useful guidelines to make sure that online content was held to a higher standard.

The wide adoption of these standards means more electronic content has become available to the visually impaired, both through electronic braille readers (which can cost upwards of $3,000), and the less expensive combination of OCR technology and a screen reader. A screen reader, either as a desktop application or a browser extension, allows text-to-speech capabilities for both rich-text content as well as OCR saved content.

Furthermore, while personal, organizational, or corporate sites aren’t required to comply with these standards, most do because they’ve become widely accepted best-practices. This increases the prevalence and frequency with which OCR technology is used.

There are plenty of solid business reasons for including OCR capabilities into Muhimbi’s range of server side PDF Conversion products. However, we can’t help but think that bringing new content, and more options to those with a visual impairment is perhaps the most notable.

An overview of the various OCR facilities provided by our product range can be found in this Knowledge Base Article.

What do you think, is this something that could be useful for your organisation? Leave a comment below or contact our friendly support desk for more information. We love to help.

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You know that archiving InfoPath forms is important, and can be difficult for a host of reasons. Luckily, converting from InfoPath to PDF with Muhimbi’s range of Server Side PDF Conversion products is a simple and optimal solution to keep an organization in compliance of regulations.

After determining that converting documents to PDF is the route that best addresses your organization’s needs, we then need to determine how to archive those PDFs. Simply storing a file is suboptimal in terms of efficacy; for this practice and resulting PDF to be useful, it will be critical to know where documents are stored. There are a lot of suggested best practices in this arena, and that can make determining the specifics of your process more convoluted than it needs to be.

In order to architect a more straightforward storage plan there are three essential points to address: ensuring metadata is retained in a converted form, making the conversion and storage of a document part of a workflow, and creating a cogent plan for the first two points in advance in order to avoid ad hoc policy decisions.

Why Metadata is Important

Metadata allows you to tag documents with information that can be accessed later, without involving a user. This not only relieves an end user of remembering which type of data needs to be stored with specific documents, it also yields two additional benefits:

First, the ability to search SharePoint storage by metadata allows very specific queries to be used when looking for documentation; the more specificity in the query, the more accurate and specific the results. This becomes more and more useful when hundreds of thousands of documents are stored and may need to be queried. For example, it would be easy to sort archived PDFs by InfoPath form title, author, and date range created (all of which are default metadata settings).

Second, the metadata within a document can be used by Muhimbi’s PDF Converter for SharePoint to create watermarks for that document, meaning that not only is the metadata there for search, but it is also attached in a viewable and “un-touchable” (encrypted) way. The inability to edit metadata can be required for some regulations and compliance rules.

Selecting and adding new metadata is a well-covered and documented area of SharePoint usage, so we won’t go into depth about adding new metadata requirements for a document in this article, but we’ve had the ability to maintain metadata during conversion baked into Muhimbi’s PDF converter for SharePoint since the very first version. Worth mentioning as well, it was later updated in version 6 to allow for a workflow step to copy metadata and set content type in a single operation. The PDF converter for SharePoint can also secure that document so that it can be viewed but NOT changed.

Simplify using Workflows

Now that a document is converted and metadata has been retained it still needs to be pushed to its final storage location. Manual storage is an option, but in reality it would only be appropriate for very small, and highly disciplined teams. Like most manual processes, it becomes cumbersome quickly if there is notable volume or number of contributors involved. One form that isn’t stored in the proper place won’t be an issue… until that form is needed, often months or even years later, and mistakes are likely to occur more frequently in tandem with document volume, especially if they are being stored manually.

Furthermore, in the event that PDFs are being manually archived, protocols have to be manually adhered to every single time a PDF is saved as well. For example, let’s assume we’ll be manually archiving customer invoices. We’d want them saved in a tree accordingly:

    Year -> Customer -> Billing -> Invoices -> unique invoice number.

This process will almost always work, but one miss-click means that the invoice is being saved in the wrong year, or even wrong customer. Again, manual processes become cumbersome and increasingly error-prone as volume increases, so unless the team can be counted on 100% of the time to always remember to convert a form to PDF, and then place that PDF in the right location, manual conversion and archiving should be avoided.

Luckily, workflows automate these processes, and are pretty easy to set up. Planning ahead and setting up workflows not only makes the process easier for everyone, it also eliminates headaches and mitigates the risk of human error, such as plain forgetfulness.

Creating a workflow with Muhimbi is just a few steps - and works in most common workflow environments including SharePoint Designer, Nintex Workflow, K2, Visual Studio and Microsoft Flow. It’s easy enough that there is no real reason not to use workflows for any type of content that will be routinely created and needs to be stored.

Saving documentation in a safe, secure and reliable manner is a core business need, and regulatory compliance requirements only make the need more prominent. While the archiving of data may seem complex, it doesn’t need to be complicated as long as an automated process is developed that leverages metadata use and automated workflows.

If you are dealing with InfoPath in your organisation, you MUST think about archiving this kind of information in a file format that is accessible. For more information read out InfoPath Archiving whitepaper or contact our friendly support desk.

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