FolderMill 4.1: New PDF Engine, Support for ZPL Files and Zebra Printers, Conversion of Files from ZIP and RAR Archives

FolderMill automatically prints or converts multiple documents to PDF or image format. The program monitors and processes your files once they appear in special Hot Folders. Use a variety of Actions to fulfill your converting and printing as well as some other management tasks. FolderMill is a powerful server-based software working on Windows.

FolderMill can process the most popular types of office documents including Adobe PDF files, Microsoft Word files, JPG, PNG, PCX, DCX, Bitmap, GIF, TGA, TIFF images, RTF and plain text files, Excel charts, PowerPoint presentations, Visio drawings and charts, Microsoft Office Publisher and XPS files, and other documents. Processing takes place real-time and without interruption.

Set up an effective file processing system with FolderMill 4.1

This release is packed with new features, new supported formats, major improvements enough for a dozen of updates.

What’s new in version 4.1:

Added:

  • New formats supported:
    - Zebra ZPL: *.zpl
    - Microsoft Project MPP: *.mpp
    - Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language: *.hp *.hpg *.hpgl
    - Small Web Format: *.swf
    - Microsoft OneNote: *.one
  • Ability to convert files in ZIP, RAR or 7ZIP archives into PDF or image
  • Ability to pause certain Hot Folders
  • Ability to set ignore masks for Hot Folders
  • Ability to rearrange the order of Actions
  • Ability to automatically select printer tray for PDFs depending on paper size
  • Ability to automatically delete original input files from Processed Folder on schedule
  • Ability to use a list of passwords to process password-protected PDFs
  • Ability to force printer settings: paper size format, paper tray, page orientation, color mode, duplex mode
  • Ability to instantly send files to a Hot Folder via Windows Explorer right-click menu
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing via Adobe Acrobat
  • Log clean-up on schedule

Improved:

  • New faster PDF engine
Fixed:
  • No need to have Microsoft Outlook installed to process EML and MSG files
  • Fixed data communication issue between the program and the printer
  • Fixed issue with FolderMill Processor on launch in service mode
  • Fixed issue with filename when using date and time macro

New formats supported

Along with over 70 file formats supported, FolderMill now supports even more:

  • ZPL: *zpl. FolderMill can print ZPL files on Zebra printers in Generic-Text-Driver mode. ZPL files are used to create 1D and 2D barcodes and labels for goods.
  • MPP: *.mpp. FolderMill can print and convert Microsoft Project MPP files. MPP is an extension for a project file used by Microsoft Project project management software. These files contain information used by Microsoft Project to manage the assigning, tracking and reporting results on project work, teams, schedules and finances.
  • HPGL: *.hp *.hpg *.hpgl. FolderMill can print HPGL files. It is a printer control language format created by Hewlett-Packard. Initially used by HP plotters, it later became a standard for almost all plotters and printers.
  • SWF: *.swf. FolderMill can print SWF files. Also known as Small Web Format, it is a file extension for a Shockwave Flash file format created by Macromedia and now owned by Adobe. It is designed for efficient delivery over the web and can contain video and vector based animations or sound.
  • ONE: *.one. FolderMill can convert and print Microsoft OneNote files. Microsoft OneNote format manages users' notes, drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries.

Ability to convert files from ZIP, RAR or 7ZIP archives into PDF or image

The new FolderMill can convert any supported files compressed in a ZIP, RAR or 7ZIP archive. Simply put an archive into your Hot Folder, and the program will automatically detect and process archive’s contents. This feature is valid for "Convert to PDF" and "Convert document to Image" Actions so far.

Ability to pause certain Hot Folders

When managing several Hot Folders, you can pause any of them and make it inactive. Use the "Pause" button in the right upper corner of a Hot Folder Settings menu to put a Hot Folder on hold. You can resume the Hot Folder’s work by clicking the "Activate" button.

Put a Hot Folder on hold by clicking

Ability to set ignore masks for Hot Folders

You can set ignore masks for a Hot Folder to exclude certain types of files from being processed. Click on the "Advanced" submenu in the Hot Folder settings and you’ll see an "Ignore masks" field. Type in masks here, for example "*.pdf, *.xls" (all file types except for PDF and XLS will be processed):

Ignore masks option disables processing of certain filetypes

Ability to rearrange the order of Actions

Now you can easily manage the sequence of Actions performed within a Hot Folder and arrange them in a desired order. Open Hot Folder Settings menu and add more than one Action. Then click & hold an Action icon and move it left or right between other Action icons. Release the mouse button to place it where necessary.

Ability to automatically select printer tray for PDFs depending on paper size

If you print PDFs and have several printer trays which support different paper size format, this feature may be useful for you. You can let FolderMill automatically use a printer tray which fits best for a specific paper size format. Create a "Print Document" Action in a Hot Folder. Then open Action’s advanced settings by pressing Ctrl + Alt + i on your keyboard. Change ChoosePaperSourceByDocPageSize line in the beginning of the [General] section. By default it is set to 0. Set it as ChoosePaperSourceByDocPageSize=1 to enable this feature.

Ability to automatically clean up Processed Folder on schedule

Each Hot Folder has a Processed folder. It is a folder to where the original input files are placed. If you wish to keep the original files for a certain time period, open the "Advanced" submenu in the Hot Folder Settings menu and tick "Delete Processed files after" option. Set the time period for this option (10 days is set by default):

Delete files from a Processed folder after a while

Ability to use a list of passwords to process password-protected PDFs

New FolderMill can process password-protected PDF files using a list of passwords. The program will search the TXT file containing a number of passwords and process an incoming PDF file if it finds the valid password.

Ability to force paper size format, paper tray, page orientation, color mode, duplex mode

When using the "Print document" Action, you can manually set certain printer settings. These parameters can be changed in the Action’s "Edit settings" window (Ctrl + Alt + i). You can contact support for detailed instructions. This feature allows you to set the following printer parameters:

  • Paper size format
  • Paper tray
  • Page orientation
  • Color mode
  • Duplex & simplex mode

Shortcut menu for Windows Explorer to instantly send files to a Hot Folder

There’s a new easy way to quickly send files to any Hot Folder. Tick the checkbox "Add to Windows explorer context menu" during FolderMill installation to enable this feature:

Enable "Process with FolderMill" context menu

Once you have FolderMill installed and Hot Folder(s) created, simply right-click on a file you would like to be processed, go to the contextual menu "Process with FolderMill" and select a desired Hot Folder. This file will be instantly sent to the selected Hot Folder:

Send files to a Hot Folder via file contextual menu

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing via Adobe Acrobat

Now you can make PDFs searchable via OCR technology and FolderMill. Create a "Convert to PDF" Action. Then open the Action’s "Edit settings" window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + i on your keyboard. Change Ocr=1 line in the end of the [General] section. Thus, your files will be converted via Adobe Acrobat API. Note: you’ll need to have a full version of Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro installed to make this feature work.

Log clean-up on schedule

In FolderMill 4.1 you can have your log files removed manually or on schedule. Go to the Log menu and find "Clear" button. Pressing it will manually remove all logs from the Common Events Logs menu. You can also have the log files removed every day or after their size exceeds 8 Mb:

Set logfile removal in the General Settings

New faster PDF engine

With a new enhanced PDF engine core FolderMill processes your PDFs more effectively. It allows to print PDFs and image files faster without any quality loss.

No need to have Microsoft Outlook installed to process EML or MSG files

In previous versions of FolderMill you needed to have Microsoft Outlook installed in order to process EML or MSG e-mail messages. Now you don’t need it - FolderMill processes these files with its internal engine.

Fixed data communication issue between the program and the printer

During our tests we found that there was an issue in the data transfer between FolderMill and a printer’s driver. This data contained settings from the previous printing session. We found errors causing lags or program’s crash in this data interchange and fixed them.

Please tell us, what features would you like to see in further updates! In next versions we plan to include more features:

  • Hot Folders processing on schedule
  • Ability to sort files by name, extension, date and size
  • "Copy To FTP" Action
  • And much more!

Free version

Download a free version of FolderMill and see its benefits for your company, please visit www.foldermill.com/download

For more information about FolderMill and all the features available, please visit our website: www.foldermill.com/overview

Commercial version

A commercial licence of FolderMill costs $499. You can find purchase details here:
www.foldermill.com/order

You can also request a fully-featured 14 trial of a commercial version of FolderMill.

Volume discounts are available starting from 2 licenses per order. We also provide special pricing for educational institutions, government and nonprofit organizations.

The new version of FolderMill is available for free for registered FolderMill 4.0 users, and at a 50% discount for those who had purchased earlier versions of FolderMill.