HotFolder

Before I say anything about HotFolder, I have to take the time to quickly introduce another tool from PDFforge, PDFCreator. Don’t worry, everything will make sense in a minute. PDFCreator, as the name points out, is a tool that can create PDF documents. It can convert every printable document to PDF; it can also convert documents to JPG, PNG, TIF, and other formats.

HotFolder builds on the functionality provided by the aforementioned PDFCreator. HotFolder monitors whatever folder (or folders) you select. The files inside a monitored folder are automatically converted using PDFCreator. So to recap, HotFolder monitors the folder you specify and then uses PDFCreator to automatically convert files placed inside that folder.

It’s not enough to download and install HotFolder alone. You also need to download and install PDFCreator on your Windows-powered PC. If you install HotFolder alone, when you run the application, you will get an error prompt that tells you that you need to install PDFCreator as well.

A Welcome prompt shows up when you launch HotFolder. It presents detailed information on how to set up monitored folders. It tells you that you need to open the Settings menu, select the HotFolder Settings tab, and then click the + button to create a new HotFolder configuration and select what folder will be monitored.

PDFCreator is free software. HotFolder too is free software (released under a GNU Affero General Public License).

Choose a folder and HotFolder will monitor it. All the files inside the monitored folder will be automatically converted with PDFCreator.