New: custom output format for date values

For the „Date“ data type, you can now define your own output format on the „Formatting“ tab (e.g., „yyyy-MM-dd“ for 2026-06-15). The „Insert date component“ button and the accompanying legend make it easy to assemble year, month, and day; a live preview shows the result immediately. If the field is left empty, the system's default date format is used as before. The formatted date is also available at the top of the placeholder menu, so it can be inserted directly into file names, e-mails, or stamps.

New: format number values

For the „Number“ data type, the output can now be tailored: the number of decimal places, leading zeros, the thousands separator, and the decimal separator can be set using simple input fields. A live preview shows the result immediately. Formatting is optional and disabled by default, so nothing changes for existing profiles.

New: „Last change“ column and clearer „Start date“

The profile list now shows an additional „Last change“ column that indicates when a profile was last edited. The former „Created/Modified on“ column is now called „Start date“ and shows more clearly from which point in time a profile processes files regularly.

New: clean up pending operations when changing or deactivating a profile

When a profile is changed in a way that affects which files it selects (filter, monitored folders, or delayed processing), or when a profile is deactivated, the program now asks how to handle that profile's still-pending operations – that is, files queued for delayed processing and pending retries. This keeps outdated operations from running under changed settings.

Improved: retries of inactive profiles are paused

Pending retries (for example after a previously failed print) of a deactivated profile are now paused instead of executed, and only continue once the profile is reactivated.

Fixed: delayed processing across time zones

An issue in delayed processing has been fixed where queued files could be discarded incorrectly depending on the time zone.

Fixed: missing English labels in the rule editor

Missing English labels were added in the rule editor for the „Text of page(s)“ data determination.

Bug fix: time zone deviation in PDF dates

If the creating program (e.g., a scanner) stores the PDF creation or PDF modification date in universal time (UTC), the time was previously not converted to local time. As a result, for example, the option „Set modification date to: PDF modification date“ could set a file date that deviated by several hours. PDF dates with time zone information are now correctly converted to local time. The correction takes effect everywhere PDF dates are used (setting the file date, placeholders, filters, catch-up processing).

Catch-up processing: live progress already while determining files

The progress window now reports progress already while the files to be processed are being determined. Previously, for large file sets the display appeared frozen at „0“ during this phase.

• While determining the files, a running animation and a live counter are shown („X checked, Y of them within the period“).
• During the subsequent processing, the progress bar now shows the actual progress.

Bug fix: truncated catch-up dialog

In the „Apply profiles subsequently“ dialog, the bottommost options could be cut off and unreachable depending on font size or display scaling. The dialog now automatically adjusts its size to the content.

Bug fix: blank pages during text recognition (OCR)

For certain PDF files with a defective internal structure, the „Make file searchable“ task could produce an output with inserted blank pages (error message „The page count of the OCR output differs from the original file“). Such files are now automatically processed via a workaround that bypasses the faulty structure—the output thus contains exactly the same pages as the original.

New: Deferred processing

Profiles can now process files with a time delay: a matching file is queued when detected and only processed after a configurable waiting period. Ideal for cleanup profiles following the pattern „delete files a certain time after they arrive“.

• Enabled per profile under Advanced → Deferred processing with a freely selectable delay (seconds to years).
• The waiting period is counted from the moment the file was first detected. Files already present before activation remain untouched — only files arriving afterwards are queued.
• Queued files are not read again until they are due and do not clutter the status display; once the waiting period has elapsed, they are processed automatically.
• The number of pending deferrals is shown in the profile list (column „Deferred“).
• During catch-up processing, active deferrals can optionally be ignored (process files immediately) or the affected profiles can be skipped.

Renamed: „Pause before processing“

The former option „Delay before processing“ (a short wait before a profile starts processing) has been renamed to „Pause before processing“ to clearly distinguish it from the new feature. Its behavior is unchanged.

Profile settings: new „Advanced“ page

The profile „General“ page has been streamlined: less frequently needed options are now grouped on a dedicated „Advanced“ page — making it easier to get started without losing any functionality.

• The „Advanced“ page contains, among others: extract values only once, wait for file groups, profile-specific processing times, pause before processing, re-check the filter before each task, the retry options, and deferred processing.
• If one of these options deviates from its default, the page label shows a counter (for example „Advanced (2)“) — so you can tell at a glance whether a profile uses advanced settings.

Catch-up processing: faster filtering of large file sets

When catch-up processing is limited to a period, files outside that period are now skipped without reading them first. For large folders containing several thousand files, this makes the check considerably faster.

• This applies to the date types „File modification date“ and „File creation date“, as these values can be read directly from the file system.
• For the PDF-internal date types („PDF modified date“ and „PDF creation date“) each file still has to be opened to read the date stored inside the document. If you limit a very large set to a short period, it is therefore best to choose one of the two file date types.

Files that are already named correctly are no longer re-detected on every check

When a task renames a file within the same folder and the file is already named correctly (source and destination are identical, for example a file synced back from the cloud), nothing happens — and the file is no longer mistakenly treated as “recurring”.

• Previously such files could be re-detected on every check cycle (“File X of Y”) even though they remained unchanged and were skipped anyway — this inflated the display and re-read the files unnecessarily.
• In addition, recurring files are no longer re-checked at all when no profile would reprocess them anyway. Existing entries of this kind disappear automatically — no action is required.

Some optimizations

Regression fixed - faster processing of large folders when using a file name filter

When processing many files — for example several thousand PDFs on a network drive (NAS) — the program now again checks the file name first, before a file is actually opened and read.

• Files that do not match the file name, path or size filter are skipped without their content having to be read from disk.
• Especially on slow network drives this considerably shortens the overall time when only a subset of the files needs to be processed.
• Profiles that filter by PDF content, metadata or date still open the files in question as before — only files that already cannot match based on name, path or size are skipped.

More information during processing

While processing, the status display now shows the progress as “File X of Y” together with the name and folder of the file currently being processed.

• This makes it easy to see at a glance how many of the files matching the time period and filter criteria have already been processed, and which file is currently being handled.

Text redaction: no longer removes characters from the line above

When redacting text (the “Redact text” task), very tight line spacing could cause part of the line immediately above to be removed as well.

Significantly smaller internal processing database

The internal database that stores the processing log could accumulate empty placeholder entries over time which were no longer cleaned up automatically. Under heavy use this could grow to several hundred MB.

• On the first program start after the update the database is cleaned up and compacted once.
• Expected size reduction: typically from several hundred MB down to a few MB.
• Entries with real processing information (success, error, retries) are fully preserved.

Filter “Page count” extended with “equals” comparison

• The filters for page count, attachment count and character count now also offer the “equals” comparison. This makes it easy to filter for documents with an exact count.

Filter “page count is between” corrected (inclusive)

The “is between” comparison was strictly exclusive (open interval). To match the value 2, you had to enter 1 and 3. That was unintuitive and did not match common conventions (Excel, SQL).

• From now on the inclusive meaning applies: “between 2 and 5” matches 2, 3, 4, 5.
• Existing profiles are migrated automatically on first start – the resulting match set stays the same.

Example files reorderable (profile settings)

• In profile settings → example files, entries can now be moved up and down using two new arrow buttons.
• For preview calculations (rename, storage location, e-mail recipients, …) the first example file that actually exists on disk is now preferred. If the first file in the list is no longer available, the next existing one is used automatically instead of showing an error.

Missing example files are clearly indicated

• The example files page now shows an “Exists” column (Yes/No) as the first column, indicating whether each configured file is still present on disk; missing files are highlighted in red. The display refreshes automatically — copy a file back and it reappears as present shortly afterwards.
• In the example-file selection lists (e.g. in the rule editor), files that no longer exist are hidden.
• In the “values to determine” preview, a missing example file now shows the clear note “example file no longer exists” instead of a technical error message — and stale preview results are no longer left behind.
• When opening the rule editor, we now point out if none of the configured example files exist anymore.

Processing log: “Size/pages” display

• The processing log now shows the file size together with the page count, e.g. “139 KB / 3 pages”.

Cleaner response to Windows shutdown

• The application now exits reliably when Windows shuts down or the user logs off. The message “This application is preventing shutdown” should no longer appear.

Diagnostic log for support cases

In Program Options → Other, the diagnostic log can now be enabled:

• Writes detailed information about the processing flow to a log file in the AppData directory
• Disabled by default – can be enabled when needed and turned back off after diagnostics

Data extraction: “Text of page(s)” with “No determination required”

• When Text of page(s) was selected as the data source together with No determination required as the page determination, the preview incorrectly reported “Keyword not found”
• Fixed: the preview now reliably delivers the text of all pages and shows the extracted data

Additional

• When exporting a single profile from the context menu, the profile name is now used as the suggested filename
• Some optimizations

New stamp styles

The Add Stamp/Watermark task now offers three style variants for text stamps:

• With frame (classic) - the existing stamp look with frame, ideal for status markers like “PAID” or “APPROVED”
• Text only - plain text without frame or background, suitable for subtle labels such as processor initials
• Text with background (highlighter) - text with a colored background rectangle in highlighter look, optimal for compact sorting markers on archived emails and documents

More design freedom

• Font freely selectable - all installed system fonts are available
• Font size and bold style configurable separately
• Background color and padding for the highlighter style fully customizable (default: yellow marker)

Existing profiles

• Profiles from earlier versions keep their previous stamp appearance. The new variants can be enabled per profile without any migration step

• Some optimizations

• Some optimizations
• New option in the "Processing" category - Allow empty input text for query rules with a fallback value

Applies to data determination rules of the "Query" or "Query (with list)" type. If enabled, an empty input text (e.g., after failed OCR) will NOT result in the error "Text contains no characters," provided that either the option "Query result may be empty" is selected or a fallback value ("Value if not found" or "If no entry found") has been configured.

Example: Scanned invoices without recognizable OCR text will still be assigned the fallback name (e.g., "not available") and processed further, rather than being terminated with an error message.

• Save attachments + attachment name filter: factur-x.xml / ZUGFeRD attachments were not found in some third-party system PDFs
• Unnecessary retrieval of barcode data when opening profile settings

• Date recognition: Custom formats without a day (e.g., `MMMM yyyy`) were not recognized
• Some optimizations

• Some optimizations and corrections

• Fixed a problem with the filter

• In the options, some settings were cut off at certain resolutions

• Options -> Processing Log allows you to create CSV logs of processing activities in a folder
• Some optimizations

• In certain cases, the report period was incorrect when an Excel report was sent automatically

• New option: Processing -> Background Processor is managed externally. This option should be enabled when running the program as a service or when starting it regularly via the Windows Task Scheduler, to prevent the program from creating a duplicate background process.
• Some optimizations and corrections

• "Save as Draft" is now also supported for sending via SMTP and Online Exchange.
  If you want to review messages before they are actually sent, enable the "Save as draft" option in the sending options of the "Send file" task. Messages will not be sent immediately but stored in the Drafts window, where you can review and adjust recipients, subject, message text and attachments before manually triggering the send.
  The button for opening the Drafts window appears in the top bar of the main window if there are any drafts available.
• File Size Stability Check: New option in program settings that ensures a new file's size has not changed for a configurable duration before processing begins. Prevents potential errors for files on network drives that are still being copied.
• Configurable File Availability Timeout: The maximum wait time for locked files is now configurable in program options (default: 10 seconds, previously hardcoded to 5 seconds).
• Overwrite Original for Merge: The "Overwrite original file" option is now available for the "Merge PDFs" task.
• Extracted text is automatically trimmed: Leading and trailing empty lines are automatically removed during data extraction (data area and text of pages).
• "Remove Pages" task -> new options: QR code value contains/does not contain + Remove pages without a QR code

• For older barcodes, the character encoding may be incorrect. If necessary, it will now be read with the correct encoding.

• In the profile settings, under the "General" category, you can now enable or disable the verification of filter criteria before each task
• When merging, the primary file can be overwritten, just as with other tasks
• Fixed an issue that could cause the program to freeze when saving a profile

• New options for removing pages: QR code value contains/does not contain + Remove pages without a QR code
• Optional delay before applying a profile (Profile Settings -> General)
• New option for sending via SMTP: Ignore SSL/TLS certificate errors

• The deployment of a only partially compatible version of a PDF library could cause crashes with some PDF files.

• New format for log files

• Exchange On-Premise is no longer supported in version 2. When importing options from version 1, this sending method (if enabled) caused the application to crash.
• Some optimizations

• Profile import from Version 1 - Incompatibility fixed
• Optional maximum duration per file processing (Options -> Processing)
• A new processing cycle was triggered after renaming or moving files back to the original folder
• Simple file grouping - improved protection against re-processing
• The catch-up process can be resumed after crashes caused by external libraries

• Fixed issue with running as a service application. If PDFProcessor.exe is started by the Service Control Manager, the parameter -h may no longer be used (see Help).

• For the "Query (with list)" data type, there is now a new option called "Use longest match". This option is enabled by default for new rules, but disabled for existing rules. However, we recommend enabling it.

• Fixed issue with using sequential numbers
• Profiles, options, and licenses can now also be imported from V1 backups

• When previewing data extraction results, the second row of the top toolbar was occasionally only fully visible after changing the category and going back
• When configuring the "Send file" task, a control element was not fully visible for a specific configuration

• Advanced filter options for dynamic attachments
• New option in print settings: Print with default printer
• Add annotation: Placeholder menu and optional size specification added
• Beta status has been ended

• Split by keyword: the option 'If the search term does not appear in the document, return an error' has been split into two options. Additionally, #Return an error if the number of pages remains unchanged'.
• Filter expanded. 'Customer <EntryFromList...> <BeginOfRegex...>' is now also supported, i.e. combinations of text and placeholders between <AND> and <OR>.
• Does not contain + AND error fixed: now correctly 'NOT(A AND B)'
• Insert barcode: optional label at top, bottom, right, or left
• Error corrections

• New data source ‘Sequential number’
• Placeholder menu added to ‘Insert barcode’

Version 2 is a comprehensive update with many new features and improvements.

New Task Types

• Compress PDF files - Reduce file size through image optimization and removal of unnecessary elements
• Create ZUGFeRD/Factur-X e-invoices - Embed user-provided XML invoice data into PDF (ZUGFeRD 2.0/2.1, Factur-X 1.0)
• Convert to PDF/A - For revision-proof long-term archiving (PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-2b, PDF/A-3b)
• Add stamps and watermarks - Text, images, or dynamic content from extracted data
• Insert barcodes - QR codes, Code 128, DataMatrix, Aztec, and other formats
• Anonymize documents - Automatically replace sensitive data with placeholder text
• Remove pages - Delete cover pages, blank pages, or specific page ranges
• Embed attachments - Integrate receipts, delivery notes, or other documents into PDF

Extended Task Management

• 21 task types - Rename, Move, Copy, Delete, Print, Send email, Merge, Split, OCR, Save attachments, Save extractions, Apply template, Change file protection, Compress, Embed attachments, Create ZUGFeRD, Convert to PDF/A, Remove pages, Add stamps, Insert barcodes, Replace content
• Unlimited tasks per profile - No longer limited to 3 tasks
• Freely selectable order - Tasks can be sorted via drag & drop

Processing Times

• Time windows for profiles - Processing only at certain times (e.g., only during office hours)
• Weekday-based scheduling - Different times for different weekdays
• Diagnostics view - Overview of all configured processing times

Batch Printing for Large Documents

• Automatic splitting of large print jobs into smaller batches
• Prevents system instability and long spooling times for documents with many pages
• Configurable thresholds and batch sizes

Command Line Extensions

• Profile selection in headless mode for Windows Task Scheduler
• Different scheduled tasks can execute different profiles
• Example: PDFProcessor.exe --headless --run_once --profile "Invoices"

New Date Placeholders

• Prior year placeholders: For documents referring to the previous year period
• Prior month placeholders: Ideal for monthly billing and archiving
• Prior day placeholders: For daily reports with back-reference

Additional Improvements

• Modernized .NET 8.0 framework for better performance and stability
• Improved barcode and QR code recognition with machine learning
• Extended filter options for odd/even page numbers
• Optimized memory management when processing large PDF files
• Updated OCR engine for improved text recognition
• Automatic cleanup for known files (time-based cleanup)

• Optimizations and bug fixes.