Dossier workflow

Learn how to merge multiple PDFs into a single file using the dossier workflow. This process is designed to combine several PDF documents into one cohesive dossier. The PDFs are merged in the order that users provide them.

Key features of the dossier workflow include:

• Fully customizable title page, including its title, subtitle, and background.
• Extensively customizable table of contents.
• Bookmarks to add navigation and structure to the dossier.
• Stamping options such as watermarks, headers, or footers.
• Optional: Conversion to PDF/A.

What is a dossier?

A PDF dossier is a structured compilation of multiple documents merged into a single PDF file. The dossier often includes a table of contents, outline (document bookmarks), and metadata for easy navigation and organization. It is often used in business, legal, academic, and government contexts to present information in a clear, professional, and accessible format.

Supported file formats for dossier workflow

This workflow takes PDF files as input. To use other document formats, convert them to PDF using a preprocessing step in the dossier workflow, which points to another workflow that performs the preprocessing conversion.

Add a title page

You can configure this workflow to create a title page for the dossier. The title page contains the dossier's title and subtitle. The font, size, placement, and alignment of the text are fully configurable.

Additionally, you can configure a PDF document to be used as a custom background for the title page. You can customize the title page for each job using the DOSSIER-TITLE and DOSSIER-SUBTITLE job options.

Structure the dossier

If the title from the metadata is not suitable, it can be overridden by using the DOCUMENT-TITLE option. To organize the dossier effectively, you can create a Table of Contents and a document outline (bookmarks). By default, each document's title is derived from its metadata.

If the metadata title is not suitable, you can override it using the DOCUMENT-TITLE option.

Create the table of contents

The table of contents (TOC) provides an overview of the dossier's structure, making it easier to navigate.

By default, the TOC follows the existing outline structure tree of the input documents and supports multiple configurable nesting levels. Optionally, you can create a parent entry for each input document.

Customization options include:

• For the entire job: Use the TOC-TITLE option to define a custom title for the table of contents.
• For individual input documents: Use the ADD-DOCUMENT-TOC-ITEM option to include a document in the TOC and DOCUMENT-TOC-TITLE to set its title.

Create the document outline

The document outline (also known as bookmarks) allows users to quickly navigate to specific sections of the dossier.

By default, the dossier workflow uses the outline structure of the input documents. Additionally, a parent bookmark can be generated for each document if needed.

Customization options include:

• For the entire job: Use the TOC-OUTLINE-TITLE option to set a custom title for the document outline.
• For individual input documents: Use the ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE option to include a document in the outline and DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE to set its title.

Add stamps

Review a general overview of stamping in Stamping documentation. You can further customize stamps for the dossier workflow using the DOCUMENT-STAMP-TITLE option or using a custom option CUSTOM.OPTION_NAME. For more information about this customization, review Placeholders section in stamping documentation.

Example of the dossier workflow

This example uses the shell client to create a dossier from a cover page and two chapters. For the second chapter, the name of the bookmark is explicitly overridden.

C:\Temp>pdfclient -v -w Dossier -do ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE false ^
  chapter-1.pdf -do DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE "Chapter 2: XYZ" chapter-2.pdf out.pdf
Creating job (id job1_5g5fkycbhhe)
Adding file ".\chapter-1.pdf" (id jgvmhpyquh0)
Adding file ".\chapter-2.pdf" (id 4ogify1xd31)
Output: "out.pdf"
 - Info: Assembled PDF files 'chapter-1.pdf' and 'chapter-2.pdf' into dossier 'out.pdf'.

Job and document options for the Dossier workflow

The Dossier workflow lets you use job and document options to pass job- or document-specific values to be used when processing documents using the workflow.

Job options

Job options apply to all documents processed in the same job. For any subsequent jobs processed with the workflow profile, use the profile's default settings.

Type	Option	Description
Title page	DOSSIER-TITLE	Adds a title page with a title for the dossier. This option overrides the value specified in the profile configuration. The option should only be set at the job level and is ignored at the document level.
Title page	DOSSIER-SUBTITLE	Adds a title page with a subtitle for the dossier. This option overrides the value specified in the profile configuration. The option should only be set at the job level and is ignored at the document level.
Table of contents	TOC-TITLE	Sets the heading for the table of contents. This option overrides the value specified in the profile configuration. The option should only be set at the job level and is ignored at the document level.
Table of contents	ADD-DOCUMENT-TOC-ITEM	Creates a table of contents entry for each document included in the job. It can also be set at document level. true (default): entry in the table of contents is added for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are added as sub-entries. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the table of contents. This can be useful in the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, such as a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks.
Document outline	ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE	Adds an outline (bookmark) for all documents in the job. true (default): A new bookmark is added to the document outline for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are preserved and added as children to the newly created bookmark. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the document outline. This can be useful in the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, such as a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks.
Document outline	TOC-OUTLINE-TITLE	Sets the title for the outline. The name of the bookmark created for the table of contents (if enabled). If it is omitted, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The value of the TOC-TITLE option. The title of the table of contents is configured in the profile. TOC-OUTLINE-TITLE should only be set at the job level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Metadata	META.AUTHOR	The author of the document
Metadata	META.TITLE	The title of the document
Metadata	META.SUBJECT	The subject of the document
Metadata	META.KEYWORDS	Keywords that apply to the document

note

You can also set extended metadata properties apart from the standard metadata properties.

Document options

Document options apply only to a specific input. It allows you to determine specific properties based on an individual document rather than as a global setting (either determined by the job or the profile). For any subsequent jobs processed with the workflow profile, use the profile's default settings.

Type	Option	Description
Document property	DOCUMENT-TITLE	Sets the title for the document by overriding the title determined by the metadata. If no title is set in the metadata, DOCUMENT-TITLE is used for the table of contents, document outline, and stamp placeholder. It can be overridden by the DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE, DOCUMENT-TOC-TITLE, and DOCUMENT-STAMP-TITLE options. If it is omitted and no other specific option is set, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at the document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Document property	DOC.PASSWORD	Set the password for the document.
Document outline	ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE	Adds an outline (bookmark) for the specified document only, rather than all documents in the job. true (default): A new bookmark is added to the document outline for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are preserved and added as children to the newly created bookmark. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the document outline. This can be useful in the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, such as a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks.
Document outline	DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE	Sets the name of the bookmark in the dossier outline. If this option is omitted, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The value of the DOCUMENT-TITLE option. The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at the document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Table of contents	ADD-DOCUMENT-TOC-ITEM	Adds an entry in the table of contents for the specified document only, rather than all documents in the job. It can also be set at job level. true (default): entry in the table of contents is added for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are added as sub-entries. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the table of contents. This can be useful in the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, such as a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks.
Table of contents	DOCUMENT-TOC-TITLE	Sets the name of the entry in the table of contents for the specified document. If this option is omitted, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The value of the option DOCUMENT-TITLE. The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at the document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Stamp options	DOCUMENT-STAMP-TITLE	Sets the title of the document used for stamping, for example, for the [input:DOCUMENT.TITLE] placeholder (if used). If this option is omitted, one of the following values is used as placeholder value instead (in order of precedence): The value of the option DOCUMENT-TITLE. The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at the document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration. Accepts placeholders.
Stamp options	CUSTOM.OPTION_NAME	Options whose name starts with CUSTOM. define custom placeholder variables that can be used with the placeholder format. See Placeholders.