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[WolfWalker]

I have a ton of pdf files that I would like to organize but they are spread all of the place. I would like to find them then organize them. Any help for this.

[Lasse_Lus]

no difference between "file mp3" and "file pdf"...include pdf in your auto import (and your path's)

filter out pdf inside MC, in a created view or look in default document view,

(you need to add "data support" under options)

[rjm]

PDFs have tags for information like Artist, Subject, etc. however MC does not read/write these tags and most PDF authors do not fill these tags with useful information. Therefore you will be relying on folder/file names and anything you enter in the MC library for all information about your PDFs.

My preferred approach is to store PDFs in folders with names that reflect the book topic, and to name the PDF files as [Artist] - [Album] - [Year] where Artist is the author, Album is the title of the book, and Year is the year of publication. After importing a PDF I enter the Artist/Album/Year/Topic tags in MC and then use MC's powerful rename and move feature to put the PDF in its final location. But you need not do this if you prefer to leave the PDFs in their existing location with their existing file names.

To import PDFs that are scattered on your hard drive I would navigate via Drives & Devices to a candidate root folder. Then in the search box enter *.PDF and enable the option "Show Files in Subfolders". You can then select any PDFs you want and right click to import.

One more tip. I have about 11,000 PDFs in my MC library and wanted to search them by content. I did a lot of experimentation with many file indexers and ended up choosing dtSearch. It does a wonderful job of indexing PDF content and has very fast/powerful search capabilities. So I now use MC if I am looking for a book with a certain Author, Title, or general topic. And I use dtSearch if I am searching for information on a specific topic.

[rjm]

You might also consider switching to Foxit Reader for viewing PDFs. Foxit allows you to open and view many PDFs at the same time with tabs. This is really handy for tagging with MC.

Select a bunch of PDFs that you want to tag with MC, then "Send to (external)" Foxit Reader. All the files will be opened in Foxit and you can view them to get the correct Author/Title/Year/Topic information for entry into MC tags.

[WolfWalker]

thank you very much!

[WolfWalker]

dumb question #1

How do I make a custom view of data?

[rjm]

Select View\Add View\Add Library View. Choose a simple template like Panes to get started (we are going to modify it in a second), give it a name like "PDF Books", and specify where in the tree you want it. Now right click the view and select Customize View. Set "rules for file display..." to File Type is PDF. Specify what panes you want displayed, and modify any other options you care about. Click ok. Now customize the columns that are displayed by right clicking a column header.

[WolfWalker]

RJM Thanks for the help! I am now organizing all my PDFs

[rjm]

In case anyone missed it I thought I'd point out why MC is so useful for renaming PDFs.

In most cases you must open the PDF file to read the correct author/title/year/topic. But when a file is open Windows does not permit you to rename it.

With MC you can open and view the PDF, enter the correct information in MC fields, then close the PDF, and use MC's rename and move feature.