Sending Files to PDF printer

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Posted on by Ciaran

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Dear community

I would appreciate your help, if possible, with a desktop flow.

Scenario : I have 40,000 pdf documents that are in an unsupported pdf format i.e. they therefore not viewable in SharePoint online. I need to convert them into a format which is viewable in SharePoint Online. My plan was to use Power Automate Desktop to do so. I have the original names and the new names stored on an Excel spreadsheet and want to use that to save the new pdf printer versions. I believe I could send them to a pdf printer and then name them based on the name on the f

I have tried to build the flow but constantly run into issues. Could anyone provide me with some guidance. I am a newbie to power automate desktop so apologies if I have left anything out on what I want to do / achieve. When I rum the flow below it only seems to create the first file. Many thanks in advance.

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Power Automate Desktop

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eetuRobo 4,204 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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What kind of error do you get? Does the error say: “can't print this type of document”?

If so your pdf files might be set to open in a browser. Change the files to PDF application like Adobe Acrobat. And try then.

For me it still gives Save Print Output As -window which is bit difficult to automate since it’s a under PADs editor window.

If that gives you trouble you could use browser to open the pdf and print it with the browser to pdf.
So change the pdfs to be opened by a browser like Edge and then use Run application to open it and do the steps to print the pdf.

EDIT:
Actually quicker way is to use VBScript. So have the pdfs to be open with Edge browser by default. Then just add this code to your PAD editor:
Folder.GetFiles Folder: $'''C:\\Your\\File\\Path''' FileFilter: $'''*.pdf''' IncludeSubfolders: False FailOnAccessDenied: True SortBy1: Folder.SortBy.NoSort SortDescending1: False SortBy2: Folder.SortBy.NoSort SortDescending2: False SortBy3: Folder.SortBy.NoSort SortDescending3: False Files=> FilesInFolder LOOP FOREACH CurrentItem IN FilesInFolder SET FileDir TO CurrentItem.Directory SET FileName TO CurrentItem.Name SET NewPdfName TO CurrentItem.Directory + '\\' + CurrentItem.NameWithoutExtension + 'New' + '.pdf' @@copilotGeneratedAction: 'True' Scripting.RunVBScript.RunVBScript VBScriptCode: $'''\' This code has been generated by AI. Original prompt: \' give me a script that prints current pdf to microsoft print to pdf format Set objShell = CreateObject(\"Shell.Application\") Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace(\"%FileDir%\") Set objFolderItem = objFolder.ParseName(\"%FileName%\") \' Open the PDF file objFolderItem.InvokeVerb \"Open\" \' Wait for the PDF to open WScript.Sleep 2000 \' Send the print command Set objShell = CreateObject(\"WScript.Shell\") objShell.SendKeys \"^p\" \' Ctrl + P to open the print dialog WScript.Sleep 1000 \' Select \"Microsoft Print to PDF\" printer objShell.SendKeys \"%%m\" \' Alt + M to select the printer dropdown WScript.Sleep 500 objShell.SendKeys \"Microsoft Print to PDF\" WScript.Sleep 500 \' Confirm the print objShell.SendKeys \"{ENTER}\" WScript.Sleep 1000 \' Specify the output file path objShell.SendKeys \"%NewPdfName%\" WScript.Sleep 500 \' Confirm the save objShell.SendKeys \"{ENTER}\"''' ScriptOutput=> VBScriptOutput END

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Ciaran 261 on at

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Hi

Thank you so much for your response. Your message definitely helped me crack it. I used the following flow to achieve my aim. Thank you for giving up your time to help me.

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