Exporting a PDF document to a text file can be accomplished using the File > Save As process using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

But what if you have hundreds of PDFs that you need to convert to text so that the content can be imported into a database? And what if some of those PDF files are scanned documents that also need to be converted to text as well?

The good news is you can create an action to run this “batch” conversion using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1) Gather all the PDF files you want to convert to text in one directory on your computer.

2) Open Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

3) Select the “Tools” from the main Acrobat toolbar.

4) Double-click on “Action Wizard” tool icon or click the Open button to access to tool controls.

5) Click on “New Action” icon on the “Action Wizard” toolbar to create a new batch processing “action”.

6) In the right column (Action steps to show) of the Create Action dialog box, click the folder icon, then choose the directory on your computer where the PDFs that need to be converted are located.

7) Under the Choose tools to add column on the left side, click the Recognize Text option. Click the right arrow in the middle column to add the tool to the batch action.

8) Under the Choose tools to add column on the left side, click the Save & Export option. Click the right arrow in the middle column to add the tool to the batch action.

9) Under the Action steps to show column on the right side, click the Save option. Click on the Security Settings option. In the Output Options dialog, select the Keep original file names option. Click the Export File(s) to Alternate Format button. From the Export to: dropdown menu, select Text (Plain). Click the OK button.

10) Click the Save button. In the Save Action dialog, type in the Action Name. Add a (optional) description. Click the Save button.

How to Run the Batch Conversion

1) From the Action Wizard, click on the Batch Action Name from the Action List.

NOTE: If the folder where the PDFs you want to batch does not show up, you can select it by clicking Add Folder > Add Folder, then navigating to the directory where the PDFs are located.

2) Click the blue Start button to begin the batch process.

3) The converted text files should be saved in the same directory as the original PDFs.