PDF Frequently Asked Questions

1. I can already make PDFs. Why should I use the PDF module of Legal Tools?

PDF creation process is unnecessarily cumbersome - you need to locate and open the original document (at least 2 clicks), print to PDF (at least 3 clicks), designate the location and name the file (keystrokes and clicks), together with other options that are hardly ever used. And if you have multiple documents to be converted, you need to do this all over again. What's worse, this process requires the user to be in front of the computer, waiting while the computer processes the conversions. Wouldn't it be much easier to just email a bunch of files to a bot, and it responds back with exactly the same name, but as PDFs? This is exactly what our PDF module does.

2. How do I create a PDF file?

Simply forward one or more Microsoft Word DOC, DOCX or other supported documents (which are: RTF, DOT, DOTX, DOTM, FlatOPC (XML), ODT, OTT, WordprocessingML XML, HTML, MHTML, TXT) and the bot will reply back with the corresponding number of documents in PDF. If there are files in the email that are not supported for conversion, it's not a big deal; it will convert the ones it can and reply them back, together with a message on items it could not convert and the reasons.

3. How do I manipulate a PDF file?

This feature is designed to create an executed version of an agreement, where the signed signature page needs to be inserted to an existing PDF. Forward one or two PDF documents with a command in the subject line of the email (it must be the first word, excluding any "RE:" or "FW:"); there are four commands in total (upper/lower casing does not matter):

    count, which provides the number of PDF pages (electronic pages) in a document (only one file may be attached in the email). This comes in handy if your email PDF viewer does not show the number of e-pages;
    delete X, where X is the PDF page number you wish to delete (only one file may be attached in the email);
    insert X from Y, where X is the page number of the first PDF at which location you want to insert (it adds immediately after the page), and Y refers to the page number of the second PDF (two PDFs must be attached); and
    replace X with Y, where X is the page number you want to replace in the first PDF and Y refers to the page number of the second PDF (two PDFs must be attached).

    4. Can I modify multiple pages at once?

    Yes, you can do either ranges of pages (using '-') or individual pages (separated by comma). For example, when doing a range, command would be "replace 2-4 with 1-3", which will replace pages 2-4 from the first PDF with pages 1-3 from the second PDF. If you want to replace or insert two or more ranges, then we would recommend separating them out into two commands like this: "replace 2-4 with 1-3; replace 5-6 with 9-10" on a single subject line, or you can run the second command one after another, in each case after having received the resulting PDF (but please note that the second time around, page numbers may have shifted).

    When doing individual pages, please separate them with comma: "replace 2,4 with 1,3" will replace pages 2 and 4 from the first PDF with pages 1 and 3 from the second PDF, respectively. You can mix and match ranges with commas; the only requirement is that the total number of pages from the source and target be the same (X and Y must be the same). This is because they get changed respectively, i.e. you cannot do "replace 2,3,4 with 1,2" or vice versa. The exception is if you are replacing multiple pages with a single page - the app will permit the user to replace 2-5 with 3 (where page 3 will replace pages 2-5).

    Most used command looks something like "replace 100 with 1" where page 100 is the blank signature page of the execution version PDF of an agreement (first PDF), and 1 is the recently received signature page file from client (second PDF).