When a folder is filled with a large number of PDF documents and you need to extract text for searching, editing, archiving, or data analysis, manually copying content from each file is very inefficient. This article uses HeSoft Doc Batch Tool as an example to explain how to use the PDF-to-TXT conversion feature in PDF tools to batch-add PDFs or import files from a folder, check the pending records, set the save location, and start the conversion to quickly obtain TXT text files with the same names.
Many office documents are saved in PDF format, such as meeting minutes, project specifications, quick reference guides, user manuals, weekly reports, and various terms and conditions. PDFs are suitable for reading and distribution but are not always ideal for subsequent text processing. When you want to copy PDF content into a system for searching, import data into a knowledge base, perform keyword analysis on multiple reports, or simply get a lighter plain text version, you encounter a practical problem: how to convert multiple PDF files into TXT at once?
If there are only one or two files, manually opening the PDF, copying the text, pasting it into Notepad, and saving it is barely acceptable. But when the number of files increases to a dozen, dozens, or even more, this method becomes a typical repetitive task. Each file needs to be opened, waited on, selected, copied, saved, and named, which is time-consuming and prone to issues like missed processing, saved to the wrong location, and inconsistent file names.
This article introduces a method more suitable for office batch processing: using HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to batch convert many PDF files to TXT text format. This software is positioned as a batch document processing office tool, focusing not on letting users process files one by one but on helping users reduce repetitive steps and improve file organization efficiency through batch importing and streamlined operations.
Applicable Scenarios: What Office Needs Can Batch TXT Conversion Solve
The core goal of batch PDF to TXT conversion is to extract text content. This method is suitable as long as your subsequent work focuses more on the "text itself" rather than the PDF's layout, images, and page arrangement. Common scenarios include: converting multiple PDF documents into searchable text; uniformly organizing meeting records, weekly reports, and project descriptions into txt; converting user manuals and help documents into knowledge base materials; converting contract clauses or policy documents into plain text for easy keyword searching; converting historical PDF documents into text files that are easier to back up and read.
The advantages of the TXT format are its simplicity, universality, and small file size. It can be opened by almost all systems and text editors and is also suitable for subsequent batch merging, searching, importing, and analysis. Compared to Word's doc and docx formats, TXT does not emphasize layout; compared to Excel spreadsheets, TXT leans more towards pure text content; compared to HTML web pages, TXT has no tag structure. Therefore, if your need is to "get the text out of a PDF," converting PDF to txt is usually a direct and efficient choice.
Effect Preview: The Source Folder Contains PDF Documents Before Conversion
The screenshot before processing shows a folder containing multiple PDFs. It can be seen that the file icons are all PDF, and the file names include Emergency_Contacts.pdf, Meeting_Notes.pdf, Personal_Checklist.pdf, Project_Specifications.pdf, Quick_Reference_Guide.pdf, Terms_and_Conditions.pdf, User_Manual.pdf, Weekly_Report.pdf, etc. This indicates that the objects to be processed are a batch of PDF files of the same type but with different content.
In actual work, this kind of folder is very common. For example, a project data package might contain project descriptions, meeting minutes, user manuals, and weekly reports; an administrative data directory might contain contact lists, policy descriptions, and operation guides. To extract text individually requires repeating the same actions. The value of batch conversion lies in: selecting multiple files once and processing them uniformly.
Effect Preview: Corresponding TXT Files Generated After Conversion
The processed screenshot shows that the original PDF files have been converted to TXT text format. The file names still correspond to the original documents, for example, Emergency_Contacts.txt corresponds to Emergency_Contacts.pdf, Meeting_Notes.txt corresponds to Meeting_Notes.pdf, User_Manual.txt corresponds to User_Manual.pdf. The extension changed from .pdf to .txt, indicating that the output results are now text files.
This conversion result makes it easy for users to check quickly. You don't need to rename each file or manually establish correspondences. For batch office work, output files with clear names, consistent quantities, and a unified format mean subsequent organization is easier. Whether uploading these txt files to an internal system, performing further keyword searches, content checks, or data archiving, it is more convenient than dealing with a pile of PDFs directly.
Operation Steps: Enter PDF Tools and Find PDF to TXT
First, open HeSoft Doc Batch Tool . In the left navigation bar of the software, you can see categories such as "Home," "Task Flow," "All Tools," "File Name," "Folder Name," "File Organization," "Word Tools," "Excel Tools," "PowerPoint Tools," "PDF Tools," "Text Tools," "Image Tools," etc. Since the files to be processed this time are PDF, you need to click "PDF Tools" on the left.
After entering PDF Tools, the main interface will display various PDF batch processing functions in card form. As seen in the screenshot, these include "PDF to Docx," "PDF to Pptx," "PDF to XPS," "PDF to Excel," "PDF to XML," "PDF to HTML Webpage," etc. We need to select "PDF to TXT," whose card description is "Batch convert PDF files to TXT format."
The purpose of this step is to enter the correct conversion module. Conversion functions in office software usually cover multiple target formats, such as Word's docx, doc, Excel spreadsheets, PPT presentations, HTML webpages, or image formats. After selecting "PDF to TXT," the subsequent output will be plain text files.
Operation Steps: Add PDF Files or Batch Import from a Folder
After entering the "PDF to TXT" page, the top of the interface provides several key buttons, the most important of which are "Add Files" and "Import Files from Folder." If you only want to convert a few scattered PDFs, you can use "Add Files"; if the PDFs to be converted are already in the same directory, using "Import Files from Folder" will be more efficient.
From the screenshot, the software has entered the first step, "Select records to process." The file list shows 8 records, each containing a sequence number, name, path, extension, creation time, modification time, and actions. The name column lists Emergency_Contacts.pdf, Meeting_Notes.pdf, Personal_Checklist.pdf, Project_Specifications.pdf, Quick_Reference_Guide.pdf, Terms_and_Conditions.pdf, User_Manual.pdf, Weekly_Report.pdf; the extension column is all pdf, indicating the imported file types meet this conversion requirement.
The expected result of this step is that all PDFs needing conversion to TXT are in the list and the quantity is correct. The page bottom displays "Summary Record Count: 8," helping users quickly confirm how many files the current batch task contains. If you originally planned to process 8 PDFs and the list also shows 8 records, it means the import is basically correct.
Operation Steps: Review Pending Records to Avoid Converting Wrong Files
Before batch processing files, reviewing the list is a very important habit. Because the batch function executes uniformly according to the list content, if wrong files are imported, unnecessary TXTs will be generated subsequently. The list fields in the screenshot are relatively complete; users can judge if files come from the correct folder based on name and path, and can also confirm they are indeed PDF files through the extension.
If you find a file does not need conversion, you can remove it using the delete icon in the "Actions" column on the right of that row. If the entire imported batch is incorrect, you can click the "Clear" button at the top to re-add or re-import from the folder. This allows problems to be eliminated before starting the conversion, avoiding the time needed to clean up irrelevant results after processing is complete.
For enterprise or team scenarios, it is recommended to organize the source folder before importing, placing the PDFs needing conversion in the same directory, and keeping file names clear as much as possible. This makes the imported list easier to verify and ensures the converted TXT files maintain good readability and traceability.
Operation Steps: Click Next and Set Save Location
After confirming the file list is correct, click the "Next" button at the bottom of the interface. The page flow shows the second step is "Set Save Location," indicating the software will guide the user to select the output directory for the conversion results. How clearly the save location is set directly affects the efficiency of subsequent searching and organization.
It is recommended not to casually output to the desktop or system default directory, but to create a dedicated folder for this task, such as "Project Data TXT Version," "PDF Text Extraction Results," or "2025 Weekly Reports TXT." This way, after processing is complete, you can find all generated .txt files at once, and also keep them separate from the original PDF files to avoid confusion.
If you need to keep the original PDFs as formal archived files while using TXTs for searching and analysis, separating the source and result folders is a safer approach. Keep the original PDFs untouched, and manage the TXTs as derivative text results separately, making it easier to compare and update even if reprocessing later.
Operation Steps: Start Processing and Wait for Batch Conversion to Complete
After setting the save location, proceed to the third step, "Start Processing." After starting the processing task according to the interface prompts, the software will convert the listed PDF files one by one and generate corresponding TXT files in the target location. Users do not need to open PDFs individually or manually copy text and save it separately.
When batch conversion is complete, open the output folder to check if txt files corresponding to the original PDFs were generated. Referencing the effect diagram, the file names of the conversion results are consistent with the original file bodies, only the extension changed to .txt. This type of result is very suitable for subsequent checks: you can sort by file name and compare quantities against the source files; you can also spot-check several TXT contents to confirm the text extraction effect meets expectations.
If some PDF content is complex, or the original file is a document scan, the text conversion result may differ from PDFs with ordinary copyable text. Therefore, for important business materials, it is recommended to conduct spot checks after batch conversion to ensure key content has been correctly output.
Common Questions and Precautions
1. What is the difference between PDF to TXT and PDF to Word?
PDF to TXT is better suited for extracting plain text content; the output files are simple and lightweight. PDF to Word, Docx, or Doc is better for scenarios requiring further editing while retaining some layout. If you just want to search, copy, import into a system, or perform text analysis, TXT is more direct. If you need layout, paragraph styles, or graphic structures, you should choose other formats based on your needs.
2. Why is folder import recommended?
When there are many PDFs, "Import Files from Folder" can reduce repetitive selection actions. As long as the PDFs needing conversion are placed in the same folder in advance, the software can build the pending list faster. This is precisely the advantage of batch processing tools in office efficiency.
3. What subsequent work can the converted TXT files be used for?
TXT files can be used for full-text searching, content archiving, copy-pasting, knowledge base importing, text comparison, data review, etc. Due to their simple format, they are also convenient to transfer between different systems, making them suitable as a basic text version after extracting content from PDFs.
4. Do I need to back up PDFs before starting processing?
From a process perspective, the software converts PDFs output to TXT, rather than directly changing the original PDFs into TXTs. However, for important data, it is still recommended to keep the original files, especially formal documents like contracts, policies, and project documents. The original PDFs are for archiving, TXTs are for searching and secondary processing; their uses differ.
5. How to improve review efficiency when there are many files?
You can first look at the record count at the bottom of the list, then check if the extensions are all pdf, and finally spot-check file names and paths to verify they are from the target folder. After processing is complete, compare the number of txt files in the output directory. This allows you to complete the batch task check in less time.
Summary: Leave Repetitive PDF Text Extraction to Batch Processing Tools
Converting multiple PDF files to TXT at once does not require opening and copying them one by one. Through HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , users can select "PDF to TXT" under "PDF Tools," then build a pending list using "Add Files" or "Import Files from Folder," review the records and click "Next," set the save location, and start processing. The entire process is clear and suitable for document organization and conversion tasks in daily office work.
As shown in the before-and-after effect screenshots, a batch of .pdf files can be batch-generated into .txt files with the same names, with a unified file format, facilitating subsequent searching, editing, archiving, and importing. For users who frequently handle large volumes of PDF materials, this batch conversion method can significantly reduce repetitive labor, allowing more time to be spent on content analysis and business judgment. It is recommended that the next time you need to extract text from multiple PDFs, first centralize the files in one directory and then use the PDF to TXT conversion function for unified processing.