Convert & merge text files to PDF in bulk with PowerShell

Aug 14, 2017 · 2 min read · PowerShell Youtube  ·
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To demonstrate this process, I will show you how I export all the PowerShell help and convert it to PDF files that I use instead of looking at the help files in the PowerShell Console. I realize you can view the PowerShell help files in the console and online. The purpose of this script is to demonstrate how I solved what I viewed as a problem for me. You may be just fine looking through the help files in the console or online, as with any PowerShell script anyone hacks together, your mileage may vary.

I have split the code into 3 functions; 1 to export the help files to text files, 1 to convert those text files to PDFs, and 1 to merge all the PDFs in a given folder into 1 PDF. This process requires the iTextSharp .net library which you can download here https://github.com/itext/itextsharp. This is probably one of the more basic implementations of the iTextSharp library, it has a lot of functionality that I didn’t need to accomplish my mission. You can find more technical information on iTextSharp here https://afterlogic.com/mailbee-net/docs-itextsharp/

The Problem

For me, I hate looking through the help files in the console… for a few reasons.

  1. By default, the font is too small for me to see well. Old people problems I know, it is what it is. I find reading a pdf file much easier on the eye. I dump all the help files on a network accessible share that I can quickly access on any machine in my network.

  2. I can highlight, comment and bookmark the pdf files as needed. This may require the full version of Acrobat Pro or an equivalent, I’m not sure. My organization has Acrobat Pro so this isn’t an issue for me. Using highlighting, comments and bookmarks, I can make the help files more of a quick reference, it just works for me.

  3. I frequently work on Servers that are not accessible to the larger internet. Meaning, I can’t update help files for those machines unless I do it manually. Instead, I keep these pdf files on an external hard drive that I carry around anyway.

I know the help files are updated occasionally but it’s not often enough to make much of a difference. I usually update my help files a couple times a year. All that said, below is the code I use to make all the txt files and convert them to pdfs.