Call me a geek, but one aspect that totally refreshes my enthusiasm for great software is when I discover a feature of which I was totally unaware. It almost has a similar effect to discovering a hidden track on a CD of your favourite band. Although PrimoPDF is designed to be super intuitive and easy to use, it doesn’t fail to keep a few tricks up its sleeve.

Append to existing PDF

PDF creation is not only limited to the production of new individual files, but it can also be used to append (or add) material to an existing PDF document. To give you an example: an IT administrator might need to compile a monthly report of a web server’s uptime and traffic, which would consist of different material originating from various sources. Using PrimoPDF, the procedure would be as follows:

1. Open the server logs for the given month and print them to PrimoPDF.
2. In Primo’s settings dialog, click the Options button.
3. In the Options dialog, select Creation > Saving PDF > If PDF exists.
4. In the drop-down menu, select Append to existing.
5. Click OK to exit the dialog, and then click Create PDF.

fig. 1 - Primo settings: Append to existing

The IT admin would then be prompted to name the new PDF and select a destination for the file. This is where the admin would locate the PDF template for reports and double-click on it. PrimoPDF will interpret this action as creating a new PDF where an identical file already exists, so the server logs being printed will be added to the existing PDF file instead of overwriting it. The IT admin would then repeat the process with the traffic graphs from the network monitor, and the statistics generated from the server’s firewall. All this information is then appended to the same document to build what will finally become the monthly report.