The second file naming option is Merge all files in subdirectory, use directory name as file name. Choose this option if you would like to merge image files based on directories. You should have a well-thought-out directory hierarchy in order to use this option. All the files in a particular directory will be merged into a single PDF file, which will be named the same way as the directory itself.

When merging by directory name, it is probably a good idea to place the output files one level up in the directory hierarchy. Remember, ELAN Converter™ is replicating the input directory structure under the output folder. However, when you merge by directory, this replication is almost always unwanted. Consider the following example, shown in Figure 3-A and B. You have an input directory called C:\Input\Job1 with files 0001.tif thru 0003.tif. After processing, Converter will merge all of those TIFF files into a PDF named after the parent directory, which is Job1. If your output directory is D:\Output, with the full directory replication your output PDF file will be D:\Output\Job1\Job1.pdf. Note that there is a directory created for every single output file, and each directory has nothing else but one file, named the same way as the directory. In most cases, this is not what you want - it just makes file navigation harder. You probably want an output like D:\Output\Job1.pdf, where the PDF files are created in the parent directory, 1 level up with regard to the input path, as shown in Figure 3-C.

Figure 3. Merging by subdirectory name

A: Typical input directory tree

B: Output: "Place output into parent" is unchecked (rare)

C: Output: "Place output into parent" is checked (regular)

It is possible to do the conversion either way, depending on your preferences. There is an option called Place output into parent directory, which is checked by default. It means the output files will be placed 1 level up, right into the parent directory, such as D:\Output\Job1.pdf. Uncheck this check box if you want a true directory replication, when the output file will be placed into D:\Output\Job1\Job1.pdf, and each directory will have only one file.

Please take a look at Figure 3 for a sample job that shows the difference between the two modes. (Notes: The sample assumes that Subdirectory depth is set to unlimited, which we will discuss a little bit later).

To summarize: Choose the subdirectory merging mode if you have a good directory structure, where the files are well organized, and all the images in each directory can be merged into a single PDF file, where the output file name will be the input directory name. The names of the input images are not important. Note, however, that the order in which the input files are created in the PDF file is based on the alphabetical order of the input file names, as shown in Windows Explorer or your favorite file manager.