There is one more option in the Merging and Output File Naming group that we did not discuss, namely the Subdirectory depth. Remember that ELAN Converter™ is always replicating the input directory structure into the output folder. So far in our discussion we assumed that the directory replication had an unlimited level, which is the default option for Subdirectory depth. The unlimited replication means that no matter how deep your input directory structure is, the entire directory tree will be replicated. You can, however, limit the number of levels by typing a limiter number in the edit box. Specify a number of 1, for example, if you only want to replicate the first subdirectory under the input folder that you selected for processing. Entering 2 in the edit box will limit the replication to 2 levels. A number of 0 means that no directory replication will take place – in other words, everything will be merged as if all the input files were right under the input folder.

Figure 5. Merging by common prefix

A: Typical input hierarchy

B: Output tree with Subdirectory depth = unlimited (or 3 or more)

C: Output tree with replication level limitation Subdirectory depth = 2

Note that the Subdirectory depth also affects how your files will be named and merged. Consider the directory structure shown in Figure 5. You have a C:\Input folder selected for conversion, with a directory named C:\Input\Job1\Book1, where images are being scanned. Scanning is often done in batches, which means images are scanned into numbered subdirectories, each directory containing not more than 100 files. For example, Batch001 is a subfolder with 100 files, and Batch002 is another subfolder with 60 files in it. The files have an intuitive naming convention with a clearly recognizable common prefix. Note, however, how Chapter2 files roll over from Batch001 to Batch002.

In this case you would not like to include the Batch001 and Batch002 directories into the directory replication. Instead, you would like to treat your files as everything was directly scanned into C:\Input\Job1\Book1. If Subdirectory depth is set to unlimited, your output files will be placed too deep into the directory tree, as shown in Figure 5-B. You don't want directories like Batch001 and Batch002 appearing in your output tree, so just set the Subdirectory depth to 2. Why 2? Because C:\Input is the folder that you selected for batch conversion. Underneath are Job1 and Book1, two levels of directory tree nodes that you would like to replicate. You have to limit the replication at level 2 in order to include both Job1 and Book1, but not Batch001 or Batch002. You would use level 1 if you only wanted to replicate the Job1 directory.

Figure 6. Merging by subdirectory

A: Typical input hierarchy

B: Output tree with Subdirectory depth = unlimited (or 3 or more)

C: Output tree with Subdirectory depth correctly limited to level 2

Similarly, you can merge by subdirectory using a limited Subdirectory depth, as shown in Figure 6. Similarly to the previous example, we are again scanning in batches, with a maximum of 100 files in each batch. Note that Book1 files roll over from Batch001 to Batch002. You definitely do not want to break your PDF files at the batch boundaries, as batches are created in order to separate physical files, not to build a logical structure. Also, you do not want to name your output files Batch001.pdf and Batch002.pdf (see Figure 6-B).

Again, you would like to replicate Job1 and Book1, but not Batch001 or Batch002. So you have to set up a Subdirectory depth of 2 in order to achieve the expected result (shown in Figure 6-C).