How to batch process a folder of PDFs on Mac
Forty scanned invoices and one afternoon stop being the same problem.
Everything in this guide can be done one document at a time. The point of a batch recipe is that you stop doing it one document at a time.
Batch recipes is part of Premium, so it carries a small lock in the document actions panel and in the menu bar. The lock is a label rather than a barrier — you can open the feature and see what it does before deciding to unlock it. Reading and every page operation stay free.
Build a recipe, step by step
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Work out what the job actually is
Write it down as a sentence before you start: “recognise the text, compress to medium, and write the results into a folder called Processed”. A recipe that does not have a clear sentence behind it is usually doing too much.
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Open Batch Recipe
From the document actions panel, under Read & Review.
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Add the steps
Each operation you want applied, in the order you want it. Order matters: recognise before compressing, not after, because compression softens the detail recognition needs.
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Choose the input
A folder of documents. Check what is actually in it first — a stray document that should not be processed is easier to move out now than to fix later.
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Choose where the results go
A separate folder, always. Writing over your originals is a decision, not a default.
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Test on three documents first
Copy three representative files into a test folder and run the recipe on those. Three minutes here beats discovering a wrong setting on document thirty-eight.
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Run it on the folder
And go and do something else.
Recipes worth having
| Job | Recipe |
|---|---|
| Turn a filing cabinet into a searchable archive | Recognise text → write to a new folder |
| Prepare a bundle for circulation | Add a DRAFT watermark → number the pages → compress |
| Make a set of scans emailable | Recognise text → compress → write to a new folder |
| Mark a set of documents as received | Add a stamp → write to a new folder |
| Standardise a set of client documents | Add a client watermark → number pages → compress |
Batch means the same mistake applied to every file at once. Always write results to a separate folder, always test on three documents first, and keep the originals until you have looked at the output. This is the one feature where being careful the first time genuinely matters.
Order of operations
A few pairs where the order changes the result:
- Recognise before compressing. Compression softens the detail recognition depends on.
- Rotate before recognising. A straight page recognises far better than a sideways one.
- Number after merging, not before, or the numbers will not run continuously.
- Watermark before flattening, if you want the watermark to be permanent.
Checking the output
Look at three documents from the result folder: the first, the last, and one from the middle. Open them, check the operation actually happened, and check nothing else changed. A recipe that silently did nothing looks exactly like a recipe that worked, until someone opens a file.
Why this is the feature that pays for itself
Every other feature saves you minutes. A batch recipe over a folder of two hundred scanned documents saves a week — and it does it without any of those documents leaving your Mac, which is the only reason it is usable on the kind of archive anyone actually has.
Frequently asked questions
Can I process several PDFs at once on a Mac?
Yes. A batch recipe in Verso applies the same set of operations across a whole folder and writes the results where you choose.
What can a batch recipe do?
Recognise text, add watermarks and stamps, number pages, compress, and write results to a folder — the operations you would otherwise apply one document at a time.
Will it overwrite my original files?
Only if you tell it to. Write results to a separate folder, and keep the originals until you have checked the output.
How do I avoid getting it wrong across a hundred files?
Test on three representative documents in a test folder first. Three minutes there saves finding a wrong setting on document thirty-eight.
Does the order of the steps matter?
Yes. Recognise before compressing, rotate before recognising, and number after merging rather than before.
Does batch processing upload anything?
No. It all runs on your Mac, which is what makes it usable on a real archive.