Convert file formats using Nintex workflow and the PDF Converter for SharePoint

We recently released the Muhimbi PDF Converter Xtension for Nintex Automation Cloud. You can download it here or learn more about available Muhimbi deployments for Nintex on our product page.

As of version 6.0 the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint supports cross-conversion of documents. An absolute brilliant new feature that, in addition to converting documents to PDF, makes it possible to convert between versions of file formats  ( doc to docx, xlsx to xls etc) and even between completely different file types ( InfoPath to Word, Excel and HTML or Excel to MS-Word). A SharePoint Designer workflow example and a full chart outlining all possible combinations can be found here.

As we are big fans of Nintex Workflow we are making sure that Nintex Workflow is supported from day one. Similar to all other Nintex Activities provided by Muhimbi, the Convert Document activity integrates with Nintex Workflow at a deep level. It supports SharePoint 2007 as well as 2010, allows errors to be handled and even supports integration with Nintex’ iterators to deal with multiple items and loops. For a comprehensive example and details about how to enable the Nintex Workflow integration see this blog post that discusses our generic Nintex PDF Conversion activity.

Cross convert between document types using Nintex Workflow 2007 and 2010

Building a full example workflow is out of the scope of this post as it is very simple, especially considering it works almost identical to the existing Convert to PDF activity, with the following exceptions:

• Output Format: This field is new and allows the output format to be specified, e.g. doc, xls, pdf, txt, csv, etc.

• Output Item ID: The type of this field is Text rather than Item ID. The reason for this is that a future version of our software may return multiple, comma separated, values for certain actions. If you wish to pass this ID into a secondary activity then you may need to convert it to the correct data type using the Convert Value Workflow Activity. An example can be found here.

That is all! Very straight forward, especially if you are familiar with our other Nintex Workflow Activities. Please note that you may need to make some small modifications if you intend to convert InfoPath to Excel, HTML or MS-Word. For details see this blog post.

Update: As of version 6.1 this Workflow Activity can also be used to override the default Conversion Settings.

For more details about using PDF Converter for SharePoint in combination with Nintex Workflow, see:

• Converting multiple SharePoint files to PDF Format using Nintex workflow

• Secure PDFs using Nintex Workflow and the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint

• Convert and Merge PDFs using Nintex Workflow and the PDF Converter for SharePoint

• Watermark PDFs using Nintex Workflow and the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint

• Convert HTML to PDF using Nintex Workflow and the PDF Converter for SharePoint