Introduction

AppendPDF is a command-line application. If you are used to the Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X operating system, you may not be familiar with running command-line tools. This section shows you all you need to get started.

  • Windows tells you how to use AppendPDF on Windows.
  • Mac OS X tells you how to use AppendPDF on Macintosh.

Note: You can refer to the Getting Started With Command Line Applications for additional information on using command-line applications.

Windows

To run AppendPDF in Windows, you need to open a Command Prompt window.

In Windows 7:

  • Click Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt

In Windows 10:

  • Click Start > Windows System > Command Prompt

The Command Prompt window opens.

Some basic commands

At the command prompt, you type each command, and press the Enter key to execute it. You can use the mouse to select text to copy or cut to the clipboard, but you cannot position the cursor with it. The command line is completely keyboard driven. Navigation keys are shown below:

Key Action
Backspace Delete previous character
Right arrow Move right one character
Left arrow Move left one character
Up arrow Recall previous command
Tab File or directory name auto complete
Enter Execute command

In addition to running programs, you have many commands to navigate and maintain the system. Two important ones are cd and dir.

Changing directories

Use the cd command to change directories. For example, to change to the directory that AppendPDF is located in, type:

C:\>cd \Appligent\AppendPDF\

The command prompt changes to:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>

to show you where you are.

To move back one level, use the shortcut of two periods (..)

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>cd..

Don’t forget to press the Enter key after every command. You will now be in this directory:

C:\Appligent>

Move back to AppendPDF:

C:\Appligent>cd AppendPDF

Listing the contents of a directory

Use the dir command to list the contents of a directory:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>dir

The computer responds with a listing of all the contents of the AppendPDF directory.

If the directory contents fly by too fast to read, do this:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>dir /p

The /p switch tells DOS to display one page at a time. Press the Enter key to see the next page.

To see the contents of all the subdirectories at the same time, type:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>dir /s

This displays the contents of AppendPDF and all the subdirectories under it.

Running AppendPDF

To run AppendPDF, type the commands on the command line as shown in other sections of this manual and press Enter. In the next example, we’ve truncated the command prompt path for clarity. A simple command would be:

> .\appendpdf \path\samples\parameters.xml

The parameters.xml file contains all the parameters to create a complete compiled PDF document.

Now, refer to the rest of this User Guide for details about using AppendPDF.

Mac OS X

To run AppendPDF on the Macintosh, you need to open a terminal window. In the Applications folder:

  1. Open the Utilities folder.
  2. Double-click the Terminal application.

The Terminal window opens.

Some basic commands

At the command prompt, you type each command, and press the Return key to execute it. You can use the mouse to select text to copy or cut to the clipboard, but you cannot position the cursor with it. The command line is completely keyboard driven. Navigation keys are shown below:

Key Action
Backspace Delete previous character
Right arrow Move right one character
Left arrow Move left one character
Up arrow Recall previous command
Tab File or directory name auto complete
Return Execute command

In addition to running programs, you have many commands to navigate and maintain the system. Two important ones are cd and ls.

Changing directories

Use the cd command to change directories. For example, to change to the directory that AppendPDF is located in, type:

[yourcomputer:~]user% cd /Applications/Appligent/AppendPDF

The command prompt changes to:

[yourcomputer:Applications/Appligent/AppendPDF]user%

to show you where you are. yourcomputer is the name of your computer, and user is your user name.

To move back one level, use the shortcut of two periods (..)

[yourcomputer:Applications/Appligent/AppendPDF]user% cd ..

Don’t forget to press the Return key after every command. You will now be in this directory:

[yourcomputer:Applications/Appligent]user%

Move back to AppendPDF:

[yourcomputer:Applications/Appligent]user% cd AppendPDF

Listing the contents of a directory

Use the ls command to list the contents of a directory:

[yourcomputer:Applications/Appligent/AppendPDF]user% ls

The computer responds with a listing of all the contents of the AppendPDF directory.

To see the contents of all the subdirectories at the same time, type:

[yourcomputer:Applications/Appligent/AppendPDF]user% ls -R

The -R switch displays the contents of AppendPDF and all the subdirectories under it. Note that these switches are case sensitive. You must use a capital ‘R.’

Running AppendPDF

To run AppendPDF, type the commands on the command line as shown in other sections of this manual and press Return. In the next example, we’ve truncated the command prompt path for clarity. A simple command would be:

$./appendpdf /path/samples/parameters.xml

The parameters.xml file contains all the parameters to create a complete compiled PDF document.

Now, refer to the rest of this User Guide for details about using AppendPDF.