1. Introduction
2. Example Use Case
3. Step-by-Step Instructions

Introduction

With Convert PDF to Text by cloudHQ you do not have to convert files one by one. You can select a whole Google Drive folder and every supported file inside it is converted to plain text (.txt) in one job. This works for normal PDFs, scanned PDFs and images (we read the text using OCR), HTML files, Word documents, and native Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Each converted file gets its own .txt file, saved right next to the original. You can also turn on one extra option so the text of every converted file is collected into a single combined text file in that folder. That gives you the whole folder as one text file.

A few things that are good to know:

• Only the files directly inside the folder are converted. Files in subfolders are not included, so convert each subfolder separately if you need them.
• The tool is smart about its own output: existing .txt files and the combined text file are skipped, so you can safely convert the same folder again after adding new files.
• Files that cannot be converted (for example a password protected PDF) are clearly marked with an error, and the rest of the folder still converts normally.

Example Use Case

Converting a whole folder to text is useful whenever you need the content of many documents at once, not just one file:

• Feed a whole folder to an AI. You have a folder of contracts, reports, or invoices and you want to ask an AI (like ChatGPT) questions about them. AI tools read plain text much better than PDFs, and text uses far fewer tokens, so it also costs less. With the combined text file option turned on, you get the entire folder as one text file you can hand to the AI in one go.
• Search across all documents. Once everything is plain text you can search the whole folder at once. This is helpful for audits, legal reviews, and research.
• Digitize a folder of scans. A folder full of scanned receipts or photographed documents is just pictures. After OCR you get real text you can read, copy, and process.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Google Drive and open the folder you want to convert (so you’re inside it).
2. Click New in the left sidebar, then choose More -> Convert PDF to Text:
   
   
3. You are taken to the cloudHQ website. If this is your first time, just click Sign In with your Google account.
   [ Screenshot placeholder: the cloudHQ Sign In screen ]
4. The Convert PDF to Text page opens with all supported files from the folder already listed. Subfolders and files that are already text are skipped automatically. You can remove any file you do not want, or add more files.
   
   Note: to convert a whole folder, Convert PDF to Text needs permission to read all the files in that folder. By default, Google only lets the add-on see files you opened with it. So if some files in the folder cannot be listed, you will see a message asking you to authorize your Google Drive. Click Authorize Google Drive and allow the requested permissions. You only need to do this once. After that, go back to the folder and start again, and every file in the folder will be listed.
5. Review the conversion options. For a folder, the most useful option is Keep one combined text file in each folder: every converted file is also added to a single, always up-to-date text file in the folder. You can also turn on redaction to hide sensitive information in the extracted text.
   
6. Click Convert to Text. You will see the progress for every file. If one file cannot be converted, it is marked with an error and the other files still finish.
7. When the job is done, every file has a .txt copy next to the original in the folder. If you turned on the combined text file option, the folder also contains one text file with the content of everything you converted. You can download the files or open them in Google Drive.
   

Tip: you can also start from the Convert PDF to Text Dashboard. Click Select files from my Google Drive and pick the folder there. The rest of the steps are the same.