Configuration Overview

Table of Contents

1. Settings Files
2. Editing Your Settings
3. How Overrides Work
4. Command Priority
5. Available Placeholders
6. General Options
   1. Format Display
   2. Usage-Based Format Preselection
   3. Batch Processing
   4. Temporary Files

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Settings Files

Settings are stored in ~/.config/simplyconvertfile/:

File	Purpose
settings.json	Conversion command templates (auto-updated from defaults, read-only)
user_settings.json	Your customizations (override defaults, persists across updates)
usage_stats.json	Conversion history for smart format suggestions
DEBUG	Create this file to enable debug logging to stdout

The main settings.json file gets overwritten during application updates. Any changes you make to it will be lost. For customizations, always edit user_settings.json.

Editing Your Settings

nano ~/.config/simplyconvertfile/user_settings.json

Changes take effect immediately on the next conversion. No restart needed.

How Overrides Work

User settings in user_settings.json are merged with the defaults from settings.json. You only need to include the settings you want to change:

{
    "directory_creation_threshold": 3,
    "use_canonical_formats": false,
    "notifications": {
        "enabled": true,
        "on_batch_step_success": false
    },
    "default_formats": {
        "IMAGE": ["WEBP", "PNG"]
    }
}

Command Priority

When determining which command to use for a conversion, the system follows this priority (highest to lowest):

1. Special rules (for cross-format conversions)
2. User settings overrides
3. by_target specific entries
4. default fallback

Available Placeholders

Use these placeholders in custom conversion commands:

Placeholder	Description
{input}	Source file path
{output}	Destination file path
{output_dir}	Output directory path
{temp_file}	Temporary file path (for multi-step conversions)
{temp_dir}	Temporary directory path (for document conversions)
{input_name}	Input filename with extension
{input_stem}	Input filename without extension

General Options

Format Display

"use_canonical_formats": true

Controls whether to show format aliases (JPG/JPEG) or only canonical names. When true, only shows “JPEG” instead of both “JPG” and “JPEG”.

Usage-Based Format Preselection

"preselect_format_by_usage": false

When enabled, the format selection dialog will pre-select the target format you use most frequently for each source format, based on your conversion history.

How it works:

• Tracks every conversion you perform (e.g., JPEG → PNG, JPEG → WEBP)
• Stores usage statistics in ~/.config/simplyconvertfile/usage_stats.json
• Pre-selects the most frequently used target format
• Falls back to default formats if no history exists

All tracking data stays local in your home directory and is never transmitted anywhere.

Batch Processing

"directory_creation_threshold": 5,
"output_directory_name": "converted_files"

Option	Description
directory_creation_threshold	Minimum number of files before automatically creating a separate output directory
output_directory_name	Default name for auto-created output directories

Temporary Files

"temporary": {
    "directory": "/tmp",
    "directory_prefix": "convert_file_",
    "file_suffix": ".tmp",
    "file_prefix": "convert_file_"
}