Advanced Features

Table of Contents

  1. Automatic File Validation
    1. Multi-Step Conversion Protection
  2. Intelligent Tool Selection
  3. Usage Tips

Automatic File Validation

Multi-Step Conversion Protection

The system automatically validates intermediate files in multi-step conversions (such as LibreOffice document conversions) to prevent cascading failures:

  • Automatic Detection — Identifies multi-step commands with temporary files
  • Validation Injection — Inserts test -f '{file}' checks between conversion steps
  • Enhanced Error Messages — Shows the actual conversion error instead of generic file-not-found errors
  • Universal Coverage — Works automatically for all converter types (image, video, audio, document, archive, etc.)

Intelligent Tool Selection

The conversion engine automatically selects the best tool for each conversion:

Tool Use Case
Pandoc Universal document converter for EPUB, HTML, Markdown, RTF
Calibre (ebook-convert) Specialized ebook formats (MOBI conversions)
LibreOffice Office document conversions (DOC/DOCX/ODT → PDF)
ImageMagick Image format conversions
FFmpeg Audio and video conversions
7-Zip Archive operations

Usage Tips

Quality Control
Edit user_settings.json to adjust conversion quality parameters: 
nano ~/.config/simplyconvertfile/user_settings.json

See Configuration for details.

Cross-Format Conversions
  • Extract audio from video: Select MP4/AVI → Convert to MP3/FLAC
  • Animated GIF to video: Select GIF → Convert to MP4/WEBM
  • Document to PDF: Select DOC/DOCX/ODT → Convert to PDF