Files to Text

1. Overview & Key Features

Files to Text (also known as DennTech File Manager) is a versatile desktop utility suite that bundles five commonly-needed file tools into a single clean application. Instead of installing five separate programs for extracting text from documents, converting images, building PDFs, or timing tasks, this app handles all of it with a unified dark-themed interface built on PyQt6.

All processing happens entirely on your local machine. No files are uploaded to the cloud, no accounts are required, and no internet connection is needed after the initial installation. Your data stays private.

What's Included

• Files to Text: Extract readable text from PDFs, Word documents, source code files, plain text files, and more. Copy or export the extracted content.
• Text to PDF: Convert plain text or formatted text content into a clean, print-ready PDF document with customizable fonts and layout.
• Image Converter: Convert images between popular formats (JPG, PNG, BMP, WebP, TIFF, GIF) with batch processing support.
• Stopwatch: A precision timer with lap recording, useful for timed tasks, presentations, or meetings.
• File Editor: A lightweight code and text editor with syntax awareness, search/replace, and direct file save.

2. System Requirements & Installation

Running the Compiled EXE

Double-click DennTechFileManager.exe. No Python installation is needed. The application launches with a splash screen and opens the main tabbed window within a few seconds.

Running from Source

1. Navigate to the Files_Text folder in a terminal.
2. Install dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt
3. Launch: python main.py

Key dependencies include: PyQt6, PyPDF2, python-docx, reportlab, Pillow, chardet, and pyperclip.

3. Interface Overview

The application opens to a tabbed main window. The five tabs are visible at the top of the window: Files to Text Text to PDF Image Converter Stopwatch File Editor. The entire application uses a deep dark theme (#1a1a2e background) with soft blue-purple accents for a comfortable extended-use experience.

Each tab is self-contained — switching tabs does not interrupt any ongoing operation in another tab. For example, a large file batch extraction running in the Files to Text tab continues processing while you work in the File Editor tab.

4. Tab 1 — Files to Text

This tab extracts readable text content from any combination of files and folders you select. It is designed for developers who need to aggregate code from multiple source files, researchers extracting text from large PDF archives, or anyone who needs to get plain text out of binary document formats quickly.

Selecting Files and Folders

1. Click Select Files/Folders. A dual-panel selection dialog opens.
2. The right panel shows all files and folders in your initial directory. Navigate as needed. Check the boxes next to the files or folders you want to include.
3. If you check a folder, all files within it are included. Enable Include Subdirectories to recurse into nested folders automatically.
4. The left panel shows the detected methods/functions inside any Python or JavaScript file you click in the right panel — useful for seeing what a source file contains before including it.
5. Click Select All to check all visible items, or Deselect All to clear selections. Click OK to confirm.

Setting the Output Directory

After file selection, specify where the extracted text output file should be saved. Either type a path directly into the output field or click Browse to choose a folder via the system file dialog. The output file is named automatically based on the extraction timestamp.

Output Format Options

• Single File: All extracted text is concatenated into one output file, with clear dividers between each source file's content.
• One File per Source: Each input file produces its own separate output text file. Useful for processing large archives where you need per-document text files.

Supported Input Formats

• PDF files (.pdf): Extracted using PyPDF2. Handles multi-page PDFs, embedded text, and basic formatted documents. Scanned PDFs (images inside PDF) require OCR and are not supported in this tab — use an OCR tool for image-based PDFs.
• Word documents (.docx): Extracted using python-docx. Extracts all paragraph text, including text in tables and text boxes.
• Plain text files (.txt, .csv, .log, .md, .rst): Read directly with automatic encoding detection via chardet — handles UTF-8, Latin-1, Windows-1252, and other common encodings.
• Source code files (.py, .js, .ts, .html, .css, .json, .xml, .yaml, .java, .c, .cpp, .cs, .go, .rb, .php, and more): Read as plain text with the full source content preserved, including all indentation and comments.

Running the Extraction

Click Extract Text. A progress bar at the bottom of the tab shows extraction progress across all selected files. The main output text area populates in real time as each file is processed. When extraction completes, a summary shows how many files were processed successfully and how many (if any) could not be read.

Copying and Exporting Output

• Copy to Clipboard: Copies all extracted text to the system clipboard in one click. Useful for pasting directly into another application (ChatGPT, email, document).
• Save to File: Saves the output text to the configured output directory. The file is saved with a .txt extension by default.
• Clear: Clears the output text area and resets the progress bar for a fresh extraction.

Database History

Each extraction run is recorded in a local SQLite database (file_manager.db) with the timestamp, file list, and output path. You can view history by clicking View History to see past extractions and re-open their output files.

5. Tab 2 — Text to PDF

This tab converts plain text or formatted text content into a professionally laid-out PDF document. This is useful for distributing notes, generating simple reports, archiving correspondence, or creating printable documents from raw text files.

Inputting Text

There are two ways to get text into the converter:

• Type or paste directly: Click in the large text input area and type or paste your content. The area supports unlimited length.
• Load from file: Click Load Text File to open a plain text file. The file's content is loaded into the input area where you can review and edit it before conversion.

Layout Settings

• Font Family: Choose from common document fonts (Helvetica, Times, Courier). The selection affects readability and PDF file size.
• Font Size: Choose from 8pt to 24pt. 11pt or 12pt is standard for document body text; 14pt+ for presentations.
• Page Size: Letter (8.5"×11") or A4 (210×297 mm).
• Margins: Uniform margin in inches applied to all four sides. Default 1 inch.
• Line Spacing: Single, 1.5x, or Double. Increases readability and is useful for documents intended to be annotated by hand.
• Title: Optional title text placed as a larger heading at the top of the first page.

Generating the PDF

Click Convert to PDF. A file save dialog opens for you to choose the output path and filename. The PDF is generated using the ReportLab library and saved immediately. A success notification appears with the full output path. Click Open PDF in the notification to open it directly in your system's default PDF viewer.

6. Tab 3 — Image Converter

The Image Converter tab provides fast, straightforward image format conversion with optional batch processing. It handles all common image formats and preserves image quality during conversion.

Single Image Conversion

1. Click Select Image and choose any supported image file.
2. A preview thumbnail of the selected image appears on the right.
3. Choose the target output format from the Output Format dropdown (JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, GIF, ICO).
4. Set JPEG Quality (1–100) if converting to JPEG. Higher values preserve more detail at the cost of larger file size. 85–90 is a good balance for most use cases.
5. Click Convert. The converted file is saved in the same directory as the source file with the new extension appended to the filename.

Batch Conversion

1. Click Batch Mode to switch to the batch interface.
2. Click Add Images to select multiple files, or Add Folder to add all images from a directory.
3. The file list populates with all added images. Remove individual items by selecting and pressing Delete or clicking Remove Selected.
4. Choose the target format and quality settings as in single mode.
5. Optionally set a Custom Output Folder — by default, converted files are saved alongside the originals.
6. Click Convert All. A progress bar tracks conversion across all files. A summary report shows success count and any files that failed (e.g., corrupted source images).

Supported Formats

7. Tab 4 — Stopwatch

The Stopwatch tab is a precision timing tool with lap-recording capability. While simple in concept, it is built with millisecond accuracy and a clean, readable display suitable for timing presentations, meetings, sprints, or any task requiring careful time tracking.

Controls

• Start / Resume: Begins or resumes the timer. The digital display (HH:MM:SS.mmm) updates continuously.
• Pause: Freezes the timer display without resetting. Resume continues from the paused time.
• Lap: Records the current elapsed time as a lap entry in the lap list below the timer. Each lap shows its cumulative time and the delta time since the previous lap.
• Reset: Stops the timer, clears the display to 00:00:00.000, and clears all recorded laps.
• Copy Laps: Copies the full lap history to the clipboard as formatted text for pasting into a report or spreadsheet.

Lap History

The lap table below the timer records up to 999 laps. Each row shows: Lap number, lap time (delta from previous lap), and total elapsed time at the point the lap was recorded. Laps are color-coded — the fastest lap is highlighted in green, the slowest in red.

8. Tab 5 — File Editor

The File Editor tab is a lightweight but capable code and text editor built directly into the application. It is designed for quick edits to configuration files, text documents, or source code without needing to open a separate editor application.

Opening Files

Click Open File to browse and open any file. The editor supports any plain text format — source code, configuration files, Markdown, CSV, logs, etc. Large files (over 10 MB) show a warning before opening as they may be slow to load and edit.

Editing Features

• Search: Press Ctrl+F or click Find to open the search bar. Type a search term and press Enter to jump to the next occurrence. Use Find All to highlight all instances simultaneously.
• Search & Replace: Press Ctrl+H or click Replace. Enter a search term and replacement text. Replace the current selection or all occurrences at once.
• Undo/Redo: Full undo/redo history with Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y.
• Line numbers: Displayed in the left margin for easy reference.
• Word wrap toggle: Wrap long lines or scroll horizontally — toggle via the toolbar checkbox.
• Font size adjust: Use Ctrl++ and Ctrl+- to increase and decrease the editor font size.

Saving Files

• Save: Ctrl+S — saves changes to the currently open file. If the file has unsaved changes, the title bar shows an asterisk (*) next to the filename.
• Save As: Ctrl+Shift+S — saves the content to a new file path of your choice.
• New File: Opens a blank editor pane. You will be prompted to save any unsaved changes to the current file first.

9. Supported Formats Reference

10. Data Storage

Files to Text stores minimal persistent data:

• SQLite database (file_manager.db): Extraction history — timestamps, file lists, and output paths from all past runs.
• Application log (app.log): Diagnostic log of application events, errors, and warnings. Useful for reporting issues.
• Output files: Saved wherever you direct them. The app creates no files in your system or user profile directories.

The database and log files are placed in the directory returned by app_paths.get_db_path() — typically the application folder when running from source, or a subfolder of %APPDATA% when running the compiled EXE.

11. Troubleshooting

PDF extraction produces garbled text

This happens with PDFs that contain scanned page images rather than embedded text. PyPDF2 can only extract text that is actually encoded in the PDF structure. For scanned PDFs, use a dedicated OCR tool (such as Adobe Acrobat or an online OCR service) to produce a text-searchable PDF first, then extract from that.

DOCX extraction is incomplete

Some Word documents use text boxes or embedded objects for content. python-docx extracts paragraph and table text but may miss content in floating text boxes or headers/footers. Open the document in Word and copy-paste those sections manually if critical.

Image conversion fails for a specific file

The source file may be corrupted or use an unsupported sub-format. Try opening it in an image viewer to confirm it opens correctly. Some exotic camera RAW formats (NEF, CR2, ARW) are not supported — convert them to TIFF or PNG first using camera-specific software.

App crashes on launch

Check app.log for the error. The most common cause is a missing Python dependency — run pip install -r requirements.txt to reinstall all dependencies. If using the EXE, try running as Administrator.

File Editor loses changes on crash

This is a known limitation. The editor does not have auto-save or crash recovery. Enable the auto-save interval in Settings (if available in your version) or use Ctrl+S habitually to save frequently.

Files to Text (DennTech File Manager) User Manual — DennTech — May 2026