Need to convert an MP4 video file to an MP3 audio file with drag-n-drop? Or, resize and compress an image that’s too big to upload? Need to convert PDFs into a single merged, text file in MarkDown format for easy upload to a Gen AI chatbot? Or, perhaps, you have a series of photos you want to convert into a slideshow? If you use technology with any frequency, you may find yourself struggling to find the right, no-cost apps to get the job done. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve installed a “free” program only to find that there are in-app purchases needed. But there is an easier way.
Generative AI Makes the Command Line Easy
Much of what you pay app creators for is available for free, if only you knew how how to use the command line on Windows (or GNU/Linux and Mac). The problem is, finding the right combination of command line options for a program like FFMPEG or ImageMagick can take a few Google searches and hours of experimentation. I have put in that time, and then, about six months ago, a solution so obvious I mentally kicked myself for not trying it sooner.
Note: While all the examples in this blog entry focus on .bat files, you can easily ask your Gen AI chatbot for a BASH file (filename extension is .sh). Bash files work a little differently on GNU/Linux, and that would necessitate a separate blog entry. This idea works for all sorts of challenges, including moving fonts from Windows to GNU/Linux, as one person found out when I put together this tutorial for them using Gen AI, too. The point is, give it a go.
You already know what the solution is, right? I decided to ask Generative AI to give me the right command line options for shrinking a series of videos. You see, I had recorded a host of my daughter’s wedding videos, and they had gigantic file sizes. While I work with video all the time, babysitting video conversion programs to do the conversion (which takes forever) was not on my dance card. When Perplexity AI gave me the right combination for a bat file, I realized I might be on to something. A half year later, I’m now using AI-authored BAT (Windows) and BASH (Mac and Linux) to do all sorts of tasks.
What’s a BAT/BASH file?
I learned about BAT files in my freshman college class, “An Introduction to MS-DOS.” My professor, back in the late 1980s, had me write BAT files by hand. At that time, the realization that coding was not my thing sank in a little deeper.
BAT/BASH files are like recipes. They are a list of instructions that instruct your computer to do things automatically. Instead of you clicking through menus and typing commands one by one, the script does it all for you. Think of these as a to-do list for the operating system. The .bat file is for the Windows operating system. On Mac and GNU/Linux, the recipe of instructions file is known as a .bash file. They do the same kind of thing, only they use language that each operating system understands.
Some real world examples you can use script files for include:
- Automatic back up of files from one folder to another every day (great for backing up that USB drive you carry around with you)
- Launching multiple programs at once with a single click
- Renaming hundreds of files in seconds instead of one by one (ugh, this is a pain)
- Clean up of temporary files
Now, my “Aha!” moment came when working with large video and image files I wanted to share with others. Others do not need the high quality video or image. A smaller, more shrunken version I can fit inside of an email or text message attachment will do just fine.
Sample Prompt for a BAT File: Make Animated GIF from JPGs
“What is the simplest way to create an animated GIF from an existing JPEG/JPG/PNG? The JPG has a character I need to animate. I’m looking for a bat file” (Source)
View solution bat file.
To that end, I set up a ChatGPT Project (you can do this in BoodleBox, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini, too) that I labeled “Technical.” Then I added some custom instructions to it to guide my work. These custom instructions take the hard work out, and instead, make it easy to drag-n-drop files on top of a .bat file on Windows to get the desired action.
One Example: PDF/Txt/MD to MD File Merge
Problem: Need to merge PDFs, Txt, or Markdown (MD) files into a single file?
There are limits on how many files you can upload to a knowledge bank (e.g. ChatGPT limits you to 25 files for a Project/CustomGPT). Or, perhaps you want to optimize your text files before putting them into a knowledge bank.
Solution: PDF 2 Markdown with File Merge
Get this Windows friendly tool.
It will convert from PDF/Text/Markdown (MD) formatted files to markdown, then merge the MD files into one. This means instead of giving your GenAI twenty-five different PDF documents, you provide only one. This takes up less space AND the Gen AI chatbot processes the text file faster. You can always rename the “merged.md” to “merged.txt” if your AI chatbot of choice can’t handle markdown.Google Gem and BoodleBox Bots can produce markdown files, but won’t accept them as input unless you change the filename extension to txt.
Free Software to Install for Windows
You will need to install some software, all of it free, open source (FOSS). Then, you will need to add this software to the PATH so it can work anywhere you happen to be (such as your Desktop, in some deep directory/folder on your device). Let’s look at both steps now, which you will only need to do once.
Install Software
You will not need all the software I have in my tools folder (more on that in a moment), but you can start with the following software:
- Install ffmpeg and ensure
ffmpeg.exeis on PATH. - Install ImageMagick and ensure
magick.exeis on PATH. - Optional: install ExifTool (
exiftool.exeon PATH) for metadata stripping. - Optional: install Whisper CLI (
whisperon PATH) for subtitles.
A convenient step by step is available to assist you in installing the software programs above. That will enable you to take advantage of solutions such as the ones detailed below:
- Compress video for sharing
- Convert single video file to desired format (choices available)
- Extract audio from a video to MP3 audio format
- Convert a folder full of images to one of three formats (JPG, PNG, Webp)
- Create a slideshow from a folder of photos as a webpage
- Make an Animated GIF from several images
Not sure how to add programs to the PATH on Windows 11? Let’s walk through that now.
Add Programs to the PATH
The way I do this is to put all the EXE files for the programs I installed (see list above) and put them into a single folder called “tools.” Then, I put this tools folder at the root level on my computer. You can find the root folder by going to your “My Computer,” double-clicking Windows (C:) and you will see a list of folders. This is where you can create a “tools” folder and/or drag your Tools folder there.
Here’s an excerpt of a video tutorial I made for a colleague. It shows you how to add a folder called “tools” (like the one shown above) to the PATH on Windows 11.
The main benefit of this? I don’t have to keep modifying my “Environment Variables,” that is, adding items to the PATH again and again. Instead, I simply put the new program into the C:\tools folder and it’s ready to go.
How BAT Files Work with Drag-n-Drop
Here are a few of the problems that I’ve asked ChatGPT to create bat files for me for:
- Automatic media conversion to MP3/OGG/MP4. This bat file prompts me for the desired output format I want then gives me a smaller file in that format.
- Batch image resizing and compression. This bat file relies on ImageMagick, compresses the image file, and then saves it with a new name.
- Convert PDFs + text/Markdown into a single merged Markdown document. This bat file takes advantage of Xpdf tools to create a merged text file.
Here’s a demonstration video showing one in action:
Although I have set up various .bat files, for this blog entry, I asked ChatGPT to generate a menu of options file. This addresses a variety of needs you may run into (or at the least, that anyone working with video, images, and PDFs runs into from time to time).
Get the BAT file and custom instructions for mgConvertGPT, a ChatGPT Custom GPT I made that you can simply use. Of course, you can take all the info I have shared and make your own Project or Custom GPT, BoodleBox Bot, or Gemini Gem.
Generate Bat Files with mgConvertGPT
To assist you in creating your own bat file, take advantage of this custom GPT:
You can ask it to help you create a BAT file, as you can see in the screenshot below:
Simply click the “Copy code” button, open Notepad on your Windows computer, then paste in the code. Save it with a filename like “Compress_Video_For_Sharing.bat” into your C:\tools folder. Then, drag-n-drop video files on top of the bat file. You can drag-n-drop a single video file, several, or a folder’s worth.
Here’s what that will look like when you drop a video file on it:
That’s all there is to it! What other problems could you solve with Generative AI tools that might otherwise require a costly investment in software?