Name PDFs After OCR with Apple Intelligence and Local AI
We show you how to read complex designations such as the sender, company, or recipient from documents and use them for file naming.
With OnDevice OCR Business, on Macs with Apple Silicon (macOS 26+) you can use Apple’s own AI model, “Apple Intelligence”, or use other (local) AI models for file naming via the integrated Ollama interface.
- Open OnDevice OCR Business and click “Name Files” → “New Template”.
- Click “Test with Sample Files” and choose one or more documents.
- Remove the “Original Name” component by clicking the “x”.
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Click “Search an Area in the Document” and drag with the mouse to select the area of the document that contains the term or value you are looking for.
The sample document serves here as a model for all documents that will be named with this template in the future. So from now on, for every PDF, the AI is given the task of reading the sender’s company name in the selected area.
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Under “Method”, click “Read by Apple Intelligence”.
Depending on your Mac and operating system, you can use “Uses” to specify whether the AI model receives only the recognized text for interpretation or also the image for visual recognition. The latter is significantly more reliable for complex layouts.
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Now enter a short, precise prompt for the AI model and click “Evaluate now”.
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Under “Found”, you can see whether the AI interpreted your request correctly.
This is not an exact science. Try out which prompt works best for which document. The shorter and more precise, the more reliable.
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Now give the component a name, e.g. “Sender”, and click “Done”.
- Add the “Space” component and click “Search an Area in the Document” again to read another value with Apple Intelligence.
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Drag to select the area on the document again → “Read by Apple Intelligence” and formulate the next instruction, this time for the contract number.
Because the AI can see your document, it can also read difficult things.
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Name the component “Contract No.” and click “Done”.
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Finally, you can use “Test with Different Sample Files” to load a different, similar document to make sure the template works.
The preview shows you what the file name would later look like for this sample file.
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Name the template, for example, “Sender & Contract No.” and click “Save”.
Done
Your templates are now available for selection in every processing path: in hot folders, in manual batch processing, and in Apple Shortcuts.
It gets even more convenient with rules: if the app finds certain search terms in the document, such as “Contract No.”, it automatically selects the matching template, here “Sender & Contract No.”. This way, all document types for which you have created a template are named automatically and, if you wish, filed directly in the right folder.