The process of converting data objects into preservation formats is called 'normalisation.' Xena can either normalise single files or entire directories of files.
The default normalising action is to determine a file's type, then apply the normaliser suited to that type. Optionally Xena can 'binary normalise' files, which preserves the original data as ASCII text within an XML metadata wrapper. Should Xena be unable to determine the file type, it will automatically fall back to binary normalisation.