Thursday, May 26, 2011

Merge PDF Files in True Numeric Order


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When you combine PDF files in Acrobat to a single file, the file order is alphabetical by default. So if you want to merge these files:
1.pdf
2.pdf
(...)
9.pdf
10.pdf
11.pdf

Acrobat will sort them like this:
1.pdf
10.pdf
11.pdf
2.pdf
9.pdf
(...)

This is obviously wrong, and the only way to fix it is to re-order them manually, which is tedious at best and can be a real problem if you have hundreds of files.

That's why I created this tool to merge PDF files according to their true numeric order. My tool will add the files in this order:
1.pdf
2.pdf
(...)
9.pdf
10.pdf
11.pdf
And if there are any files with non-numeric names (like index.pdf), you can choose whether to append them at the beginning or the end of the file.

Here's how the application looks:


NOTE: This application does NOT require you to have Acrobat or even Reader, and it will run on both Windows and Macintosh computers.
You do need to have Java installed, though.

For more information about this tool you can contact me directly.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Acrobat -- Calculate Time Differences in a Worksheet



Direct purchase using PayPal ($60 only)!

In many timesheet-style PDF files you want to have a calculation of the time difference between a starting hour and an ending one. Something like when a worker checks in and then out. With this script you can automatically create the script to calculate that difference. There's also an option to sum up all times to a final piece.

Updates:
This script can now also be used to total an entire column of time expressions to a single result field.
You can now use the script for either 24-hour or 12-hour time notations.You can now also select whether to show the results in decimal notation (so 2 hours and 30 minutes will show as "2.5") or in time notation (so 2 hours and 30 minutes will show as "2:30").
(19/06/2014) : It's no longer necessary to have the fields named with a number starting from 1. You can specify any starting index number (the default is still 1, though).


For example, this is the form we have:


We then run the script and get this window, into which we enter the names of the fields:

The script then runs and applies the calculation scripts:

And the final result is this (the total field is at the bottom-left):

For more information about this tool you can contact me directly.