Monday, March 31, 2014

Acrobat/Reader -- Hide Recent Files List (FREE)


Download now: Free Download


Acrobat (and Reader) has a built-in recently opened files list in both the File menu and the Welcome Screen. This is a handy feature, but not everyone is happy with it, and unfortunately there's no easy way to disable it entirely, until now.

The Recent Files list in the File menu and in the Welcome Screen in Acrobat
The Welcome Screen can be disabled by applying a Registry tweak, as explained here.

You can change the number of files shown in the File menu (under Edit - Preferences - Documents), but the minimum number accepted is 1. And what if you want to have no files at all? Then you can use this free tool I've developed. Simply follow the installation instructions and your File menu will be nice and clean, without any recent files in it.

Acrobat's File menu after installing the script




If you have any questions regarding this tool, you can contact me directly, and if you find this tool useful and would like to donate, it's always appreciated!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Acrobat -- Retroactively Copy Highlighted Text into Comments


Batch version: Buy Now ($60 only)
Non-batch version: Buy Now ($40 only)
Stand-alone version: Buy Now ($75 only)
Stand-alone DEMO version : FREE
  Direct purchase using PayPal!


Update (25/03/2014): Acrobat has a problem processing very large files using this script, so I've decided to develop a stand-alone version of it, which runs outside of Acrobat and is not dependent on it. This version can process an entire folder of files, including all sub-folders, in a matter of seconds. It is much more robust and much faster than the script version, so more suitable for professional purposes.

The stand-alone version of the tool looks like this:


Alongside the stand-alone version there's now also a free demo version, which will process the first 3 highlight annotations in the first 3 files you use it on. Feel free to try it out and then purchase the full version to get the full functionality.

The script version of the tool is still available, as can be seen below...

Tool Description:
One of the most important settings in Acrobat is "Copy selected text into Highlight, Cross-Out, and Underline comment pop ups" (to be found under Edit - Preferences - Commenting). Sadly, it's not checked by default (see screenshot below).
As a result, if you make highlights to your file, the text you highlight is not copied into the comment itself, which can be very useful when creating summaries. And when you realize this and switch this setting on, it's too late. Acrobat won't change your existing comments, only your new ones.

This is why I developed this script to retroactively insert the highlighted text into existing comments in all of your pre-existing files.
In case you manually entered some text into the comment, don't worry! The script will not remove your text, just add to it (see example #2).

Note: The script can only recognize full words. If you highlighted just a part of a word, it will not be picked up.


Monday, March 24, 2014

Convert all links in a PDF to Open In New Window


Direct purchase using PayPal: Pay securely and receive the tool immediately! ($99 per license)

Update (24/03/2014): The tool will now process not just URL links, but also links that point to other PDF files, and will set all of them to open in a new window.

This tool will easily and quickly convert all of the links in your PDF files, whether they are of the type "Open a weblink" or "Run a JavaScript" to open in a new window.
No need to manually edit hundreds of links just so that your file will remain open when the user clicks a link in it. The tool can batch process entire folders within seconds!

A free demo version of this script is available here.
This version will only convert the first 3 links in the first 3 pages of the first 3 files in the selected folder. Purchase the full version and be able to convert them all!

Important information about viewing PDF files in browsers: The current versions of some browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari) contain their own PDF viewer plugins, which are often not very compliant with the full PDF standards and usually have problems with executing JavaScript code.
As a result, if you're using one of these browsers to view the files processed by this tool you might encounter some problems. To solve them read this page on how to set up the Adobe plugin as the default PDF handler in your browser:
http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/display-pdf-browser-acrobat-xi.html

Here's how it looks like:

(click to enlarge)


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.