Acrobat/Reader -- Advanced Add Header/Footer Text

Direct purchase using PayPal ($75 only per license)!   Update (13/12/2017): Another new feature in this tool! It's now possible to use it as a part of an Action in Acrobat Pro to process multiple files using the same settings.

Update (31/01/2017): Yet another new feature added! It's now also possible to use the page number in the group of pages being processed. For example, if you select to add your header to just the odd pages then instead of using 1, 3, 5, etc. you can refer to them as 1, 2, 3.

Update (03/12/2016): Two new features added to this too: You can now specify just the total number of pages in the file as a parameter, and also specify the distance of the text from the edge of the page.

(The new script dialog)

Update (26/04/2016): It's now possible to add not just the page number, but also the page label.

Update (04/02/2015): Now available is a free demo version of this tool, which will allow you to test it before buying it. This demo version will only add the header/footer to the first page of the document.

Update (04/06/2014): New feature added to this script that allows you to insert various Metadata properties of the file into the header/footer text. They are:

• Title
• Author
• Subject
• Keywords
• Creator
• Producer

Update (27/02/2014): I've added a new feature that allows you to insert the file's creation date, in the format of your choosing, into the header/footer text as well.

This new tool is an improved version of the built-in Add Header & Footer command that you can find in Acrobat. The reason it's improved is because it can be used in the free Adobe Reader, and also it contains some additional features, not available in the original version.

Some of these features are:
- The ability to insert the file's name, with or without the .pdf extension text to the text
- The ability to insert the full file path to the text
- The ability to lock the added texts after adding them, so they can't be edited (by someone using Reader)
- The ability to set the added texts as printable or as non-printable.

In addition, you have all the usual features like selecting the text's location on the page (right/left/center and header/footer), setting its appearance (font, size, color, background color), selecting to which pages to add the texts, inserting the current date to the text in various formats, inserting the current pages number (on its own, or in addition to the total number of pages), etc.

So for example: We have a file that we want to add a header to. We just open it in Reader XI and click the button added by the script under the Extended panel on the right:

(click to enlarge)

The dialog window that pops open allows you to specify the settings for the Header or Footer that you want to add to the file. Notice that in the one below I've added the file's name, the current date in a specific format, and also a page number:

(click to enlarge)

 
The results of adding the Header can be seen on the top of the first and second pages in this screenshot:

(click to enlarge)

(New feature: inserting the page label into the header or footer)

The page label is located in the top-left corner of the pages

IMPORTANT NOTE: To use this script in Reader requires that you either use Reader XI, or if an earlier version of Reader is used the file must have the right to add comments applied to it.

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

Acrobat -- Apply Image Fields Toolkit

Direct purchase using PayPal ($30 only per license)!
Update (08/11/2017): Now available, a free sample file that demonstrates the image field toolkit.
The script in this file is limited to rotating the field to only 0 or 180 degrees, and the "Image Scaling: When" section is disabled, but the rest works just like in the full version.

With the introduction of the new Image field into Acrobat Reader DC (Continuous), I thought it was time to introduce some of the more advanced features of these fields and make them more accessible to the users.
Using this script you can apply my Image Field Toolkit to your fields. What this means is that they will be able to easily and quickly apply multiple commands to the fields, such as:

• Select an image
• Clear the image
• Set the image's rotation (in intervals of 90 degrees)
• Set the image's scaling options (how and when to scale)

And if the field is set to include not just an image, but also a caption text they'll be able to also:

• Set the caption text
• Clear the caption text

All you have to do is run the script on your file in Acrobat, and it will automatically apply the code to all Image fields (button field with the Icon option enabled).
Clicking the field will then cause a pop-up menu to appear with all of these options, which can be used in both Acrobat and in the latest version of the free Reader DC (Continuous)!

 Here's how it works. You open your file with the image fields in Acrobat and run the script from the menu item it adds to the Tools panel:

The original file with the image fields

It will identify those fields and prompt you to make sure you want to apply the Toolkit to them (this will overwrite any existing Mouse Up events associated with them!):

The script's confirmation dialog

After running the script on the file in Acrobat we can save it and then open it in Reader, where it looks pretty much the same:

The same file in Acrobat Reader DC

However, when we press one of the fields, the Image Field Toolkit menu appears:

The Toolkit for an image field

We can then select an image for this field:

And then change the way it looks. For example, we can rotate it:

The image rotation options

The rotated image

Or we can change the scaling options for it, so it fits better into the field:

The image scaling options

The scaled image

If we now click on the field that contains both an image and a caption we can do the same there, starting with selecting an image:

The menu for an image field with a caption

And then we can set a new caption text:

The image and the new caption in the same field

We can even clear the selected image, directly through the toolkit's menu:

So all in all, this toolkit adds a lot of options to the standard image fields that come with Acrobat and Reader, and allows you (and your users) to make the most of them!

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

Acrobat -- Set Fields or Comments As Transparent (FREE)

FREE DOWNLOAD

Update (02/04/2018): The script can now be used to process comments (annotations) as well as form fields. You can select specific comments and set their fill color as transparent all at once, or do all of the comments in the file with a single click!

Since the release of the latest version of Mac OS, High Sierra (and possibly some earlier versions as well), many people have reported problems setting the fill or border colors of the fields in their PDF forms as Transparent using Acrobat DC.
It seems that a bug in the application (and/or the operating system) has caused the "Transparent" check-box to disappear from the color selection dialog.

What is should look like...

However, it can still be done using a script, which is why I've developed this simple utility that allows you to select a field and set its Fill Color and/or Border Color as Transparent, with just a few clicks.


When you run it you get this window:

The script is FREE to download and use.

However, this script will only allow you to edit one field at a time, but I have available a separate tool that allows you to do this property (and many others) for multiple fields at once.
See: Acrobat -- Mass Edit Fields Properties

As always, if you have any questions regarding this tool, contact me directly.

Acrobat -- Combine files to PDF from a list

Direct purchase using PayPal ($60 per license)!
Update (23/10/2017): It is now possible to use this tool to merge files of all kinds, not just PDFs. So you can include a .docx file or a .jpg file in the list and it will be included in the final PDF.


Update (30/04/2014): Now available, a free demo version of this tool that can combine up to 3 files.
The full version will combine an unlimited amount of files, of course.

If you want to combine multiple PDF files to a single file but want something a bit more handy than Acrobat's cumbersome functionality to do so, this script is the thing for you.
You simply run it with a single click, select the text (or CSV) file with the paths to the files, and within seconds you will have the combined PDF ready!

It's even possible to add individual bookmarks to the final file, pointing to the first page of each of the combined file.

Acrobat/Reader - Advanced Proximity Search

Direct purchase using PayPal ($40 only per license)!
Update (15/09/2017): Now available, a free demo version of this tool.
The demo version will highlight up to 3 matches in the current page only, but is identical to the full version otherwise.

Also, a brand new feature added to the tool: You can now search for partial word matches, as well as for whole words (like before). If you do not tick the "Whole Words Match" box the tool will match partial matches like "apples" if you search for "apple", for example.

The new interface looks like this:

 

And an example of the matches made using these settings (notice that "trademarks" were matched for "trademark", and "registered" for "register"):

This new tool is an improved version of the built-in Proximity Search feature in Acrobat and in Reader. It is easier to use and has more advanced features than the search feature in Acrobat, and produces nicer and easier to understand results.

Basically this tool allows you to search for two one-word terms in the vicinity of one another. You can decide how close you want them to be (in terms of how many words apart they should be to count as a match), which pages to search for, whether the search should be case-sensitive or not, and what to do with the results.

Let's say we have a file with this legal text that we want to search:

The original file with the tools' buttons on the right

We want to search the first pages of the file for the words "Copyright" and "USA" within 15 words of one another, so we click the "Adv. Proximity Search" button and get this dialog which we fill in:

The settings for the search

The script quickly scans the pages and reports how many matches were found:

Since we selected to highlight and connect the matches, the file now looks like this:

The highlighted results of the search command

Notice that the tool can find matches across pages, and that each pair of matching words are connecting by a line, as well as a single highlight comment.

One of the matches is selected, showing both words at the same time.

This tool even comes with an Action that allows you to run the same Proximity Search command on multiple files with ease. Of course, you'll need to have Acrobat Pro to use it.

The script also comes with an easy to use shortcut to remove all the highlights and connecting line from the file with a single click.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To use this script in Reader requires that you either use Reader XI, or if an earlier version of Reader is used the file must have the right to add comments applied to it.

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

Acrobat -- Create Table Of Contents (TOC) in a PDF file from Bookmarks

Direct purchase using PayPal ($75 only per license)!
A free demo version of this tool, which will process only the first 3 (sub-)bookmarks in the file and create a TOC from them, is now available. The full version has unlimited functionality, of course.

Special Offer: Since this tool is closely related to my other tool, Create Bookmarks from Titles, I'm now offering both scripts for a bargain price of just $99 (each one costs $75 on their own). Click here to purchase them both directly via PayPal.

Update: (22/08/2017):
I've improved the way the TOC is generated and included a brand new feature: It is now possible to maintain the style of the bookmarks in the TOC itself. This could be their text color or whether they are bold, italic, or both. The TOC will reflect these features, while still being clickable, just like before.
And this new feature is also available in the free demo version, if you want to test it out before purchasing the tool!

With this script you can generate a fully functional Table of Contents (TOC) for your PDF file, using just the bookmarks structure.
The script will analyze the bookmarks of your file and will add the newly created TOC where you specify, including working links to the pages the bookmarks link to.
It will even add an extra bookmark at the top of the list to itself.

Here's how it looks like in action:

The original file with the bookmarks tree on the left, and the tool's button on the right.

After we click the "Create Bookmarks from TOC" button, the TOC is generated.
We can then save it as a stand-alone file (without links), or embed it into the main file, with clickable links:

After we choose to insert the TOC into the file, it now looks like this (notice the "Contents" text is clickable, and also that the styling of the "Contents" and "Preface" bookmarks has been maintained in the TOC):

The same file, now with a clickable, stylized TOC

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

Batch Watermark PDF Files (Standalone Tool)

Direct purchase using PayPal ($150 only per license)!  FREE DEMO version of the tool is available here.
Update (03/08/2017): A new feature added to this tool, by popular demand... It's now possible to select which pages to add the watermark to. The options are:

• All pages
• Odd Pages (1, 3, 5, 7, etc.)
• Even pages (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.)
• Custom range: You can specify the exact page numbers (or ranges).
  For example: "1-3, 5, 10, 21-57"

The demo version of the tool also includes this functionality, but it will only process the first 3 pages in the selected range.

The new application window now looks like this:

Update (18/03/2017): Yet more new features added to this tool! (and the price is the same...)
It is now possible to specify any rotation angle you wish for the watermark text, not just 0, 45, or -45 degrees.
Also, it's now possible to select the font used for your watermark, either Helvetica, Courier or Times-Roman.

The tool now looks like this:

Update (25/01/2017): Now it's possible to set the font size of the watermark directly in the tool (including the option for automatic font size).
I've also improved the mechanism that calculates the location of the watermark, so it works with landscape pages (or any other dimensions) just as well as with portrait ones.

Update (03/06/2014): Now available is a free demo version of this tool that you can try out before purchasing the full version. The demo version will process only one file at a time, and use only the first 3 items in the list for the watermarks, but it's fully functional beyond that.

This tool is very similar to my script that batch watermarks PDF files, but it is much more powerful. First of all, it is a standalone tool, so you don't need Acrobat to use it, and it can process many more files, and much faster, than a script. In addition, this tool can be used to automatically secure the files with a password to limit the users' ability to edit them. For example, let's say we want to watermark this movie script:

(click to enlarge)

So we run the tool and make our selections: the input file, the names list file (a simple text file), the output folder (where the watermarked copies will be saved), how the watermark text should look like, the file name pattern for the generated files, and whether or not we want to secure those files:

The tool's main window

 If we selected to encrypt the files this window will pop open:

 

And the results will look like this (this is just one of the files generated, of course):

(click to enlarge)

Notice the "(SECURED)" text in the title, which means the file can't be easily edited by the reader.

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

Batch Edit URL Links in PDF Files

Version I: Direct purchase using PayPal (Older version: $75 only per license)!


Version II: Direct purchase using PayPal (New version, $125 per license)!

This powerful little tool allows you to edit all the links in a PDF based on a simple search and replace command, and it can be used to process an entire folder (and all of its sub-folders) in a single go.
The tool can edit not just URL links, but also links to files, and convert them to URL links.

UPDATE (29-06-2017): It's now also possible to perform Search & Replace commands using a Regular Expression, including back references. This feature is included in both versions of the tools, as well as in the demo versions.

The application's dialog, with the new Regular Expression option

UPDATE (16-07-2015):  Yet another new feature for this tool, an option to export all the URL links in all of the selected files to a text file, included in v. 2 of the tool.
In addition, there's now a free demo version of the v. 2 tool, available as well.

NEW FEATURE IV (25-12-2014): The tool can now process links with JavaScript-actions that use the launchURL method.


NEW FEATURE IV (14-11-2014): The tool now also processes bookmarks, as well as fields and links.

NEW FEATURE III (19-06-2014): Now this tool will also process links associated with button form fields, not just Link objects.

NEW FEATURE II: A new version of this tool is now available, which allows you to edit the URLs of your links in multiple files, using multiple commands, specified in a list.
So instead of having to make one change at a time, you can now run as many Search & Replace or Append commands as you wish!
The new tool is available for only $125, and can be purchased through here.

 

New interface of the tool:

(click to enlarge)

There's still a free demo version of the tool available (old version). The demo version will process up to 3 links on the first 3 pages of the first 3 files. The full version has no such limitations, of course.

How the older version looks like:

(click to enlarge)

Imagine the following situation:
You have a set of PDF files which point to your website:
"Welcome" links to http://www.mysite.com/welcome.html
"Intro page" links to http://www.mysite.com/intro.html
"Next" links to http://www.mysite.com/page1.html
etc.
But then you decide to change your domain name to http://www.mynewsite.org and now you need to update all of your PDF files!

Well, this tool will do that for you. You just specify the folder to run it on, the Search & Replace action, the text to match ("mysite.com") and the text to replace it with ("mynewsite.org"), and voila! All of your files are updated in a second, and you get a detailed log of all the changes made to them.

This tool can also append text to the beginning or end of your URL links, so if you want to add a new URL parameter to the end of all of your links, you can easily do so.

This tool does not require you to actually have Acrobat. All you need is to have Java installed on your computer.

If you have any questions regarding this tool, you can contact me directly.