Acrobat -- Mail Merge and Email PDF Files

Direct purchase using PayPal ($99 per license)! Another new and powerful tool to make your PDF experience easier and more efficient.
This time, it's a PDF mail-merging tool. "Mail merging" is the production of multiple (and potentially large numbers of) documents from a single template form and a structured data source (Wikipedia). In this case the template is a PDF file with form fields and a plain-text or CSV file (which can be easily exported from an Excel spreadsheet).
The tool even offers the option to automatically email the merged files to the recipients (see below)!

A free DEMO version of this tool which will merge up to 3 fields in up to 3 items from a list, but does not contain the auto-email feature. It does include the option to import image files into button fields, though.


Update (27/01/2018): Due to a bug in some versions of Acrobat that prevented merging more than 50 files at a time I have removed the Flattening Pages option from the tool and reverted it back to a previous version that was not affected by this issue.
Instead of the "Flatten Merged Files" option I added an Action that allows doing it after the files have been merged, so the functionality of the tool is the same.

Update (01/11/2017): Another new feature, based on popular demand.
It's now possible to encrypt the merged files, either using the same policy for all of them, or by specifying a policy for each individual file (this has to be done manually, though).
In addition, I've moved the option to flatten the merged files from the email dialog to the main one, which means that you can do it even if you don't wish to email them.
The new application dialog looks like this now:

The new features are highlighted in red

When the option to encrypt the files is selected, this dialog appears:

Here you can select your own security policy (like the last one in the screenshot) to apply the same policy to all files, or one of the built-in policies (the first two) and specify the specific settings you wish to use for each file.

Update (29/08/2017): Yet another new feature added to this tool. It's now possible to flatten the copies of the merged files before they are sent out, so the users will receive a non-editable copy.
The new Email Settings dialog now looks like this:

Update (28/01/2015): A new feature and a new look for this tool! The Price is the same...

The new feature is the ability to merge all the records as a single PDF file. This means you can then easily print them out and send out by regular mail, for example.

The new look of the tool is more concise and easy to use. There are still two buttons, but they are now called: "Mail Merge" and "Mail Merge (To Single File)".

The new buttons (click to enlarge)

After clicking on the first one, for example, you're presented with this dialog window, where various settings can be set:

Clicking the second button causes this smaller window to appear:

Then you're prompted to select the input file and if you selected the option to email the generated files then the email settings window (see below) appears as well.

The files are then generated and saved. In the "single file" a file called merged.pdf is generated and saved in the same folder as the original PDF file.


Update (04/12/2014): A new feature added to this tool. You can now include not just text but also IMAGES in your merged files. Simply create a button field in your PDF and set its layout to "Icon Only" and then specify the file-path to the image in the input spreadsheet, and voila! The image is automatically imported into your file along with the other data.


How the tool works?
You start by setting up your input file and the empty PDF form (notice the column headers match the field names in the PDF):

If you have any questions regarding this tool, you can contact me directly.
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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 -- Create Popup Images

Direct purchase using PayPal ($85 only per license)!

This script will make your standard PDF file much more dynamic and interactive.
It allows you to insert "popup" images that appear whenever the user clicks a certain phrase, or even just hovers with the mouse above it! The image disappears when the mouse is clicked again, or moved away, respectively.

For example, let's say you have some figures in your file. Instead of linking to them on a different page, why not have the appropriate figure pop up whenever the user moves the mouse above the words "figure 1", "figure 2", etc.
The same can be done with products, people's names, tables, screenshots of websites, or whatever... Even pages from another PDF!

How it works:
1. You create a plain-text file (semi-colon delimited) that specifies the phrases and the image to associate with them. For example, it can be:

Figure 1;C:\My Images\Figure1.jpg
Figure 2;C:\My Images\Figure2.gif
Figure 3;C:\My Images\Figure3.png
Figure 4;C:\My Images\Figure4.jpg

2. You then select the properties of the links that display the images (border width, style and color, among other things), in this dialog:

3. The images and links are then automatically added to the file.
If you choose to do so, a check-box will be added to the top left corner of the first page which will prevent the images from popping up, unless checked.
Also, if you choose that option, a report will be presented at the end, specifying how many images were added, and to which pages.

You can download a sample file from here, which shows how the script works.

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

Acrobat -- Batch Edit\Remove Images

Another stand-alone tool for batch editing PDF files.
With this tool you can completely remove, or replace, certain images in your PDF files.

Let's say you have a company logo as the header of each page in every PDF, but your company decides to change its logo. So now you need to go back and re-create all the PDF files, or edit them one by one manually.
Well, this tool can do that for you, in a single go and within seconds!
Acrobat is not necessary for this tool either. It can be used on any machine.

For more infromation about this tool, or if you're interested in purchasing it, you can contact me directly.