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.

Acrobat -- Print or Extract Pages from CSV Search Results

NEW: Direct purchase using PayPal ($65 per license)!
Update (22/06/2017): A free demo version of this tool is now available here. It can be used to extract/print up to 3 pages from the search results.

One of the nice new features in Acrobat X is the ability to save the results of searching a PDF file to a CSV file. But what to do with this file once you have it?

This script will read such a CSV file (either in Acrobat X or in a later version), and will print only the pages which contain a match, or extract the pages where these results are located as a new file.

IMPORTANT: This tool can only process the results of a search in a single file, not from a folder or a Catalog.

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

Acrobat -- Populate Fields From Dropdown

Direct purchase using PayPal ($40 only per license)!
Update (25/04/2017): Since many forms are now used on mobile devices I've updated this tool so that it will produce files that work on an iPad, using Readdle's PDF Expert app, which currently offers the best support for scripts on that platform.

This tool allows you to set-up one of the most commonly requested features in PDF forms, a drop-down field that populates other fields with data when a selection is made it in.

It makes the entire process very easy and simple to do. All you have to have are the PDF form with the form fields, and the data organized in a spreadsheet with the field-names in the first row. That's it!

And it's even possible to use it multiple times in the same file, using different data files, without any conflicts between the different fields...

For example, let's say we have all of this data in an Excel spreadsheet that we want to import into our PDF:

The original data file (click to enlarge)

 We just need to save it as a tab-delimited text file (which is one of the built-in options in the Excel Save As dialog).
We then open our PDF file (notice the names of the form fields match those in the header row of the Excel file), and click the button that tool adds to Acrobat:

Now we select the input text file we created before, and then specify the "main" drop-down, the one the will populate the other fields when its value is changed:

That's it! We can now see that the drop-down list is populated with all of the names from the "Name" column in our original data file:

And when we make a selection in the drop-down, the other fields are immediately updated with the relevant data from that row:

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

Acrobat -- Insert Blank Page

Direct purchase using PayPal ($30 only)!

Update (19-04-2014): Another new feature! It's now possible to specify the dimensions of the blank page(s) you're adding with a simple dialog that appears when you select where to add them.

The dialog allows you to enter the desired width and height of the page, in either Inches, Millimeters, or PostScript Points.

Update (17-10-2014): I just added a brand new and powerful feature to this tool! You can now insert multiple blank pages after every X amount of pages into your file. So not just a single page as before, now you can insert many pages in seconds.

With this script you can insert a new blank page to you PDF files with a single click! The size of the pages will match the size of the other pages in your files.
You can choose from the following options:

• Insert a blank page at the beginning of the file
• Insert a blank page at the end of the file
• Insert a blank page before the current page
• Insert a blank page after the current page
• Insert a blank page after/before every X pages

When installed, the tool adds a menu button to Acrobat with these options:

(click to enlarge)

If you select the last option you're presented with this dialog where you can define how and where to insert the blank page(s) you want to add to the file:

The results can be seen in the Pages panel on the left:

(click to enlarge)

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

Acrobat -- Batch Combine All PDF Files in a Folder

Direct purchase using PayPal ($85 per license)!

A free demo version of this tool that will combine up to two files in each folder can be found here.

This is a new batch tool, so it can only be used in Acrobat Pro.
With this tool you can combine all of the (PDF) files in a folder to a single file (in order!) and have this file saved into the same folder (using the folder's name as the new file name).
New feature: You can now select to automatically create a bookmark pointing to each file in the merged document.
ANOTHER new feature: Now you can also select to create a single, "master" file at the end of the process, which contains all of the processed files, including a bookmark for each folder and file.

Acrobat -- Word Count (FREE)

Update: This tool is now FREE. You can download it from here.

Just like the Word function, this script will tell you how many words there are in an entire PDF document, or on a specific page.



For more information about this script, you can contact me directly, and if you find this tool useful and would like to donate, it's always appreciated!

Acrobat -- Import/Export Tooltips

Direct purchase using PayPal ($25 only per license)!
This new handy tool is perfect for translators who work with PDF files.
If your file contains form fields then you probably want to translate the tooltip text that appears when the user hovers over your fields. So how to do it?

Well, the solution is this new script I've developed that allows you to export the full list of tooltips to a text file which can be edited in Excel and then imported back into the PDF, quickly and easily.

Here's how it works.
You have a PDF file with form fields and tooltips, like this one:

The original PDF, with one of the tooltip texts

You run the Export Tooltips command on it (can be seen in the Tools menu in the screenshot above), and it generates a text file that contains the field names as well as their current tooltips.
This text file can be opened in Excel, or any other plain-text editor (like Notepad or Notepad++):

The original output file

At this point we can edit the second column and inserted our translated texts (in Spanish, in this case):

The translated file

We close this file in Excel, go back to Acrobat and now run the Import Tooltips command:

We select the edited text file and the script imports the new tooltips:

And the results:

The new "Name" tooltip

 

The new "email" tooltip

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

Acrobat/Reader - Synchronized Scrolling Two (Or More) PDF Documents

Direct purchase using PayPal ($40 only per license)!
Update (11/01/2017): A FREE demo version of this tool is now available here.
It can be used to test it out, but it only contains the "Scroll Down" command.

Another New Feature: You can now easily align the viewing position of all the open files with the active one.

New Feature:  The tool can now scroll any number of open files, not just two, as requested.

Comparing PDF documents side by side is a common DTP task in Acrobat or Reader, but the problem is you can't scroll two documents at the same time, so keeping them aligned can be difficult and time consuming.
That is the reason I've developed this new script which allows you to keep your documents in perfect alignment while you review them.

You can select the scrolling offset (in points) and then scroll both documents up, down, to the left, to the right, or skip pages forwards or backwards, all in perfect sync.

The windows themselves can be arranged at whatever configuration you find most comfortable, and can even be placed on different monitors.

IMPORTANT: This script does not allow you to synchronize the scrolling of the files using the mouse or the keyboard arrows directly. It only works through the buttons that it adds to the interface of the application.

After installing the script, the new scrolling options are available under a new sub-menu under the Window menu, as well as under the Tools menu (or toolbar, for easy access):

(click to enlarge)

And after using the Scroll Down option, the documents have simultaneously scrolled and now look like this:

(click to enlarge)

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

Acrobat/Reader -- Unlock All Comments (FREE)

Some PDF files (like those generated by Acrobat when using the Compare Documents command) have locked comments that can't be edited or removed. You can use this simple (and FREE) script to unlock all of these comments with a single click, and then you'll be able to edit them, unless there's a security policy that prevents it.

This script can be used in both Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
You can download it here.

Here's how it looks like in Reader:

The original file with the locked comments. Notice the padlock icon next to each one on the right.

The same file after running the script on it from its menu item in the Tools panel.

The resulting file. All the padlock icons are gone, and I was able to delete the first highlight on the page.

As always, if you have any questions about this tool, or any other tool I've developed, you can contact me directly, and if you find this tool useful and would like to donate, it's always appreciated!

Acrobat/Reader -- Move Comment Popups To The Edge (FREE)

A user's request on the Adobe Forums prompted me to create this small utility that allows you to move all of the comment popups windows to the side of the page where they are located with a single click. This script can be used in both Acrobat and the free Reader.

The script can be downloaded (for FREE) from here.

Here's a page with a couple of comments that obscure the text. You can see the button the script added on the right, under the Extended panel:

And here's the same page after clicking that button. The popups have been moved out of the way, and then page is much less cluttered now:

As always, if you have any questions about this tool, or any other tool I've developed, you can contact me directly, and if you find this tool useful and would like to donate, it's always appreciated!