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.
(Click on "Read More" to see the rest of the post)

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 Encrypt PDF Files

Direct purchase using PayPal ($25 only per license)!

Using this standalone tool you can apply the same kind of security policies that can be applied using Adobe Acrobat to your PDF files, for a fraction of the price of the full application.

Plus, you can process multiple files in a single process!

Just select your input file or folder, where you want the files to be saved, then enter the File Open and/or File Edit passwords, select which actions you want to permit or forbid, and the encryption key length, and you're done!

This tool costs only $25, and you can test it out FOR FREE before purchasing it using this demo version, which will process up to 3 files at a time. The full version has no limitation on the number of files that can be processed, of course.

The application's dialog window (click to enlarge)

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

Create Encrypted Copies of a PDF File

Direct purchase using PayPal ($97 only per license)!

Have you ever encountered a situation where you have a PDF file that you wish to distribute to a group of people, and want to have a uniquely secured version of that file for each one of them? Think for example on a movie script that you wish to send to various people, or on a e-book that you want to sell to your clients, but one each of them to have a different password. How would you go about doing it?
Up to now the only option was either a very expensive product, or to do it manually in Acrobat... But not anymore.

Using this new stand-alone tool which I've created you can make as many secured copies of your file as you wish, using a variety of security options.
You can add a password that the user will need in order to open the file, or to use a password to determine what the user can and can't do with your file (such as print it, extract content from it, fill in the form fields in it, etc.), or both.

A FREE demo version of this tool is available to download from here. It contains all the functions available in the full version, but will process up to 5 files only. Of course, the full version can process as many files as you wish...

Here's how the main window of the tool looks like (click all images to enlarge):

The passwords can be either randomly generated by the tool, or you can use a list of passwords if you prefer. For the password that controls the editing of the file you can even decide to use the same password for all copies (it can be identical to the file open password, or one that you determine).

This tool works on both Apple and PC computers, and will generate a list of all the passwords used for the various copies of your file, so you can have an overview of them when distributing them to the recipients.