Answered
Every quarter, my department receives a demographic report (in a pdf format from an application called GeoAccess).
Each quarter, an end user manually goes through report and extracts data (copy and paste or typing) into a spreadsheet.
The report format remains consistant (The output can't be customized).
I'm looking for a way to automatically extract the data into a spreadsheet or Database
Is there a way to create a pdf template to place it over the report to extract the data?
Since the data is part of the report content, i.e., it isn't in form field, you have to write a script to search and extract the data using JavaScript, and/or some other form of automation, like a VB app. It'd be best to use both methods. Since JavaScript can easily extract the data from the report, and VB can easily write the data into a spread sheet. Although, with a little more work, JavaScript can write to an Excel friendly format. So it's up to you how it's actually done.
In JavaScript there is are two functions for getting page content (words on the page), getPageNthWord() and getPageNthWordQuads(). One gets the actual word and the other gets it's location on the page. All you need is a list of locations for the data you want, then you search throught all words on all pages looking for geometry matches.
This is not beginner JavaScript, you might want to talk to a developer.
Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]
The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/[/url]
Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script