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how to automate split/merge?

Forum Index > JavaScript > how to automate split/merge?
2007-03-31 21:16:16
groucho
Registered: Mar 31 2007
Posts: 4

I work for a university system. I have 14 57-page PDF documents, each page of which is a different university but in the same order in each PDF. I'd like to be able to split these and re-merge them so that each university is together. E.g., instead of Table 1: university A, university B...; I'd like University A: table 1, table 2...
 
I don't know if I can do it or how. Maybe Javascript, but I don't know javascript. Can anyone guide me or get me started?

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8, Windows
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2007-04-01 11:17:15
#1
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
Splitting the document up is easy with either JavaScript or from the user interface (menu item: Document->Extract Pages...)Merging them back together is a bigger problem. Both Acrobat 7 and 8 have menu items for combining files. Maybe 6 too, I'm not sure. But this is a somewhat laborious process since you have to manually search for the files and order them.

I'm assuming that you'd prefer some kind of automated way of doing this with a single click. You may not get away with a single click, but there are some options. First, there are several 3rd party tools for split and merge. Take a look at [url=http://www.artspdf.com]www.artspdf.com[/url], and do a google search for "PDF split" and "PDF merge".

You could also do this with JavaScript. But there has to be something on each page that provides a clue as to which page belongs to which university. This is a much more difficult proposition since it requires programming and a good knowledge of the Acrobat scripting environment.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

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2007-04-02 10:02:50
#2
groucho
Registered: Mar 31 2007
Posts: 4
Thanks Thom:

I've now asked artspdf if one of their products could help me.

Re your last paragraph, each of the 14 files has the same institutions in the same order, so if I could take page 1 from each file and merge them in table order 1-14 as one file, then do pages 2 through 57 in the same way I'd be home free. Does that make javascript a simpler prospect?

I've done this for a few universities using the subset feature in combine files just to see if they like the results, but you're right it is really laborious, so I'm hoping to automate the process.
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