creating a PDF from word - How to add letterhead

The key to a sucessful conversion of a Word document to PDF is properly tagging your word document before conversion. MS Word 2007 has a new PDF conversion add-on that does this nicely.

Add Watermarks
(For Acrobat)
The following are two methods for adding watermarks to a PDF document—using either the watermark from an external file or from text specified in the JavaScript.

Adding a watermark from an external file

Add a watermark from an external PDF file to a selected range of pages in the current document.

The following code(for Acrobat 7 or higher) adds a watermark image, from an external file, to the first two pages of the document.

this.addWatermarkFromFile({
cDIPath: "/C/watermark.pdf",
nSourcePage: 0, // select source doc page 0
nEnd: 1,
nHorizAlign: 0,
nVertAlign: 0,
nHorizValue: 288,
nVertValue: -144,
});

NOTE:Because of security restrictions, the above script can only be executed in the JavaScript Console or in batch mode.

Adding a watermark from text
Add specified text to current document as a watermark. The following code places the word “Confidential” on all pages of the document. This code could be run from the JavaScript console.

this.addWatermarkFromText(
"Confidential", 0, font.HelvB, 24,
color.red );


Use batch processing to quickly add watermarks to lots of files. This will set a watermark to only show when printing? This is a useful feature for ISO9001 companies which need to mark documents when they are uncontrolled.

1. Advanced > Document Processing > Batch Processing
2. Click the New button and give the sequence a name
3. From the list on the left, choose Add Watermark
4. Double-click Add Watermark from the list on the right
5. Format your watermark text as desired. Click on the Appearance Options link and disable Show when displaying on screen.

You could also use the Acrobat JS template feature, to add a template with the letter head to each PDF and then overlay that template on the first page and then delete the template page.

Why don't you simply add the letterhead in Word? We have the same issue, including adding a scanned signature. Our first page has a different header/footer, then a section break, then the subsequent pages have a secondary footer. In fact, if someone wants to write a letter (or memo) they just open the pre-created file and type right into it. Then you can one-click PDF and you're done!

Can you discuss this part a little more? I have tried creating an editable letterhead where the only editable part is the part where you would type the actual letter content, I placed a text field in the letterhead pdf, set it to begin typing at the top left. It works great for me, in Reader 9, but my colleagues, who also have the latest Reader 9, are having trouble. Either they can only type one line of text or the text is centered vertically on the left side. Any ideas?

I have acrobat 8.x Pro, Have tried creating this in both acrobat and the designer software.

Hi redpenny01,
You mention that you are trying something in PDF.

That70sHeidi's post appears to focus on the creation of a MS Word file.

Once such a *.doc file is setup, you would place the MS Word form fields where need and, perhaps, protect the file for form field input.
This lets anyone take a copy of the file (banked out on the network), fill the MS Word form fields and subsequently make an output PDF.
The PDF could come via a Distiller job option (print directly to the Adobe Printer instance) or via PDFMaker.

All setup, layout, format, development and all form "input" is with MS Word. The only thing "PDF" is the output PDF.

Be well...