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Not visible on screen, but printable?

Forum Index > PDF Creation > Not visible on screen, but printable?
2010-08-09 14:54:45
Tim01
Registered: Aug 9 2010
Posts: 2

Hi,

We have some MS Word documents to make into PDFs. We would like to designate some of the text and graphics to be invisible on screen, but visible when printed.

This (obviously) isn't a highly secure situation. We simply need to ensure that our users actually do print the PDFs. They will have to call us and tell us the "special word" on some of the pages.

Yes, yes...I know that this isn't super high-tech, but it should accomplish our goals. :-)

Can this be easily done in Acrobat 9 Pro? What commands/menus should I explore to accomplish this task?

Thanks,
Tim

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.3.1, Windows
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2010-08-11 05:33:30
#1
JoeToGo
Registered: Aug 11 2010
Posts: 1
Tim,

Have you considered using the password protection functions in Adobe Acrobat Pro? This could be your answer. As for a document that only shows up when printing, I don't think there is a function like this. I do know that if you create your text in white in MSWord and then convert to PDF, you wont be able to see it on the screen, as the paper is white. Then if you choose to print from Adobe, there is a print color as black checkbox. This might work for you.

Joe Goku

Joe Goku, Part-time Computer Enthusiast
[url=http://www.usbmemorydirect.com/products.htm]Custom USB Drives[/url]

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2010-08-11 06:43:07
#2
UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
It's perfectly possible to do what you want, but not as a single export from Word.

Elements in a PDF that are optional when viewing or printing must be placed on a PDF layer (an Optional Content Group or OCG). Unlike professional DTP programs such as Adobe InDesign, MS Word doesn't understand the concept of layers, so cannot create the PDF in one go. The workaround is to make two copies of your document, one with the fixed content and one with only the optional content, save them both as PDFs, and then in Acrobat Pro:

- open the "fixed" version
- open the layers sidebar and click the tool menu (gear icon)
- choose "import as layer"
- select your optional content PDF and set the appearance properties using the dialog panel.
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