Current user stamping

bump. can anyone help with this? i was contemplating the use of the javascript 'will print' process, but am not quite sure how to get it functioning.

Hi,
Some resources here at AUC.

Regarding "user name"; see the [i]ireeve[/i] and [i]radzmar[/i] posts in this thread.
http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?id=327

Regarding "date"; See Thom Parker's tutorials.
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/date_time_part1]Working with date and time in Acrobat JavaScript (Part 1 of 3)[/url]

[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/date_time_part2/]Working with date and time in Acrobat JavaScript (part 2 of 3)[/url]

[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/working-date-and-time-acrobat-javascript-part-3-3]Working with date and time in Acrobat JavaScript (part 3 of 3)[/url]

Be well...

Thanks for those links. I have found a solution that involves getting the username from the identity information in the document preferences. I have set up a custom stamp that applies the user id and date in a form field. This allows me to work around the security restrictions.

However, I now have two problems that perhaps you can help me with:
1) I want the stamp to be automatically applied to all pages of the document on the 'will print' event. I will include code to force a flatten so that the stamp prints.
2) The custom stamp is stored locally on my pc. It needs to be available to all users, and users only operating adobe reader, regardless of whether the user is on my specific pc.

Any ideas?

I would like to ask a question - I look through the issues in the forums and often find situations like this - users ask questions, Experts answer to a point, then user asks another question... and then nothing else.

Do the experts answer on an e-mail basis to the specific user? If so, why wouldn't any further answers be posted for the rest of us?

So many posts are unanswered....

thanks

Sadly, in my experience, questions often go unresolved. In the end, I usually use the bits of information that I have gathered together from a variety of places to resolve the issue or find an alternative that achieves close to the desired result. In some ways it has been good because it has advanced my learning.

In this case, what I wanted to do wasn't possible so the solution was a 'close enough' work around. I wrote some code that applied one of the predefined dynamic stamps to every page on the will print event. There was also some code that I placed in the did print event that cleared the stamp after a print. These were then added to the relevant docs by way of a batch process as the PDF was being prepared for distribution. The stamp didn't say exactly the correct words, but they were close enough.

Josh

thank you for responding so quickly.

I guess that sounds about right... I also have pieced together ways to do things.

Maybe I'm just old but things used to be so much easier to do and to make happen. I guess with the proliferation of OSs, Programs, versions, and other variables the computing world has become like a government:

Too many disconnected bits doing things in ways that make no sense and many times don't work!!

Have a great day.

Custom dynamic stamps can be very handy but difficult to deploy to multiple users because they're stored locally on the individual PCs. Do you use the Acrobat Customization Wizard to deploy Acrobat? If so, they can be added during the packaging process.

Have you considered using a watermark on the Will Print event? One workflow issue you may run into with this process is that all your documents will need to have this JavaScript code on the Will Print action. This means they'll probably need to go through a batch process. Sometimes this workflow doesn't fit all settings.

The AUC Experts work to answer as many questions as possible but they all support the forums on a voluntary basis. I agree that quite a few folks are interested in this user/date stamping functionality. I'll see about adding a tutorial or blog entry on the subject.

I would place a field or fields at the top of bottom of the form, make them read only and print only. Then you can use a couple of scripts. One could populate the one of the fields with the login name or use name (must complete the 'Identity' of Reader or Acrobat's preferences) upon opening the PDF and you could use a 'Will Print' action to populate the date field. You will need to go to the last post in the referenced post to find the solution on how to handle the security restrictions regarding the 'identity' object. Since that last post links to a post that provides 2 methods to obtain the information from the identity object, I would use the one that creates values of the login name and user name. You will have to have an application script installed on each machine that uses your PDF.

I would use the form field because you do not have to set an optional print content setting to have the data printed, unlike a stamp.

Question: just installed AA9 Pro Extended. I need to amend/customize pdf files and leaflets. Can this be done with this version or do I need another program? I was able to do this on an earlier version of AA but when the PC was wrecked by a Virus I lost the ability. I thought that version 9 would re-instate this facility. I would appreciate some advice and help on the use of my new AA program. Thanks Bill

Your question is not really related to this topic, but the answer is yes, you can edit PDF files with Acrobat 9 Pro Extended.

Tks, I will follow up your suggestions.

Josha--is it possible to get the code you used for placing the stamp on every page (just for the will print event)? My JavaScript knowledge is meager at the moment so trying to come up with a code from scratch would be very time consuming. But I could edit it to fit my needs. I already have a stamp that puts the date on the page, I just need to set something up to have it print that date on all the pages in the doc. The doc won't ever be printed, just imported into our document system.

Thanks!

If your users have Reader, you will need to enable comments and you will have to have the users print the document and markups. Reader can not add watermarks. But if you add fields to the PDF, users with Reader can have the fields update and print without any special rights or any special printer settings. You will have to install a special JS file on each users computer to capture the login name. If you want the user name, then you will also have to have each user complete the identity preference with their name.

how you made "I have set up a custom stamp that applies the user id and date in a form field."?
Thanks
Micol

You have to create a custom dynamic stamp.

See [url=http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2007/02/custom_dynamic_stamp]Creating a Custom Dynamic Stamp[/url] by Lori DeFurio.

The script that she copied: