Adobe Acrobat 7 TIPS and TRICKS THE 100150 BEST [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

A Batch for Every Reason

Acrobat includes several default batch processes, and offers a wide range of options for writing custom batch sequences. Are there times when you would like to perform any of these actions on a number of files? Instead of repeating the same actions over and over, consider building a custom batch sequence that allows you to:

• Delete or summarize comments

• Check for Accessibility status or make the document's content accessible

• Add elements like headers and footers, watermarks, and backgrounds

• Add descriptions to documents

• Export images in a wide range of formats

• Define how a document opens, and how its thumbnails are used

• Print

• Add or change security settings

• Add printer marks; manipulate pages (such as cropping, numbering, rotating, adding transitions)

• Run a Preflight check

• Run a JavaScript

1.

Choose Advanced > Batch Processing to open the Batch Sequences dialog. Click New Sequence . A small dialog opens for you to name the sequence (Figure 135a). Type the name and click OK. Use a meaningful name for the sequencethe example is called mm_summary reports, which refers both to a specific project as well as the types of documents the batch process will be applied to.

2.

The Edit Batch Sequence [name] dialog opens. Click Select Commands to open the Edit Sequence dialog (Figure 135b).

3.

Click an arrow to open the category of action, such as Document, in the column at the left of the dialog. Click to select an action, such as Description, and then click Add to move the action to the list at the right of the dialog.

4.

Add other actions for your sequence. In the example, in addition to the Description action, I have used the Add Watermark & Background and Number Pages actions from the Document category, as well as the Delete All Comments action from the Comments category. You can reorder them by clicking the Move Up or Move Down button, or you can delete an action if you change your mind by clicking Remove.

5.

Assign an Interactive Mode to actions you want to control manually. In Figure 135b, the action for deleting comments has a solid gray box to the left of the command's name, which means this action has no configuration optionscomments are either deleted or they aren't. The other three actions have a depressed gray box to the left of their names, which means they can be defined as Interactive. Click to toggle the Interactive Mode, which displays a gray and white icon in the gray box. When the batch script is run, Acrobat will prompt you for decisions about these actions. In the example, the Number Pages action will occur automatically, while both the Description and Add Watermark & Background actions will pause and wait for my input before continuing the sequence.

Note

You can see the characteristics of the action as well. Click the arrow to the left of the command's icon to display the contents. In Figure 135b, the Description details are shown.

6.

When you have finished adding commands, click OK to close the dialog and return to the Edit Batch Sequence [name] dialog. The commands are listed in the dialog (Figure 135c).

7.

Click the pull-down arrow and choose an option for running the command based on the requirements of your project. If you are building a sequence for a specific project and have stored the files in one folder location, choose that option; if you have files in several folders, choose Selected Files, as shown in the figure. The option you choose determines the other selections that are available. For example, if you choose Files Open in Acrobat, the rest of the dialog is dimmed.

8.

Click the pull-down arrow and choose an option for storing the processed files according to your project's needs (Figure 135d). If you think you might use the sequence repeatedly, choose Ask when Sequence is Run, or if the files are intended for the same output folder, choose Specific Folder and select the folder.

9.

Click Output Options to open the Output Options dialog so you can configure the processed files further (Figure 135e).

10.

Tip 138.) In the example, the files prepared by this batch process will all have the prefix PR_ attached to their names, will be saved as PDF documents, will be optimized, and will be separate from the original documents.

11.

Click OK to close the Output Options dialog, and then click OK again to close the Edit Batch Sequence [name] dialog, returning you to the original Batch Sequences dialog. Your new sequence is included in the dialog's list (Figure 135f).

12.

If you are ready to use the process (either a custom sequence or one of the defaults), click Run Sequence. You can also rename it, edit it, and delete it by clicking the appropriate buttons.

Plan Ahead

To get you into the batch sequence mindset, here are a few ideas to consider:

• Plan ahead. As you start working on a project, consider tasks that are likely to be repetitious and plan to use a batch sequence before you start the project. That way, you won't waste time making simple changes in some of the documents in a project that could easily be handled with a batch sequence applied to the whole project.

• Put the files you plan to batch into a separate folder. It's easier to keep track of where you are in your workflow. You can include other files in your batch sequence besides PDF documents. (See the sidebar "