Comments for Karl Heinz Kremer's Ramblings

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by Vickie

Vickie — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:48:51 +0000

Karl,

Thanks for explaining the formula, I can now figure out where to lay my text for the 11 x 17 and I also have some that I need to do on 8 1/2 by 11. And I can either tell it the size I am using or use the media box to figure it out for me.
You have been a greet help.
I have a lot of work ahead of me to get my project done. I was just trying to figure out if I can do some things before I start on it. I have a big Database already in place that is why I am trying to do everything from Access. Being able to merge the PDFs and then add a footer (adding text is just as good) was my goal.

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by khk

khk — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:03:09 +0000

Let’s say your page is 17″ wide, and you want to add the field at the bottom. As I said, the coordinates are expressed in points, so the left most x coordinate would be 0, and the right most would be 72*17=1546. If you want your field 1/2″ high, that would be 36pt, and let’s say you want the lower edge of your field 1/4″ off the bottom, that would be 18pt. Let’s now combine all this. The lower left corner has an x value of 0, and a y value of 18, the upper right corner has an x value of 1546 and a y value of 18+36=54, so we would use the following code to express that:
rect(0) = 0
rect(1) = 18
rect(2) = 1546
rect(3) = 54

As you’ve correctly identified, if you want the text in the middle, you need to use the center alignment.

You can actually query a page for it’s size by getting the media box. With that information, you could write your routine so that it’s flexible as far as the actual page size goes.

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by Vickie

Vickie — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:22:20 +0000

Hello Karl,

Thanks for all the help. Still not sure how to get it land in the right spot. I needed it in the center, bottom of a 11 x 17 paper. But I played with it and got it to work with the following code:
rect(0) = 2
rect(1) = 2
rect(2) = 1225
rect(3) = 50

Dim field As Object
Set field = jso.AddField(“theField”, “text”, 0, rect)
field.Value = “this is some text added some more”
field.textFont = “Arial”
field.textSize = 15
field.textColor = jso.Color.BLACK
field.alignment = “center”
field.alignment = “bottom”

As far as getting it on the other pages I guess I will have to have it run in a loop as it counts the pages and put a page number field in the place where the page number goes.

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by khk

khk — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:58:10 +0000

Hi Vickie,

this is where Acrobat’s JavaScript API documentation becomes a must-read: The JSO object is the JavaScript Object bridge, and on the “other” side of the bridge is what used to be JavaScript objects and methods. This means that in order to use the bridge, you need to be familiar with the JavaScript DOM. Take a look at the document that I link to in the original post.

The “rect” is a pair of coordinates that describe the field: lower left corner and upper right corner. The units are in points (which is 1/72″). And, to get to other pages, you would change the 3rd argument of AddField: That’s the page number (starting at page 0).

Let me know if you need anything else.

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by Vickie

Vickie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:02:59 +0000

Karl,

I can not figure out what numbers to plug in to get the text in the right spot. Can you explain to me how the following works

rect(0) = 72
rect(1) = 72
rect(2) = 72 * 4
rect(3) = 108

When I change the first 3 to get in close to where I want it center then 4 th line doesn’t work to get lined up on the bottom. Maybe if I understood moor about it I could get it to work.

Do you know how to get the text to show up on the rest of the pages?

All it’s greatly appreciated.

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by Vickie

Vickie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:33:56 +0000

Karl,

Thanks alot it works only on the first page, now I need to get it to go on the rest of the pages and have control on where it lands and change the color and the grey background and font styles and I think I am in business. Any help would be much appreciated.

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by Vickie

Vickie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:15:11 +0000

Thanks alot Karl

This is what I have now

a problem with now

Set field = jso.AddField(“theField”, “text”, 0, rect)
field.Value = “this is some text”

the field.Value = “this some text” doesn’t work so a ignored it

And ran the program and it crashed and pointed to the “theField” code

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by khk

khk — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:36:30 +0000

Vicki, try this to get a string on the first page:

Dim AcroApp As Acrobat.CAcroApp
Dim jso As Object
Dim rect(0 To 3) As Integer

Dim theDocument As Acrobat.CAcroPDDoc
Dim numPages As Integer

Set AcroApp = CreateObject(“AcroExch.App”)
Set theDocument = CreateObject(“AcroExch.PDDoc”)
theDocument.Open (“C:\temp\Part1.pdf”)
numPages = theDocument.GetNumPages()
Set jso = theDocument.GetJSObject
rect(0) = 72
rect(1) = 72
rect(2) = 72 * 4
rect(3) = 108

Dim field As Object
Set field = jso.AddField(“theField”, “text”, 0, rect)
field.Value = “this is some text”
field.textSize = 12
field.textColor = jso.Color.blue
field.fillColor = jso.Color.ltGray

jso.FlattenPages

If theDocument.Save(PDSaveFull, “C:\temp\modified2.pdf”) = False Then
MsgBox “Cannot save the modified document”
End If

theDocument.Close

AcroApp.Exit
Set AcroApp = Nothing
Set theDocument = Nothing

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by Vickie

Vickie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:25:46 +0000

Not sure how that all works, but the pdfs are drawings That I need to use depending on what I am working on they get certain footers. So the only thing I would be adding is one field to these drawings. Now I am wanting to do this all this through Ms Access. Can you supply me with details of how to set it up and where I can get the coding from.

Comment on Adobe Acrobat and VBA – An Introduction by Karl Heinz Kremer

Karl Heinz Kremer — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:21:27 +0000

Vickie,
you can add footers via JavaScript (and the VGA/JS Bridge). It’s not as straight forward as one would hope, but it works: You would add a form field at the location where you want your footer to be, then you fill in the form field with the footer text (and this can be different for the different pages in your document), and as a final step, you flatten the pages in your document to “burn in” the otherwise interactive form field. You just have to be careful if you want other interactive content in your document, that you flatten the footers before you add any other fields that should remain interactive.

Let me know if you have any questions regarding the actual mechanics of doing this.

Thanks for reading and participating on my blog.