Part II Acrobat 8 Professional

Part II – Acrobat 8 Professional Exporting Images

There will be times when images will need to be exported out of a PDF document and saved as a file type in which it can be used in a different application. For example, a web page, PowerPoint, et cetera.

Note, exporting an image out of a PDF document may not be ideal because in most cases the image is set to a low resolution. However, when you don’t have the original source and need to use an image in a PDF file, then exporting the image will work.

Acrobat 8 has a feature where all images in the document can be exported and saved as either a .jpg, .png, and/or .tiff. Unfortunately, the only option is to select all images in the document and export all to the selected file type. Acrobat will not allow the exporting of only one or two images.

From the Advanced menu, Document Processing, Export All Images.

Acrobat will prompt you to enter a filename and a file type for the images being exported.

Choose the Settings button to control the optimization of the images being saved.

Press the OK button when finished.

Exporting Text

Text can be extracted from a PDF document in a couple of different ways when using Acrobat. Again, it’s always better to retrieve data from its original source, but if you don’t the original source and you need to extract data, then the one of the options explained below will work.

An easy way to extract text from a PDF document is to actually save the PDF file in a different format from Acrobat. Keep in mind that the text in the PDF must be “ real text”

and not an “image” of text in order to use the export feature.

Acrobat supports a few different methods when exporting text. View the different file types by choosing, File, Save As, and select the pull-down menu for the Save as type field.

Tip: File, Export is also an option to get text in a format where it can be edited.

Tip: If you export your data and save it as Text (Plain), then you can open this file in pretty much any application. The exported text will retain its paragraph breaks and that is pretty much it.

Use Notepad to open the file and view it. Copy and Paste the text to get it into another file.

Tip: It has been my experience that scanned documents do not export even if the text appears to be “real”. Real in this case meaning searchable.

Tip: Another option is to use the Text Select Tool and highlight all the text in the document and right-click the mouse and choose copy to clipboard from the context sensitive menu. Paste the data to either Notepad or a word processing type file. Note, this method doesn’t retain paragraph breaks, but it does extract the text.

Tip: The methods above will work only if the security on the PDF document allows for

text to be copied, selected or exported.

Forms

Note: Acrobat Standard does not contain all the necessary tools to make a form interactive.

Acrobat is becoming a standard tool for people and businesses to use in order to replicate forms and have them available electronically. If a form is converted or scanned to a PDF document, then its default behavior will just be a static form. The end user will have the capability to view the form online and print it as if it were an original. The originator of the form can take a few extra steps and add forms fields to the document and make it interactive. Once the form is interactive online, then the user can view the page and fill it out online. Depending on how the form is set up, it can then be printed or the data can be submitted to a database. Note: this class will not go into instruction on how to submit data to a database.

Acrobat modified the procedure one must go through when adding form fields to a document. The type of form field must first be selected from the Form Button menu and then drawn on the document.

Display the Forms menu from the View, Toolbars to display all form tools.

The Form Field Properties dialog box will display after a field has been drawn. Acrobat 6 displays all form properties in a tabbed dialog box.

Each field must contain a unique form field name. The name cannot have any spaces and is case sensitive.

Exception: When using Radio Button form fields, the field names should be identical.

Radio Buttons form fields imply that you

 Text (text and numbers)

 Radio Button (option button, it will either be A or B not both)

 Check Box (check all that apply)

 Combo Box (select an item from a list)

 List Box (select an item from a list)

 Buttons (create buttons to reset or print the form)

Test the Field

Select the Hand tool when finished inserting form fields to test the fields. Switch back to the form tool if a form field needs to be edited.

Access Properties

Form field properties can be accessed at any time by double-clicking with the mouse on the form field. Note, the correct form tool must be selected from the Advanced Editing toolbar in order to display the properties.

Tip: Form fields can be deleted, resized or moved at any time as long as the Field Properties dialog box is closed.

Tip: the only way data on a form can be saved and used again is if the user has the full Acrobat Suite installed on their computer. If the user only has the Acrobat Reader installed on their computer, then they will not be able to save the form with the data.

Tip: Form fields can be copied, but not forget to modify the field name. All form fields should have a unique name. An exception to unique field names is the radio from field.

Set Tab Order

As you build a form and add form fields there may be times when the tab order gets out

of sequence. To set a new tab order, select Forms, Edit Acrobat Form.

Go through the menu again, Forms, Edit Fields, Set Tab Order

Click with the mouse on the first field, second, and so forth. If you should make an error while setting your tab order, you will have to start over again.

Security

Security can be added to a document to “lock it down” so that text can’t be selected, extracted, printed, form fields completed, et cetera.

Add Security by selecting File, Properties, Security tab, and setting the Security Method.

All security options added to a document require a permissions password in order to add or modify the security options.

1. Select the Permissions Use a Password option.

2. Type in the password 3. Select the printing options 4. Select the Changes Allowed

options

5. Deselect enable copy of text 6. Enable text access for screen

readers

7. Press the OK button when

finished.

The padlock in the lower left corner of the Status Bar indicates security has been applied to the document.

Modify security settings by right-clicking with the mouse on the padlock icon in the Status Bar and choosing Document

Security.

Select the Change Settings button from the Document Security dialog box.

Acrobat will require the Permissions

password in order to modify the security settings.

Make all the security changes and remember to save your document when finished.

Tip: Document Security can also be viewed by selecting the File menu, Document Properties, Security option.

Creating PDF’s From Files

From the File Menu choose Create PDF

From File Example:

This is a good tool to use on small files, like images, and convert them to PDF. Note, you really don’t have control over the compression options when using this route.

Tip: if an image file contains text and it’s converted to PDF, then the text on the image cannot be modified.

Tip: This tool will also work with text files. When a text file is converted to PDF, it is

considered text and can be selected and modified.