Category Archives: PDF

The PDF Time Machine

Have you ever – by accident – modified a PDF file and then hit the save button before you were able to make a copy of the unmodified document? It seems like the only way back is to either restore … Continue reading

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Connect to Database from PDF Form – This Time Without SOAP

I wrote about how to get data from (or to) a database from a PDF form using SOAP a while ago. Using SOAP poses a problem when you want to make such a solution work with the free Adobe Reader. … Continue reading

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Remove Content from PDF Files Using Acrobat’s Preflight

Have you ever tried to selectively remove content from a PDF file? There are a number of ways you can approach that: Use “Tools>Edit PDF>Edit” and select the content in question, then press the Delete key Use the “Contents” navigation … Continue reading

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Scaling Page Content in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

Before Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, it was not possible to scale pages from e.g. 5×7″ to Letter size, or form A4 to A5 by changing both the page size, and scaling the page content to fit the new page size. … Continue reading

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Rotate PDF Fields in Adobe Acrobat Using JavaScript

Have you tried to rotate a field in a PDF form after it was created in Acrobat? If so, you may have scratched your head a bit. Before we get to the how, let’s first talk about the why: When … Continue reading

Posted in Acrobat, JavaScript, PDF, Tutorial | 13 Comments

Adobe Acrobat’s File Open or Save Dialogs are Slow or Hanging – Here is the Fix!

Is your File Open or File Save/Save As dialog slow to open, or does it look like it’s hanging and never actually coming up? If you are running Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader version DC, the fix for this is … Continue reading

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Getting a Serial Number Into a Form Using SOAP

One request that shows up again and again on the Adobe Forums (or in the past on AcrobatUsers.com) is about how to generate a unique serial number or form number in a PDF file. The scenario is usually something like … Continue reading

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Selective Flattening of Form Fields Using ABCpdf

Let’s assume you have a form with a lot of form fields, and somewhere during your forms workflow, you want to flatten some fields to “burn in” the information and convert it from an interactive field to static PDF content. … Continue reading

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Using Custom Dynamic PDF Stamps in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader

There is sometimes a misconception about how a custom dynamic stamp works in the PDF environment. Here is a short video that demonstrates how such a stamp gets applied: As you can see, the custom dialog that collects the data … Continue reading

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More Missing Characters

A while ago I wrote about missing characters after merging PDF files. Since then, I’ve heard about a few more instances of missing characters and was able to debug one scenario. The following is a record of that. Unfortunately, there … Continue reading

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