Every now and then I come across the question “What is the best way to learn scripting for Adobe Acrobat? Are there any books or other resources averrable?”. After doing some research, I think I finally found the best resource for beginners and for seasoned Acrobat JavaScript programmers that need a quick tip or a recipe to copy&paste into a project:
The site offers content for both paying members and the general public. If you are new to scripting, and you don’t want to spend the money for a membership (yet), take a look at the free content at ?http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/department40.cfm – it walks you through creating your first AcroForm script, but also offers a number of videos that explain more complicated concepts. For the really good stuff however, you have to pay.
Ever wondered how to hook up a PDF form with an Excel spread sheet? Wonder no more! The article series “Acrobat, PDF and Excel Spreadsheets” teaches you more than you ever wanted to know about that subject.
You may remember my post about dynamic stamps in Acrobat. The PDFScripting.com site has a lot more information about dynamic forms and provides a number of very interesting samples (video link).
There is a ton more information available for both AcroForm and LiveCycle Designer scripting. This information comes in form of articles, videos, a copy&paste script library and downloadable sample files that illustrate a subject.
To get familiar with the web site, Thom Parker has recorded a video tour that helps to navigate the site, but also gives a pretty good overview about what’s available both for free and for paying members at “?Take a tour of the PDFScripting.com website!” (video link).
So, no need to ask me for a good Acrobat scripting resource anymore, just go to PDFScripting.com and sign up for a year – it’s well worth the membership fee (and as Thom says in his tour video, no surprise at the end of the year, the membership does not automatically renew).
I have used pdfscripting.com for the past 12 months, and just renewed my subscription. Its been many years since I’d done development work, but this training resource was exactly what I needed.
Early on, it got me through my first scripting efforts, providing step-by-step instruction to quickly get me to the point of delivery. I’m an independent consultant, so I was required to develop a solution with no in-house support, and I was able to complete assignments in a quality manner far quicker than I expected. Better yet, I was able to complete the assignments requiring no additional technical support.
Later, I gained confidence to tackle some tougher applications, and the depth of the site proved to be invaluable. There is SO MUCH CONTENT, it’s amazing how many solution concepts I was able to glean just from working through the examples.
When I ran across issues that were real stumpers, I was very surprised by the level of support I was able to get through Q/A support via e-mail. I’ve had very little success with this type of technical support, but, if questions are asked with sufficient detail, I was extremely impressed how often Dmitri was able to get to the essence of my problem in his first reply.
Last October, I invested the $139 with the hope that I could get just a fraction of the value I’ve described. I’ll probably be sorry I’m saying this…watch for future price increases…but the value I’ve gained from pdfscripting.com is 10X what I’ve paid.
Thanks, guys. Keep up the good work.
Regards,
Stuart Pim
Regenesys Consulting Services