Jonathan Bowman’s AEC & EPC Blog

To continue with the "comment" theme, there is new feature in Acrobat that will allow you to remove all the comments from a pdf as well as other items.  How I would use this in an AEC/EPC workflow, is for external communication.  Such as if I was a lead engineer or working on a team that was going through a review cycle it may come to a point in which we need to send the document to an external party such as a vendor, client, contractor, etc.  We may not want them to see the comments associated to the document.  This is where the "Examine Document" feature can aid you in simply removing all the comments with the click of a button versus deleting each individual comment.

First things first, if you use the "Examine Document" feature and remove the comments, the changes will be permanent when you save the file!  So for the example above, do a quick "save as" before you run examine document.  To get started you will need the document containing the comments open in Acrobat.  Once the document is opened you simple choose Document-Examine Document from the top menu.  This will pop open a window that looks like this.

 

 

As you can see the "Examine Document" feature removes much more than just the comments.  If certain items are contained within the pdf they will be displayed and you can simply check which ones you want permanently removed.  Once you have made your selections just simply choose "remove all check items".  Remember that the changes will be permanent once you SAVE the file.  So if you make a mistake just close the document without saving and then reopen.  Once you run "examine document" you will be prompted with the following screen that shows it was successful.

 

 

It is a great new feature for Acrobat and can really make things simple when communicating information to others.  I could see this widely used in Document Control groups that are responsible for published deliverables.  It is also insurance that everything has been removed, versus risking that it was done manually. 

 

Have fun,

 

Jonathan

Posted by Jonathan Bowman at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently attended the Acrobat Users Group meeting in Dallas.  This month our guest speaker was Lori DeFurio who is the Customer and Field Enablement Evangelist for Adobe primarily focused on Acrobat.  Lori has probably forgotten more about Acrobat than I will ever know.  It was a great presentation and she showed a bunch of tips and tricks to be used with Acrobat.  One of the tips was how to flatten all comments, forms, and digital signatures on a pdf so they could no longer be edited, moved, deleted and so forth.  In this blog entry I will show you how.

In the AEC/EPC industry we go through very strict review and commenting processes that lead up to versions or revisions of a document.  Where this feature is useful is at the end of a review you can simply flatten all the comments, form fields, or digital signatures in the pdf.  This way they can longer be edited, moved or deleted.  Very important – there is no “undo” that I have found after you save the file.  In most cases I would keep the original so that you have the history of what took place.  Also when you use this feature, it is going to minimize all pop-ups.  You have been warned; and in other words test before you use.

 

How do you do it?  Let’s say that I have completed the review on the document below:

 

 

 

There is not a menu command that you can execute to flatten all the comments.  So the trick is you have to use a Javascript!  Okay, before I lose you since I mentioned a “javascript”, just note that I am a novice when it comes to programming.  In fact, I have not done any programming since my Fortran days in college.  I am going to give you the code you just have to cut and past it into the Java Script debugger.

 

Step 1:  Hit Ctrl-J on your keyboard.  This brings up the JavaScript debugger as seen below.

 

 

Delete all the text that is listed in the Console Screen.  Then simply type the following command in the blank window.

 

this.flattenPages()

 

 

 

I must warn you again before you execute this script.  If you "save" the file after you execute the script there is no “undo” and the pop-ups will be collapsed!

 

To execute this JavaScript all you have to do is hit Ctrl-Enter on your keyboard.  The cursor must be on the same line or you can highlight the text.

 

You will now notice that you cannot edit, move, delete or change any of the comments, form fields or digital signatures that where originally placed on the document.

 

There is a second option, and that is to download a free plug-in from our friends at Wind Jack Solutions.  Then you just simply drag the javascript file provided into the JavaScript folder under the Acrobat install on your computer.  On my computer it is c://programfiles/adobe/acrobat 8/acrobat/javascript.  After you drag and drop the code into the folder and launch Acrobat the button will look like this. (Flatten Pages icon below)

 

 

 

Thom Parker who is the president of Wind Jack, also has a blog on AcrobatUsers.com and manages the JavaScript Corner as well.  If you want more JavaScript tips and trick check out the links above.  Also, for even more development resources, be sure and check out Joel Geraci’s developer blog.  It has a lot of great content as well.

 

Have Fun,

 

Jonathan

Posted by Jonathan Bowman at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)