Extract Pages from comma delimited list and

Question

I am working with really large (numbers of pages) pdfs. I know of two ways to extract non-sequential pages: right-click from either the page view OR the organize pages view.

The problem is that I want to extract many different non-sequential pages (could be 200 pages out of 1100). I keep a list of all pages indexed in EXCEL (don't ask...that's just what we are doin right now ) . Anyway, as part of that process I use EXCEL to identify which pages will be extracted (and sent to third parties) from the larger *.pdf file. Because of that, I can easily using EXCEL VBA create a comma delimited list of which pages to extract from the *.pdf file.

My problem is I am a complete novice at Javascript. So right now, I have to open up Adobe and hold the CNTRL key while I scroll thru and try and select dozens (if not hundreds) of non-sequential page for extraction. One slip and I have to start over again.

I just want to be able to feed (could be copy-paste) a list of comma-delimited page number to Adobe and have it extract those pages to one *.pdf. My thought is that a javascript in Adobe would have a variable assigned to the pages to be extracted, say N=1,2,4,54,23,45,198,543. So that using excel, I could just copy paste my VBA comma-delimited string of pages to extract output right in for "N" in the Adobe javascipt and then run the javascript.

Can anyone help me?

Thom Parker · Accepted Answer

My Excel VBA outputs a comma-delimited list in one cell. To test the script I just copy-pasted into the script between the quotation marks (var strPgs = "2,3,4,5,6,10"; // 1-based page numbers!)

So, my thought would be an Adobe dialogue box would pop up and I just copy paste the comma-delimited list from Excel into the dialogue box and press enter. The list would be inserted between the quotation marks and then execute.

Does that not work?

The simple solution is to use the "app.response()" fucntion. It returns a string.

If you are using Acrobat DC, then use a command with this script.

var strPgs = app.response("Enter list of page numbers");
var aPages = strPgs.split(",");
var oNewDoc = app.newDoc();
var oDoc = this;
aPages.forEach(function(nPg){oNewDoc.insertPages(oNewDoc.numPages-1,oDoc.path,nPg-1);});
oNewDoc.deletePages();

Thom Parker · Answer

This question comes up regularly. I've always thought it odd that Adobe didn't provide better page extraction options. Later tools, such as "redaction" take a page list/range as input, but they never updated the older tools that also need pages as input.

So the only option is to write an automation script to do it.

If you just go with the list (not page ranges), and assume the page numbers are 0 based, then this script will work

var strPgs = "2,3,4,5,6,10";

var aPages = strPgs.split(",");

var oNewDoc = app.newDoc();

var oDoc = this;

aPages.forEach(function(nPg){oNewDoc.insertPages(oNewDoc.numPages-1,oDoc.path,nPg);});

Run it from the Console Window

Also a good idea for a tool at pdfscripting.com

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