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Automate a string of tasks?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 10, 2023
3 replies
991 views

My job involves a great deal of oversize book scanning, so the resulting scan stores the pages sideways, with the page orientation alternating between left-top and right-top. For every file I must then Open, choose Organize Pages, Select Even Pages, rotate 180 degrees, Select All Pages, rotate 90 degrees, and finally Close.

I know that's only seven steps, but I'd love to hear that this sequence could be automated. Please point me in the right direction! Thanks.

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Correct answer Meenakshi_Negi

Hi phidler,

Thank you for reaching out.

By default, there is no option to automate the workflow. However, you may create an action in the Action Wizard tool in Acrobat. Check if that works for you. For more information on creating action, refer to the following help document: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/action-wizard-acrobat-pro.html.

Hope the information helps.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

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gary_sc

Community Expert

It's been my experience that when I scan and save the files as TIF documents, it doesn't make a difference if the files are sideways or upside down; during the OCR process, they are all rotated in the right direction and proceed as wished for.

The orientation of the original document does not make a difference — Acrobat's OCR rotates the pages, so the text is right side up. This is part of Acrobat's OCR correction, where if you scan at an angle, it will straighten the text to be horizontal. This, incidentally, cannot be turned off. So, if you wish for angled text, you're out of luck!

P

phidlerAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks. I didn't realize that OCR automatically rotated pages. It took an inordinately long time (>1 min/pg) on my scans of printed music, probably because it had to also analyze handwriting, and failed to rotate 4 of 23 pages. I expect it works much better on scans of just text. I appreciate your advice!

Meenakshi_NegiCorrect answer

Legend

Hi phidler,

Thank you for reaching out.

By default, there is no option to automate the workflow. However, you may create an action in the Action Wizard tool in Acrobat. Check if that works for you. For more information on creating action, refer to the following help document: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/action-wizard-acrobat-pro.html.

Hope the information helps.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Marking a reply or response “Correct” will help future users with the same issue quickly identify the correct answer.

P

phidlerAuthor

Participating Frequently

That worked! Once I add "Rotate" to the Actions list, the option appears to select all or certain pages, as well as to select whether or not the user needs to confirm each step. This narrowed my workflow to a tidy four clicks instead of nine (which included two dropdown menu selections, which always feels cumbersome when it's the same task each time). Thank you.

try67

Community Expert

Yes. Look at the Create Custom Command tool. You can add various steps to it and then run them all with a single click. You can also use the Action Wizard to do the same, and run it on multiple files, one after another.

P

phidlerAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks. That’s where I started, but I clearly need to read some documentation on these tools, because I couldn’t figure them out. For example, under the “Organize Pages“ section of Create Custom Tool, there doesn’t appear to be any tool to select even or odd pages. Similarly, in Action Wizard I can’t find any reference to Organize Pages.

try67

Community Expert

You need to select a specific command, such as Rotate Pages, then add it to your Action/Tool.

Then click on Specify Settings button below that command and you'll be able to select which pages to rotate, and by how much.

Make sure to un-tick the "Prompt User" check-box so that those settings are used automatically, instead of a dialog window appearing for each file when you run the Action.

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