Automatically collate two PDFs?

Question

Hello All:

I have two PDFs. One is a pre-survey and one is a post-survey for a work project. I needed each PDF numbered 1-500, so pre-survey 001 can be stapled to post-survey 001, the same for 002, and so on. That requires that the PDFs must be collated by hand and then stapled. That takes a lot of time.

There are two ways to accomplish my goal, but I'm not sure either is possible.

(1) I tried combining one page of the pre-survey and one page of the post-survey, copying it 1,000 times (so there's 500 pages of both), and then bated numbering the odds and evens separately so each set of pre- and post-surveys have the same number: 001, 001, 002, 002, 003, 003, and so on.

However, for whatever reason, it's not working. If I number the even pages and then come back and try to separately number the odds, I end up with weird combinations of pages numbers, i.e., where the first pre-survey is numbered 002, the first post-survey is numbered 001, etc.

(2) Create two separate files for the pre-survey and post-survey, using organize pages to duplicate each page 500 times, then bates numbering every page. The thought was that I could then use combine files.

However, there does not appear to be a way to combine the files while automating collating each page. That would leave me doing it by hand 500 times.

There must be some way to accomplish my task. What am I missing (or not trying)?

Karl Heinz Kremer · Answer

There are two ways you can do this, but both would involve a Javascript&colon;

In your document #1 (500 copies of both page 1 and page 2), you would need to add a form field to all pages (after you create your 500 copies). This form field would display the "group number" based on the location in the document. The first two pages would show "1", the next two "2" and so on. This can be done with a script, so that you don't have to create these fields manually:

In Acrobat's Tools search function type "Custom Command", this should bring up a "New Custom Command" - select that:

This will bring up a dialog window that looks like this:

Find the "Execute JavaScript" item in the list on the left, then provide a name and a tooltip, and then click on the "Command Options..." button. Now enter the following script:

for (p=0; p<this.numPages; p++) {
    // add a form field at the top of the page
    // Position a rectangle (.5 inch, .5 inch)
    var inch = 72; // 72points in one inch
    var aRect = this.getPageBox( {nPage: p} );
    aRect[0] += .5*inch;            // from upper left hand corner of page.
    aRect[2] = aRect[0]+.5*inch;    // Make it .5 inch wide
    aRect[1] -= .5*inch;
    aRect[3] = aRect[1] - 24;       // and 24 points high
    var f = this.addField("PageGroups_" + p, "text", p, aRect);
    f.textSize = 0;                 // Auto-sized
    f.readonly = true;
    f.setAction("Calculate", "event.value = Math.floor(event.target.page / 2) +1 ;");
}
this.calculateNow();

Click on "OK" until you are back in Acrobat. On the right side, you should now see a list of actions and of custom commands. With your document loaded, click on the custom command you just created. This will add all the form fields to number our page groups.

If the location is not correct, you can adjust that in the script.

The second method is a script to insert the correct pages in the coorect location, but that is much more complex.

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