Adding an automated date-of-issue to a pdf
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Forgive what might be a bit of a luddite question in the grand scheme of these forums, this is more of a scenario I'm facing and needing to know if Adobe has the functionality at all, ahead of looking at the specific technicalities.
Some of my customers need to be sent a form that's quite heavily regulated by federal laws; while I'm compliant on nearly all fronts, the one outlier is that the form needs to include a date-of-issue on it. The date needs to reflect that date that we've sent that form to the customer, as that's then used to determine things like their due date for returning it, as well as showing our compliance with the legal time frames of sending it to the customer.
The form is issued to these customers as an attachment to an email. The system we use to email our customers draws attachments from a database of files, but most of these are static documents that don't need a change (and I've checked with my legal team - it's the form itself that needs to have the date, we can't just use the send-date of the email, which would make my life a lot easier)
So my question is basically this:
- Is there a function within acrobat that allows the configuration of a pdf to have a date that automatically configures itself to [today's date] on a particular event, like being attached to an email via an automated process?
In my perfect little utopian world, I'm thinking that a pdf could have a script configured in it that recognises it's being attached to an email, goes "record today's date in this field" and then all my woes are sorted, but I feel like I'm chasing a pipe-dream there.
Appreciate any insights you might have, even if that's a very derisive 'no, that's not possible ya dummy'
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Hi,
I don't think there is a way for the PDF to know it has been attached to a mail. but with a little re think we might be able to do something else.
Depending on the operating system would change how it is implemented, but you could use Interapplication comminication to connect to acrobat to change (add the date) and then save the file to a location, then attach this file to the email system, although it would require a changein your workflow and the possible creation of a new solution that would need to be maintained and learned, but I believe it could solve the problem.
Idea for the workflow :
User clicks go on new tool
selects PDF
PDF opened automatically in Acrobat
Date added to correct location
PDF Saved
PDF attached to new email
email sent as before
If you can provide details of the operating system you are using and the version of Acrobat you have available we may be able to help you, although this is not a small ask.

