Automate the Combine command

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

Acrobat Pro DC

I have several hundred PDF files, and I have to combine groups of 4 files to a common PDF.

Is it possible to combine these groups of 4 PDF files into single PDFs with an action or something like that?

Otherwise I have to do this manually. It will not kill me, but I would prefer not to spend a few hours and get this done.

I expect to do this once or twice a year.

Thank you very much for your help!

Best regards

Winfried

[try67]

Yes, it's possible, but the script would need to know which files to combine. Is there some logic behind that?

[Winfried Reng]

Each file name just has some static text, an ID for the language and an order number.

I guess it would be difficult to write a script for this. At least for me 😉

[try67]

If there's no pattern behind which files to merge it would be impossible to script it.

[Winfried Reng]

Yes. That's what I have thought. Thank you very much for your infos!

[Bernd Alheit]

How does you select the 4 documents?

[Winfried Reng]

In my file manager I select 4 files and right-click and select "Combine files in Acrobat".

[Bernd Alheit]

How does you see which files belongs together?

[Winfried Reng]

That's simple. The same order number and 4 language IDs.

[try67]

Well, that is a pattern... What are the file names?

[Winfried Reng]

I can manipulate the file names as I want. (I use Total Commander, and it allows to change the file names of very many file names with regular expressions.) Only the file name of the combined file has constraints. However, I can change this later.

As the file names will be converted to bookmarks, I will probably choose something like order number_language, e.g.:

123.567, English.pdf

123.567, French.pdf

123.567, German.pdf

123.567, Italian.pdf

I would prefer to have German on the second place, but the default order in Acrobat is alphabetical.

[try67]

Well, if you do it with a script then it doesn't create bookmarks by default, and it doesn't necessarily do it in alphabetical order, either (although you can set it to do both).

If the files you want to merge all share the same prefix, followed by a known delimiter (like a comma or an underscore), then by some text, then it should be possible to do it using a combination of a script and an Action.

It's not the most simple task, but it is possible.

If you're interested in hiring someone to develop it for you (for a fee, of course), feel free to contact me privately via [try6767 at gmail.com] to discuss it further.

[Winfried Reng]

Thank you very much! I will contact you via e-mail.