Automate The Conversion of Word Mail Merge Doc into PDF Fillable Form

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
October 30, 2019
2 replies
3125 views

I am new to Adobe Pro.

Every day, I create a unique Word Mail Merge document specific to a dataset for that date. The final document has 2 - 3 records on each page and is printed out to provide a form for staff to complete and have the customer sign.

We are trying to go paperless, and would like to convert these mail merge documents into interactive forms on a tablet. Although new to this application, I think I'll be able to create such manually.

Is it possible to automate the conversion of the mail merge Word document into the PDF fillable form. To do this manually each day for up to 200 records would not be practical.

If its possible, perhaps someone is able to suggest some online resources to consult, or some appropriate search terms.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Thom Parker

Community Expert

If there is some regularity to the template fields, then they can be detected by a script. Try67 mentioned location, but if there are other clues, such as keywords and approximate locations, then it may be possible to write an automation script.

And there are other possibilities. For example, performing the complete mail merge in Acrobat. Since you have a potential dynamic component that will shift the page geometry, then different parts of the document could be built separately, and then combined.

You will of course need a developer for this.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

try67

Community Expert

Will the fields always be located at the exact same location on the page? If so, then yes, it can be automated in Acrobat Pro.

However, there's another option. You can create a single editable PDF file and then do the Mail Merge directly on it, using the data from an Excel file, for example. This can be achieved using some versions of the Adobe PDFMaker plugin for Office, or by using a script in Acrobat (like this paid-for one I've developed: http://try67.blogspot.com/2011/09/acrobat-mail-merge-and-email.html)

R

robk32632290Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you Try for the encouraging reply.

[quote]Will the fields always be located at the exact same location on the page?[/quote]

Hard to answer this. The mail merge is set up as a directory. Each record occupies a standard template where all fields would be in the same spot in the template, but there may be 2-3 records on a page. So relative to the merge template yes, but page, no. Does that make sense?

I will have to Google Adobe PDF Maker Plugin and tutorials on mail merging to Adobe. I suspect that since my final merged document consists of more than one record normally, it may not be as straight forward.

I will be back if I encounter confusion.

try67

Community Expert

Yes, that makes it extra difficult, and possibly impossible to do with the built-in plugin, but a script can be created to do it.

If you're interested in hiring someone to develop it for you feel free to contact me privately via [try6767 at gmail.com].

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