Copying Bookmarks from one PDF to another

[angelo7843592]

Hey guys i am new on the forum had a question, i have been researching for way to copy my bookmarks from one pdf to another. i have yet to fine a way to do so. does anyone know if and how it can be done. every week i have 25 different reports i make info pdfs and i have to bookmark them its a pain but if i can copy the bookmarks over that would be great since its the same set of pages just updated information.

[try67]

I've developed a script that allows you to generate a bookmarks tree from a text file.

You can find it here: Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Create Bookmarks from File

[angelo7843592]

will the script take bookmarks i made already store them into the text file for later use?

[try67]

Not currently, but it's certainly a good idea. However, it's somewhat limited because it can only identify "go to page"-type links.

If you want to discuss it further please send me an email.

[Thom Parker]

You should look at 3rd party tools that automatically create bookmarks, such as those offered here: Software Solutions for Adobe® Acrobat®

The problem with bookmarks is that they are connected to actual page in a PDF, so they can't be transferred. To be created there has to be some kind of consistent pattern that can be used indicate which bookmark is attached to which page.

[angelo7843592]

yes so far looking at 3rd party apps is the answer some are very expensive. i have found two that copy the bookmarks exact in case needs to do just that. You merely export then import the bookmarks. they both have trials to test.

1) Debenu PDF Aerialist

2) PDF-XChange

[Thom Parker]

There you go!  Both those tools do many more things as well. I have PDF XChange and it fills in a lot of holes left by Acrobat. And it implements the Acrobat JavaScript Dialog object, which is pretty impressive. I didn't know about the bookmark copy, so thanks for the info

[JR Boulay · Accepted solution]

Open the old file containing bookmarks, open the thumbnails panel and use "Replace (all) Pages" by importing the new document.

And save as.

"Replace Pages" only replaces the layout (optimized pages) and leaves everything else untouched (hyperlinks, comments, form fields, metadata, etc.).

[JR Boulay · Accepted solution]

Open the old file containing bookmarks, open the thumbnails panel and use "Replace (all) Pages" by importing the new document.

And save as.

"Replace Pages" only replaces the layout (optimized pages) and leaves everything else untouched (hyperlinks, comments, form fields, metadata, etc.).

[Roxane24441233f19c]

This worked great for using the same bookmarks for a new pdf. Thanks!

And Adobe really should make it easier to convert the list of bookmarks into text so that it can be used as a table of contents for hard copies

. 

[flentd]

@JR Boulay You are the Real V.I.P for this. Thank you sir

[deborahl66932826]

This worked perfectly! THANKS!

[Belen32642469nf38]

This solution was perfect and simple, thank you!

[Matthew32921502v1ad]

Genius!

[Jed5D11]

Excellent workaround! And kudos for the non-linear out of the box thinking. 

[jeffm28794645]

Thanks! This worked great...

[AbdouSayyid]

The answer of JR Boulary is very good and practical, but pay attention:

You need to have a copy of the original file which contains the "Bookmarks" because the pages of the new file will be existing instead of the original file pages, means you will lose the original file pages.

[JR Boulay]

Of course, you must work on a copy or do a Save As after replacing the pages.

[Noel_21]

Free third party software like Handyoutliner was very easy to use. It has a visual interface and no cmd or anything is required. I tried PDFtk to no success as it was way too complicated.

1. Download handyoutliner from https://sourceforge.net/projects/handyoutlinerfo/
2. Extract the zip and run HandyOutliner
3. Select the file from which you want to use bookmarks as source. As soon as you select it an xml file is created with your bookmarks
4. Then select the xml file as your source (Probably will be selected automatically)
5. Select target document and click "Write outline"

You are done. So easy.