Creating a button to merge data files into Excel

[jlehane]

I've got a fillable booking form and I'd like to add a button to take my client directly to the merge data files to spreadsheet pop up to save her having to remember how to get there.

Is this possible?

[Thom Parker]

The answer is yes and no

That functionality is activated from a menu item. In fact, there are two menu items for merging form data. One of them is part of the form distribution functionality and uses a PDF to collect form data. 

Here are the menu items:

"AcroForm:Advanced_CreateSpreadsheet"
"AcroForm:Forms_CompileFormData"

These menu items are only available in Acrobat Pro and cannot be run from a script in a PDF unless one of two things are done. 

1. The User as added the menu item to the menu item whitelist. 

2. The PDF is marked as privileged. This can also be done in several ways. 

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/Trust-and-Privilege-in-Acrobat-Scripts.cfm

But the simplest method is to add the PDF to the list of trusted locations in the "Security(enhanced)" category of the Acrobat Preferences.