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Inspiring
September 27, 2023
Question

Cropping pages using a hotkey

  • September 27, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1148 views

I produce PDFs where I work that have both A- and B-size pages (i.e., letter and tabloid). When we first produce the PDF, all pages are B-size. We have to go through and crop A-size pages to 8.5" from the right. I'd like to be able to just press a hotkey that would crop a single page or set of selected pages to 8.5" without going through the Crop Pages dialog. I've tried creating a Custom Action to do this but there's no option for selected pages; it only allows a specific page, page range, or all pages to be cropped. It also has no options to assign a hotkey. We have Evermap, so that's available to us if that's a good option to create this tool.

 

I would be thrilled if we could create a tool that would crop the pages automatically. The right hand side of pages that need to be cropped have no content whatsoever. If there was a tool that could detect that and crop the page to 8.5" from the right automatically, that would be a massive bonus. But I'd be happy with having a hotkey and doing it as I requested above.

 

I have little experience with scripting, so I can't create one of my own. I'd be happy with whatever method (JavaScript, Action Wizard, etc.) is needed to achieve this. Thanks for any help.

1 reply

Thom Parker
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 27, 2023

Cropping is just changing the page box. You could write a custom action script (or custom command script) to do this.

Read this article:

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/PDF-Page-Coordinates.cfm

 

You'll also find a free "Resize Pages" tool here:

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/Free_Acrobat_Automation_Tools.cfm

 

 

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
MattS156Author
Inspiring
September 27, 2023

Thanks, but I don't have the skills to write my own script. I tried the Resize Pages tool, but it seems to function much the same way as the Crop tool in Acrobat. What I'm really hoping to do is to be able to select certain pages and either use a keystroke or a toolbar button that will immediately crop the selection to 8.5" on the right. The goal is to avoid opening the Crop tool, typing or pasting 8.5 into the Right field, and clicking OK. 

Thom Parker
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 28, 2023

This can be done. Consider hireing a developer.

 

 

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