Extract Pages from PDF

[Paul Hollyer]

Hi,

We have the full Creative Cloud account and have updated to Acrobat DC.

Mac OSX 10.10

(Why on earth did you have to go and change where everything is?)

My question is as follows:

My staff need to extract pages from PDF's and store the pages as individual files - previously, they could extract a page and re-name the file in one simple action - now all they can do is to select the folder and save the file with the default filename decided by Acrobat. They then have to go back into the filesystem, in order to rename the file.

Their workflow has just been increased no end.

Is there any way to extract a page and save with a custom filename - all in one action?

Thanks

[AadeshSingh]

Hi Paul Hollyer,

I can understand your concern & will guide you in the right direction.

1) Open the PDF in Acrobat DC & select 'Organize Pages' from Tools Pane on the left.

2) Select the Pages you want to extract, Click on the 'Extract' option on the top, then click on 'Extract' option from the below field.

3) Extracted pages will open in a new file, click on thew Floppy symbol. It will ask you the path where you want to save the file. Please choose the path.

4) Now enter the file name for the extracted pages.

I hope this will resolve your issue.

In case if you still experience any issue, please let us know. We  will be more than happy to help you.

Regards,

Aadesh

[Paul Hollyer]

Thank you for the offer of help, however:

You're on Windows, my post said I'm on OS X  - and Adobe have consistently fallen short when porting their Windows offerings to OS X.

We have different dialog boxes to you on Windows, and Adobe haven't provided any way to choose the filename AFAIK - all you can select is a folder.

[lrosenth]

Paul – Acrobat is 100% cross-platform and the UX that you saw is the same up to the Save dialog. And on the Mac, you get a standard “Save a File” dialog. Here is mine from 10.10.3 …

http://drops.pdfsages.com/Gukp

[Paul Hollyer]

Well, all I get is an option to select the folder, here's mine from 10.10.2:

[stevew97311987]

nope.  jumps me to a selling page called 'do more with PDFs'

[Bernd Alheit]

You use Acrobat Reader. Do extract pages you must purchase Adobe Acrobat.

‌

[emermen123]

Hi,

I have a full CC subscription, and I am taken to a page where it prompts me to purchase a subscription to either Standard or Pro Acrobat. I am logged in (or I wouldn't be able to make this comment) and I can use some of the tools without being prompted to buy, but I cannot get past the purchase screen when I click "Organize Pages."

emermen

[Bernd Alheit]

Did you install Adobe Acrobat?‌

[emermen123]

Yes, I installed Acrobat DC and use it. I can use some of the tools, such

as Export, but I can't use Organize Pages. I know how it is supposed to

work, as I use it on my home computer.

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 2:46 PM, Bernd Alheit <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Bernd Alheit]

What can you see as title of the window?‌

[lrosenth · Accepted solution]

While I certainly recommend the method that Aadesh suggests, you can always do it EXACTLY as you used to in previous versions using the Thumbnails panel, right clicking, etc. 

I will point out one of my favorite features in the new Organize Pages tool is that you can now TYPE IN ANY page range descriptor to have that range automatically selected prior to extraction/deletion, etc.   Try typing in things like "1-4,6-10" or "1, 3, 4, 6", etc.

[Paul Hollyer]

lrosenth‌

Really? EXACTLY the same as in previous versions?

I don't think so. Please try right clicking a thumbnail on a MAC, not Windows, then select the 'Extract Pages' option from the menu: all you get is the Extract toolbar, it's no different to clicking on Extract in the main toolbar - well it is different, you have to right click then left click, so it's actually more work than just clicking on Extract in the main toolbar.

And to confirm: All you get on OS X is an option to select a FOLDER, not a FILENAME.

Can someone in the know, confirm whether or not, ON OS X, it is possible to extract a single page from a multi-page PDF,  and save it with a customised filename all in one process - like I used to be able to do with Acrobat Pro.

I've also now found a printing bug which is a complete showstopper for me and my staff - I'll post that in another thread, but suffice to say if this printing bug can be solved I'll be cancelling by subscription because all Acrobat DC seems to do is to create more work, not less.

[lrosenth]

Yes, EXACTLY!

I just opened Acrobat DC on my 10.10.3 system (which is my main machine) and then opened a multi-page PDF

I then opened the Thumbnails panel from the left hand panel

I then selected one page and left-clicked on it. Chose “Extract Pages”

I received the same small model dialog that all previous versions of Acrobat present - http://drops.pdfsages.com/wtBR

This creates a new document with that single page in it

I then do File->Save (cmd-S)

And I get the new Save dialog.

I pick either an existing folder OR “Choose a different folder”

I get a standard Save As dialog and name my file

All good!

[Paul Hollyer]

OK, so I've found the Thumbnails panel hidden away on the left, and sorted it.

I think the confusion was the original post suggesting to use the Organise Pages link (which kinda makes sense as the place to go) rather than pointing me to the Thumbnails panel, hidden away.

It's still (feels like) more work to achieve the same result in DC than in Pro.

[lrosenth]

Organize Pages is definitely where we’d rather you go. It gives you all sorts of improved functionality over the old Thumbnail panel.

AND, it takes LESS clicks to extract a page in DC as it does in XI – but it’s now more intuitive.

DC

• Click Organize Pages

• Click page to extract

• Click extract button

XI

• Click Thumbnails icon on left

• Right-Click page to extract

• Move mouse to “Extract” menu item

• Click OK to dialog box (making you duplicate the info you just entered)

[Paul Hollyer]

lrosenth wrote:

Organize Pages is definitely where we’d rather you go.  It gives you all sorts of improved functionality over the old Thumbnail panel.

AND, it takes LESS clicks to extract a page in DC as it does in XI – but it’s now more intuitive.

DC

•   Click Organize Pages

•   Click page to extract

•   Click extract button

XI

•   Click Thumbnails icon on left

•   Right-Click page to extract

•   Move mouse to “Extract” menu item

•   Click OK to dialog box (making you duplicate the info you just entered)

And there lies the problem.

The procedure you outlined above in DC, PREVENTS me from also selecting the filename on OS X. Therefore, it DOES NOT, take LESS clicks to achieve the same result, it takes MORE.

In XI I could click the 'Extract Page' button on the toolbar, from there I could use the keyboard (No mouse required) to select the folder and filename.

I'm not shouting, just extremely peeved by the way you are attempting to 'sell' a feature that is anything but.

YOU CAN'T DO THE SAME THING IN DC IN THE SAME OR FEWER KEYBOARD STROKES AS YOU CAN IN XI. Your comment above proves it.

I've never used the Thumbnails icon or list, just used the buttons on the toolbar.....

How is it more intuitive to have to go back into Finder, find the file, and then rename it. Following your suggestions above results in my screenshot in my previous post - hence I can't rename the file - which was my ORIGINAL question, so why post an 'answer' that does nor resolve the original question?

[lrosenth]

Paul – I don’t know what you are doing that is bringing up a folder selection dialog. Perhaps you can record a video or I can watch you in a screen share – but no one else is seeing that. We all see a file selector when we click on Choose a Different Folder (or any of the folder choices in that dialog). Here is a video that I recorded of my doing it - http://drops.pdfsages.com/CCgb. What is different for you?

While I am clicking with the mouse in the video – you can also use the keyboard if you wish. We fully support keyboard navigation in our dialogs.

The Extract button is not on the toolbar by default – so you must have customized your copy of Acrobat XI to put it there. You can, of course, do the same thing with Acrobat DC. You can customize it in the same way (by customizing the QuickTools) and adding the Extract button to toolbar which will take you right to the Organize Pages ready to extract (either via keyboard or mouse).

[Paul Hollyer]

OK, I think I've found the difference in the procedures we are both following.

Yes I customised the toolbars in the office, but I wasn't expecting the same buttons to produce [what appears to be] different results.

In XI, I always selected 'Extract pages as separate files' in the pop up Dialog. I have been checking the checkbox 'Extract pages as separate files' after clicking Extract for the first time in DC (it's what I used to do so why would it be different?). If you check this checkbox, you should, hopefully, see the same that I have been seeing - namely a folder selector.

NOT, checking that checkbox provides me with the ability to Shift CMD 'S' to save the file and set the filename.

So you need to decide on the point of the checkbox it seems to me, because at the moment, anyone using DC, that checked that box before in XI, is going to have a surprise....

Thanks for the [long winded] clarification.

[lrosenth]

OK – great – now we’re getting somewhere!!

I just did the same thing – clicking “Extract Pages as separate files” in both XI and DC – and in BOTH CASES I was then put into a “choose a folder” dialog. So now we’re seeing the same thing…but it’s the same in both XI and DC. So now I am confused where the problem is.

And in both XI and DC, if I do not check that box, then I get a new PDF that I can Cmd-S (or cmd-shift-S) to save the file with a new name. I assume you are seeing that in both cases as well, yes.

So – where is the difference?

(and thanks for working through this with me)

[Paul Hollyer]

Hmmmmm, I don't have XI anymore, and not in the office.

I'll have another look tomorrow and let you know.

Regardless tho', if checking 'Extract pages as separator files' causes a folder save dialog, rather than a file save dialog - is that not counter-intuitive? If I'm extracting something as a separate file, then I would expect to have control over the filename, wouldn't you?

[lrosenth]

That checkbox means that you want each page that you’ve selected (assumably more than one) to be extracted as indiviudual files rather than a single file. In order words, if I select pages 1-3, do I get three PDFs or just 1.

The reason you get the folder dialog is so we can put all these newly created PDFs into a single folder (perhaps a new one) so as not to clutter things up. Yes, we should probably add some “file naming options” - but they aren’t there today (and weren’t there in X).

[Paul Hollyer]

Ok.

Sorry for the delay in replying, have been busy serving my own customers.

It appears that I was using DC differently to X, so I apologise for the wild goose chase. At least I've made the mistakes before handing over to my handful of staff.

However, I must say that I prefer the alert dialogs that appeared in previous versions because they were simple to tab through, and change the options. This meant we all (specifically myself) got into the habit of clicking on the extract page button, then tabbing through the alert dialog without needing to think about what we were doing because it was the same process for every extracted page(s).

Unfortunately, I think this has meant I selected different options when using DC because I wasn't actually thinking about what I was doing.

Thanks for the help and the patience.

[anewoldt1]

I don't think Adobe staff is really reading this through or understanding the problem which is not at all surprising. I resolved it by right clicking on the page (or pages) I wanted to extract, going to 'print' and then print to 'Adobe PDF.' So, I'm essentially printing a PDF to another PDF...super redundant and silly. However, that gives you the option to not only select a folder but also name the file whatever you want. 

[Shane3]

Did you get any answer on how to change the naming system of the extracted PDF?

I have a multipage PDF that needs to be uploaded to a server but all teh pages need to have the page number BEFORE the file name. The old Acrobat gave you an option to place the numbering before the file name, this new DC version seams to only allow the numbering to happen after teh file name, can anyone help me? renaming all the files manually would take hours.

Personally Acrobat X was far better than Acrobat DC, I'm actually yet to find a single "improvement" that has helped my work flow.