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Hi experts,
I am working with a p&id pdf file (looks something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piping_and_instrumentation_diagram#/media/File:P&ID.JPG )
I have to accomplish following with the pdf:
1. Find multiple text strings in the pdf in one step;
2. Get coordinates of the found text (if this is important for step 3)
3. Highlight found text areas (based on coordinates or without coordinates);
4. Possibly annotate the areas to add more context, through some script (not individual manual annotation)
5. Generate a weblink for each area so that I can embed that link in external webpage; and clicking the link will get me to the exact highlighted area of the pdf.
Please let me kow if pdf supports such function. If it is not possible in pdf directly, please point me to tools which cna do it. Thankin advance.
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#1-4 can be done in Acrobat Pro, using an Action and a custom-made script. It can also be done using an external tool, if needed.
#5 is much trickier. Basically I would say it's not possible to do it in a way that will work consistently.
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Thanks you so much for your response. For #1-4, I hope all actions are automated (so that I don't need to point and click). Could you please provide some tutorial or link to those actions?
For #5 Is it it not possible to generate a hyperlink address for a selected area (or text for that matter) in the pdf? So that some external application can use that link to point the users to that location in the pdf?
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1-4). It won't be fully automated if done in Acrobat. You would still have to open the application, select Tools - Action Wizard and then run the Action on your files. You would also need to edit the list of string to look for, if it's not always the same one.
5) While the PDF Open Parameters do allow it, it will only work if the file is opened inside the browser, and only using the Adobe plugin. If it's not then it won't work, so it's up to you whether to take that risk...
Also, you didn't specify what should be done with these URLs, once generated. Acrobat is very limited in these things.
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Hi, for 4, could you please point me to some specific action or tool which achieves this? 1 and 3 I did with an action of highlighting and searching text.
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Like I said, you will need to use a script. The function that creates new comments is called addAnnot.
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1, 2, 3 & 4
Search for the "Find, Highlight, and Extract Words" freely downloadable Action on this page:
https://acrobatusers.com/actions-exchange/
5 : Maybe you should export the generated comments in a FDF or XFDF file, it depends on your specific needs.