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CJ534
Participant
December 10, 2018
Question

How can we find and mass convert Flash Player dependent PDF portfolios?

  • December 10, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 772 views

Hello Everyone,

Flash Player will soon no longer be supported, so my organization is removing it from our systems. Once that occurs, we will no longer be able to open PDF portfolios that are dependent on Flash Player (all portfolios created in Adobe Acrobat versions before the current DC version). Therefore, we are looking for a way to convert all our Flash Player dependent portfolios into portfolios that don't require Flash Player, like those produced using Adobe Acrobat DC.

There are two primary difficulties:

The first difficulty is how to remove the Flash Player dependence from old PDF portfolios. Since we still currently have Flash Player, it is possible to open the Flash dependent portfolio, save the component documents, and then recombine them with Acrobat DC. However, while that process for a single portfolio doesn’t take very long, using it individually on tens of thousands of portfolios would be a long process.

Is there a way to remove the Flash Player dependency from many PDF portfolios at once?

Ideally, we still want the files in portfolio format, but we want them to no longer rely on Flash Player (like portfolios created using Adobe Acrobat DC).

The second difficulty is finding the Flash Player dependent portfolios. My organization uses IBM FileNet for file storage. For file type, FileNet only shows that a file is a PDF. It doesn't seem to differentiate portfolios from normal PDFs.

Is there a way, in general or specifically in IBM FileNet, to quickly know if a PDF file is a portfolio without opening it?

Of course one could open every PDF file to check if it is a portfolio, but that would be a slow, arduous process.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

-CJ

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
December 10, 2018

This might be possible, but Acrobat is not the right tool for the job. I would do it in a (custom-made) stand-alone application.

If you're interested in hiring someone to develop such a tool for you feel free to contacting me privately (try6767 at gmail.com) to discuss it further. I have had some experience with working with PDF Portfolios in various ways using such tools and I think it should be feasible, both identifying the Flash-dependent ones and converting them to "normal" portfolios.

    C
    CJ534Author
    Participant
    December 12, 2018

    Hello try67,

    Thank you for offering your assistance. We will definitely keep you in mind if we decide to go with a custom-made tool.

    However, are there any standard, non-custom tools that can meet our needs? If there is not one tool that can do everything we need, we are also open to using multiple tools. For example, one tool to identify Flash-dependent PDF portfolios and another tool to convert them to non-Flash dependent portfolios. In addition, if converting Flash-dependent portfolios into non-Flash-dependent portfolios is not viable, we would also be willing to consider tools that could convert the Flash-dependent portfolios into another usable form. For example, if the tool could turn the Flash-dependent portfolios into standard PDFs (by combining all the component files into one PDF) that could also work. We would prefer that the files remain in portfolio form, but it is more important that the files remain accessible after the end of Flash Player and that we are able to covert the files in a time and labor efficient manner.

    Since any PDF portfolios created on Acrobat versions before DC are Flash Player dependent, I imagine there must be many organizations facing this same situation. One would think that there should be standard tools available to help organizations prepare their files for the end of Flash Player.

    Thank you for all your help,

    CJ

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