Insert pages into multiple pdfs

[crisp8]

I often need to attach a receipt, email or other scanned pages to many documents at the same time. In our old pdf program there was an "Insert into files" option where I could do this really quickly and easily.

I don't see any way to do this in Acrobat other than open each file individually and add the email one at at time. This is going to take forever when I have 30-40 files to do this with.

Am I missing something?

[Thom Parker]

Acrobat Pro DC has the Action Wizard.  An "Action" (also know as  a batch process) is a series of commands that can be applied to one or more files.

Here's a short article on the topic:

http://khkonsulting.com/2015/04/create-custom-tools-in-adobe-acrobat-dc-pro/

[crisp8]

I couldn't get that to work.

I happened to have this situation come up today with only 2 files. I added those 2 files to the selection and then tried to insert another file and it said I couldn't insert a file into itself. No matter how I swapped the files around it gave me the same message. I think whatever file is selected is the one it wants to insert into, but it will only let me select one file at a time. The "selection" in the action setup doesn't seem to do anything.

[Thom Parker]

So, I think you might be getting thing mixed up. The files selected for the Action are the files that are operated on. So for the Action shown below, each file selected for the Action will perform the "Insert Pages" command. The insert pages command will display a file open dialog, where you select the file to be inserted. So these are two different things. The file being operated on (i.e. being inserted into) and the file being inserted. 

Note the I've selected the "Prompt user" checkbox. This means ask the user to enter the file to be inserted each time. You don't have to do it this way. You can edit the action to select the file to insert, then when it is run it won't display the file open dialog. 

[crisp8]

Yeah no I get that. In my test I had the 2 files I wanted to insert the file into in the "Files to be processed" area, and in the user prompt I was using the file to insert. For some reason it always thought I wanted to insert the file into iteself. I think it had something to do with the fact that there is always an open file selected and it was somehow including that in the equation even though it wasn't part of the action.

[crisp8]

Ok I tried another test where I closed everything and opened one of the files to put it into and started from there. It kind of works but it wants to open each file and make me select the placement every time and manually save the file before moving on to the next file where it may or may not do it automatically.

I just want it to be as easy as it was with the old software but I guess that's not going to happen.

[Thom Parker]

Try modifying the Action up front to use the insert file you want, and uncheck the "Prompt User".   Then the action will run without prompting you.

[crisp8]

That doesn't seem to work. It opens all the files and acts like it's doing something, but when I go back to check the file to be inserted is only in the one that was already open when I started.

I give up.

[Thom Parker]

The other way to do this is with a script, which offers a bit more control.  

I could write one for you for a small fee.  PM me if you are interested.