Programmatically adding red box around a two digit number

[Glenn Byerly]

I have a pdf document with a graph containing a line of two digit values (17 of them), e.g.,

     74  63  59  72  ...

I have written a program that checks each value against a specified value to determine if the displayed calue is greater than the specified one.  If it is, I need to draw a red box arouund the displayed value to indicate it exceeds the specified one.  If not possible, I need some way to indicate the exceptions, e.g., changing the font color for that displayed value.  VBA, Javascript, or a language suggested by you are all acceptable.

[PDF Automation Station]

Are the values in form fields?

[Glenn Byerly]

No

[PDF Automation Station]

Use the comment markup "Square" tool and draw a box.  Then, name the annotation by selecting it and running the following script in the console (name example is "Square1"):

this.selectedAnnots[0].name="Square1";

Also, make it "readonly" so that it can't be resized, moved, or deleted by the end user by running the following script in the console:

this.selectedAnnots[0].readOnly=true;

Also, add the display value to it's contents like this:

this.selectedAnnots[0].contents="72";

Hide the annotation by running the following script in the console:

this.selectedAnnots[0].hidden=true;

Change the hidden property of the annotation to true or false in your calculation, calling it by its name like this:

var anot=this.getAnnot(0,"Square1");
if(75>Number(anot.contents))
{anot.hidden=false}
else
{anot.hidden=true}

Note, the 0 before "Square1" is the page index of the annotation (page 1 in this case).

[Glenn Byerly]

A clarification seems necessary.  All of the actions described need to be done in code.  The 17 two digit values are near the botton of an existing one page pdf file. My vba program reads the 17 values from an accompanying csv file and determines for each one if exceeds an associated known value.  A program then needs to draw a thin line red box around the offending value.  The program loops through the values until all 17 have been read and acted upon if exceeding the associated known value.  I have suuccessfullyy drawn the boxes using Word to read the pdf and draw the boxes before converting the document back to a pdf file.  However, Word sometimes alters the layout of the page slighly which forces the one page pdf to become a two page pdf. This poses problems beyond the scope of this request.

[PDF Automation Station]

You can isolate the 17 values by cropping the page.  Then read the words (values) and compare them to the known value.  Then draw the boxes around the words with a script, reverse crop the page, and flatten the PDF.

[Glenn Byerly]

As stated above, I already know which of the 17 need to have a red box drawn around them because that same data is in a csv file.  What I do not know how to do is to programmatically draw the red boxes around the correct boxes while in Acrobat rather than in Mcirosoft Word whcih often distorts the layout of the page containing the 17 valuues.

[PDF Automation Station]

It would be helpful if you upload and example.  The Acrobat document methods to use are:

getPageNthWord (reads the Nth word on a page)

getPagePageNumWords (gets the number of words on a page)

getPageNthWordQuads (gets the quads list for the Nth word on the page)

addAnnot (adds an annotation)

Here's the process:

• Loop through all the words on the page to get a match to your value.  This is why I recommend isolating the values by cropping the page.  It will speed up the results by only reading the words in the cropped area and it will prevent a match to the same word outside the area.
• Insert a highlight annotation around the word using quads for location.
• Get the rect of the highlight annotation to insert a rectangle around the word, while removing the highlight (Words have a quads property but not rect.  Highlight annotations have both quad and rect.
• Flatten the page.

function drawSquare(oDoc,pg,val)
{
for(var i=0;i<oDoc.getPageNumWords(pg);i++)
{
if(oDoc.getPageNthWord(pg,i,false).trim()==val)
{
var qd=oDoc.getPageNthWordQuads(pg,i);
var anot = oDoc.addAnnot({
page:pg,
type:"Highlight",
quads:qd
});
var rc=anot.rect;
anot.destroy();

oDoc.addAnnot({
page:pg,
type:"Square",
rect: rc,
width:0.5
});
this.flattenPages(pg,pg);
}
}
}
//call function like this:
drawSquare(this,0,"35");

In the last line, 0 is the page index number and "35" is the value to draw the box around.  If you want the red box thicker, increase the width property of the annotation from 0.5;

[Glenn Byerly]

Thank you. I will give this a try although I am not a JavaScript expert.

[PDF Automation Station]

Copy and paste the script into the console, changing only the "35" in the last line to the actual number you want to draw the box around, then run the script.  If it's not always on page 1, change the 0 in the last line to oDoc.pageNum and it will search the current page.  If you want to add the crop/reverse crop, add the crop at the beginning of the function and the reverse before flattenPages using the instructions in the this article:

https://pdfautomationstation.substack.com/p/cropping-and-reverse-cropping-pdf

To draw all the boxes, create an array of values to search for, then loop through the array and apply the function call to each array element.