Bates Numbering Compatibility

Report · Jun 03, 2016

I work for a company who is trying to automatically number our quotes every time we open a new pdf. Bates numbering seems to fit our needs but some of our employees have Adobe DC Standard and some have Adobe DC Pro. Would this cause a problem in the automated numbering system or will it work as long as we put the original numbering system in the base PDF that people will be working off of?

Report · Jun 03, 2016

If you want unique and sequential numbers on your quotes, and these quotes are generated by different people of different computers, then Bates numbering is not the right approach (unless you want to do this manually, but there are other, and potentially simpler ways to do that - especially when Acrobat Standard is involved).

To build a reliable system, the number has to be generated on one dedicated system (the "server"), and the individual workstations would request a new number from the server. If everybody is using Acrobat (and not the free Reader), you can use e.g. SOAP functionality. The SOAP interface is built into Acrobat's JavaScript system, so you would need to build a SOAP server that can create unique and sequential numbers.

Report · Jun 03, 2016

Thank you so much for your response. Is this something that I can set up from my computer or something that I should approach an IT department about to create this server

Report · Jun 03, 2016

You would need two parts to the solution: One needs to be set up on the server (that is the routine that creates the numbers on request - and potentially logs who created what number on what day and time). The other part is developing the JavaScript that you would install on every computer that needs to use this functionality, and the script inside the PDF document that would request such a number (and then fill in e.g. a form field). Chances are that your IT department has no experience in creating JavaScripts for Acrobat (they may have expertise in creating JavaScript for a web environment, but Acrobat is a different environment).

You basically have two options: You can either do this yourself - or your IT department can do this (after potentially learning about Acrobat's JavaScript environment), or you can hire somebody to do Acrobat/PDF side of this project for you. If you decide to tackle this yourself, you may want to continue this discussion in the "JavaScript" forum: JavaScript

If you decide to let somebody else develop this for you, some of the Forum regulars do custom software development (I would be one of them). You can usually tell by their profile page (just click on their user name or their picture).