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Populate pdf fields using vba

New Here ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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I'm trying to fill in an existing PDF file fields using access VBA by the code below. "User Name:" is one field on my pdf. I'm trying to enter a value to this field. When I run this with an appropriate file path it gives me an error saying: Run-time error '424': Object required.   The Adobe file version is Adobe Acrobat XI Pro.

Private Sub Adobefill_Click()

Dim FileNm, gApp, avDoc, pdDoc, jso

FileNm = "C:\projects\test\"

Set gApp = CreateObject("AcroExch.app")

Set avDoc = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")

If avDoc.Open(FileNm, "") Then

    Set pdDoc = avDoc.GetPDDoc()

    Set jso = pdDoc.GetJSObject

    jso.getfield("User Name:").Value = "[user name redacted by moderator by request]"      '<-------- I get an error here

    pdDoc.Save PDSaveIncremental, FileNm 'Save changes to the PDF document

    pdDoc.Close

End If

'Close the PDF; the True parameter prevents the Save As dialog from showing

  1. avDoc.Close (True)

'Some cleaning

Set gApp = Nothing

Set avDoc = Nothing

Set pdDoc = Nothing

Set jso = Nothing

End Sub

TOPICS
Acrobat SDK and JavaScript

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Community Expert ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Step through your code and make sure that you have a iso object. If that's the case, then the reason for the error is very likely that your document does not have a field named "User Name:" - make sure that you spell the field name exactly the same way as it is spelled in the PDF form.

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New Here ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Thank you for responding. I stepped through the code and that's how i got to know where the error is occuring. So if you don't mind how and where do i add the iso object?

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Community Expert ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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The way you are doing it should work: You first get the AV doc, from that you get the PD doc, and from that you get the JSO. If the file is not being opened correctly, then you won't have an AVDoc, which means that the call to getPDDoc will also not return anything. You need to figure out where you are not getting the correct information. You know that at the point you want to use the JSO, it's not valid, but you need to work backwards to find out where things start to go wrong.

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LEGEND ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Does your field name actually include the colon “:”? That’s pretty unusual.

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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A field name CANNOT contain a ‘:’ – it’s forbidden by the PDF spec.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Leonard, you may want to tell that to the Acrobat team

The only time I usually see colons in a form field names is with forms that were created by Acrobat when it tried to identify form fields automatically, and then used whatever was in front of the assumed field as it's name (e.g. "User Name:"), including any colons.

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New Here ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Can you also help me with the code on how to select a value in a drop down menu or (Comobox) in the pdf? 

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Community Expert ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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You do that the same way as with a text field. Just make sure that the value you pass in is actually an available option in your drop down control.

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New Here ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Yup got it. Thanks!

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New Here ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Yes. It is ordered in this manner. The username is read only I cannot edit that.

User Name:            (blank field to enter data)

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LEGEND ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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The name of a field, and the label next to it, are not connected. Check the field name again. If you have managed to enter it with a colon, fix that.

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New Here ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Hi all,

It worked! I put it the exact field name and it worked. Thanks for all the help.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 26, 2018 Jul 26, 2018

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Look for the name of the blank field.

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New Here ,
Oct 03, 2018 Oct 03, 2018

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I need to populate pdf fields using vba code and the code works perfectly for me in my home computer where I have installed Acrobat Pro version. But when I run the application to my workplace it doesn't work because I have adobe reader  installed there and I have no access to install anything there as a client machine. They have Office 365 installed and therefore I can run VBA but it doesn't work because Acrobat Pro is not available there. Is there any way to do the same task for Adobe reader or any possible solution to run the some application written at my home there?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 03, 2018 Oct 03, 2018

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You need Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro.

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New Here ,
Oct 04, 2018 Oct 04, 2018

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I found there only AcroPDF.dll. Nothing else. So there is literally no way to access pdf fields without installing Standard or Pro version?

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LEGEND ,
Oct 04, 2018 Oct 04, 2018

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Adobe put there developer tools into the paid for software, and leave them out of the free software - because they are a marketing tool.

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New Here ,
Jul 22, 2021 Jul 22, 2021

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Karl, I've read several of your responses to the Auto Populate PDF files via VBA. First, thank you for your help. You are one of the only resources I've found on the topic. If there's any chance you still read comments here, I wanted to link my question.

Excel: 2016, 64 bit

OS: Windows 10

Adobe: Acrobat PRO DC

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Previous attempt to accomplish this task:

I similarly have an excel file (.xlsm) running a VBA macro that uses columns E through AO, rows 4 through 14, to auto populate fillable fields throughout a 10 page PDF document, save the document, clear the form, and then begin filling in a brand new template (identical to the first) form using the second row (row 6) in excel, and so on.

However, this macro relied on senkeys and, while it worked perfectly on the first form all the way to saving it correctly and uploading to the correct folder, every following PDF would fill in inconsistently.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Current attempt to accomplish this task:

I am now attempting to use the method that you have advised on here and in other posts and fill in form in by refferring to the PDF's field names and inserting the appropriate cell in excel (I have downloaded and pasted them to Sheet2 of my workbook). I am having trouble simply opening up the pdf, however, using the following code as you can see below:

When running the code pasted below, I receive the following message when it tries to open Adobe:

"There was an error opening this document. Access denied."

defaultcd0f472yej4s_0-1627010681967.png

 

I downloaded the library using your directions in another post and made sure to reference everything in Excel as can be seen in the two images below:

 

Library Download:

defaultcd0f472yej4s_3-1627010896426.png

References:

defaultcd0f472yej4s_2-1627010880392.png

 

Current VBA Code: (My actual code includes the correct file path "C:\Users\......")

 

Option Explicit
Option Private Module

Sub OpenPDFPageView()

 

     'By Christos Samaras
    'In order to use the macro you must enable the Acrobat library from VBA editor:
    'Go to Tools -> References -> Adobe Acrobat xx.0 Type Library, where xx depends
    'on your Acrobat Professional version (i.e. 9.0 or 10.0) you have installed to your PC.
    'Alternatively you can find it Tools -> References -> Browse and check for the path
    'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat xx.0\Acrobat\acrobat.tlb
    'where xx is your Acrobat version (i.e. 9.0 or 10.0 etc.).
 

Dim PDFApp As AcroApp
Dim PDFDoc As AcroAVDoc
Dim pdDoc As Acrobat.CAcroPDDoc
Dim PDFPageView As AcroAVPageView
Dim PDFPath As String
Dim DisplayPage As Integer

Dim jso As Object

    'Change this to your own complete PDF path
    'Full path example
    'PDFPath = ""
    'For Word
    'PDFPath = ThisDocument.Path & "\" & "PDF Sample.pdf"
    'For Power Point
    'PDFPath = ActivePresentation.Path & "\" & "PDF Sample.pdf"
    'For Excel
PDFPath = "C:\Users\First Last Name\OneDrive\Folder\Folder Folder\Folder & Folder\Name"
 
    'Set the page you want to be displayed

DisplayPage = 1

   'Initialize Acrobat by creating App object
Set PDFApp = CreateObject("AcroExch.App")

    'Set AVDoc object
Set PDFDoc = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")

   'Set PDDoc object
Set pdDoc = CreateObject("AcroExch.PDDoc")

   'Open the PDF
If PDFDoc.Open(PDFPath, "") = True And pdDoc.Open(PDFPath) = True Then
PDFDoc.BringToFront

   'Maximize the document
Call PDFDoc.Maximize(True)

Set PDFPageView = PDFDoc.GetAVPageView()

    'Go to the desired page
    'The first page is 0
Call PDFPageView.GoTo(DisplayPage - 1)

'-------------
'ZOOM options
'-------------
'0 = AVZoomNoVary
'1 = AVZoomFitPage
'2 = AVZoomFitWidth
'3 = AVZoomFitHeight
'4 = AVZoomFitVisibleWidth
'5 = AVZoomPreferred

'Set the page view of the pdf
Call PDFPageView.ZoomTo(2, 50)

Set jso = pdDoc.GetJSObject
If Not jso Is Nothing Then
jso.Getfield("Offer Date").Value = "test"
End If
End If

Set PDFApp = Nothing
Set PDFDoc = Nothing
Set pdDoc = Nothing

On Error Resume Next

'Show the adobe application
PDFApp.Show

'Set the focus to adobe acrobat pro
AppActivate "Adobe Acrobat Pro"

End Sub

 

If you have any advice on what I'm doing wrong, I'd immensely appreciate it. Thank you so much for all of your help. You're the best!

Thomas.

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