Rearranging pages in Acrobat by specific keywords in the text

[pmmusiccenter]

Thanks in advance for help anyone can give. I'm trying to figure out how to rearrange pages by keywords already in the text. For example: We have a PDF with 100 invoices for band books and want to arrange them by instrument. Using the search function, I can find every place the word "Flute, or Trumpet" appears, but I'm hoping to find a way to search for "Flute" and then move those pages together to the top of the PDF. Repeating this for each instrumentation until all 100 pages are rearranged in the order we need.

The only way I know of to rearrange pages, is by selecting each thumbnail (either in the thumbnail preview bar at the side, or in the "organize pages" function) and manually moving them into place. A few searches I've done lead me to think I need to use some sort of Script? I'm still in the learning phase, and don't understand yet what that means. 

[bebarth]

Hi,

If you know the position of the word you are looking for (in a title at the top of the page for example), you can check it with a script then store the page numbers and then re-arrange the position of the pages of your document.

This is something I already did.

@+

[pmmusiccenter]

I know nothing about what JavaScritpt does, and how to use it function in Acrobat. Any reccommendations for video tutorials would be wonderful. I haven't had much luck just playing around with it in some of my practice documents. The keywords I would like to search and sort by, aren't always located in the same position on each page. Does this matter. 

Sorry in advance, my questions may be pretty basic. 

[bebarth]

So you can check all the pages where are located the word you are looking for...

Is it feasible?

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[pmmusiccenter]

Sorry, I think this is above my understanding and current capabilities. Unfortunately all the tutorial videos I've found on how use or encorporate a script in Acrobat, are YEARS old, and are demonstrated on very old versions of Acrobat. I'm really starting from zero here. Thanks so much for trying to help me, I apparantly need to learn A LOT more. 

[Thom Parker]

Scripting on Acrobat hasn't changed in Years. Only the UI buttons have moved around. 

[Nirvana87$]

Hi, I am currently trying to redorder pages based on names found within each page so I can alphabetize my document. I wrote a script that can find the word I am looking for and it stores the word and page number in an array of objects. I can see the my search and sort has been successful when console.println my new array. however, using the this.movePage function to move the actual pages based off of my alphabetized array has proven tricky since the page numbers are dynamic and moving one reorders the current document. Do you have a better suggestion on how to move the pages successfully? TLDR: I have an array sorted how I want my document sorted but can not successfully move the pages using the script I wrote.

[Thom Parker]

Creating scripts to finding words on a page, and then rearrange those pages is possible, but it is an advanced task. To create a complete solution you'll neet to either learn Acrobat scripting or engage a developer. 

There are some free tools that may help you. You'll find a list of free "Acrobat Actions" here:

https://acrobatusers.com/actions-exchange

The very last one finds and highlights words. This at least gets you part of the way. 

[pmmusiccenter]

Thanks for your help - I downloaded this action, and unfortunately it does the same thing that the basic search function already does in Acrobat and adds a highlight. Maybe the action I am trying to execute doesn't exist.

[bebarth]

you apparently know how to launch an action!

I already did something similar, so I'll come back to you soon.

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[Thom Parker]

What you are asking about is a complex custom sequence of tasks. Find specific words on pages, then arrange in a specific way based on sepcific words. Automating this process requires a custom script. There are not built in or off the shelf tools that will do this.

So, while the Acrobat search  finds words, there is no way to do anything with that data. It is in the find tool only, and not accessible to any other tools in Acrobat.

The Find and highlight Action marks the pages with the highlight annotation, so now you have something that a script can use. It's a starting point, not the end. 

[bebarth]

the time I translate the action...

please load the action:

https://we.tl/t-Gl0bBsXgHa

and let me know if that suit to you.

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[pmmusiccenter]

You're Awesome!! That's exactly the action I was picturing being able to do!