Save Text Box for Use on Future PDF's?

Question

I regularly need to work with PDF documents that are generated by a government website with almost all of the required information. Most of the information is populated onto the document for the specific student that the document is being issued for, but some of my information as the official endorsing the form is not automatically populated. (See below for an example and please forgive my rushed paint job.)

At around 50 characters plus spaces for 2-20 documents per day, it isn't enough text to be really frustrating, but it's enough to make me think there must be a better way. Ideally, what I want would be to save something like a dynamic, transparent stamp or text box that would save my name, title, location, and insert today's date. If not that, I'd settle for name, title, and location, since these are the same literally every time.

I've tried creating a regular stamp, but I can't seem to make this transparent (so it covers the annoying X on the signature line, and US Customs doesn't like that). I've also tried a text box, but I can't seem to save this for use on future documents.

I'd appreciate any suggestions you have about how I could save this information so that I could insert it easily on every form I issue. I'm using Adobe Acrobat Pro X on Windows 7. Thanks for your help!

Karl Heinz Kremer · Answer

I am not familiar with the I-20 form, and it does not look I can download it (with the exception of a sample document). This means, I don't know what would be allowed in the form. Here is what I would do (assuming, the form does allow you to do all these steps):

If the document is already an interactive form, fill in the information via Javascript based on e.g. a menu item in Acrobat. If the form is not yet an interactive form, but you can add form fields, I would add fields for the information you need to add to the document and then still fill it out using e.g. a JavaScript program.

If that does not work, I would try the following
Write a script that will identify parts of the document that are close to where you need to add information to the form. Then programatically add annotations (e.g. a text annotation) with the information you need to provide in the correct location. This again could be triggered via a menu item.

If you just want to create a transparent stamp, you can start with a blank PDF document (e.g. select to insert a blank page into an existing document and then extract that page and save it as a new file named blank.pdf or use the Javascript console and the app.newDoc() command to create a new document. Now select to add text to that document using Tools>Content>Edit Document Text - then hold down the Ctrl key and click anywhere on your new page. This will allow you to specify a font and the writing direction. Now replace the "New Text" with e.g. your name and save the file under a new name (e..g myNameStamp.pdf). Now create a new stamp (Comment>Stamp>Custom Stamps>Create Custom Stamp) and browse to the file you just created. This will now allow you to stamp your name on a PDF file that allows you to add annotations. Repeat this for all text you need to add on a regular basis.

If you need help with the proposed JavaScript - that's what I do for a living

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