Importing multiple page PDF Files

[Guest]

I am using Frame Maker 8 and I am trying to import PDF files into a FM document.

So far, the only way that it works is to Use File --> Import ---> File and then select the PDF document and the page. Then, I need to manually re-size each page to fit the Frame document.

The problem with this method is that I have hundreds of pages of PDF documents to import into the Frame file and it will take forever doing each page one at a time.

Is there a way to import a multiple-page PDF document all at once?

[MichaelKazlow]

Each page of a pdf is a separate graphic. You really don't want to import each page of a pdf as a page of the Frame file. What is your purpose of importing the pdf into the FrameMaker file?

[ConnJoe]

Michael and others:

My team also needs this "feature" or ability to import each page of a pdf into the Framemaker file. My company is on Framemaker 11 right now. We routinely manufacture parts for our customers and we routinely may subcontract testing procedures to subcontractors. We routinely receive a technical report from our subcontractor to document the test results. We are contractually required to include the report our subcontractor provided to us in our report to our customer. These subcontracted reports can range anywhere from 10 pages to 400 pages. (And frankly our customer may have to include our report in their report to their customer! Up the food chain it goes!)

Our current process involves MS Word and we are trying to migrate to Framemaker. The lack of this capability is a stumbling block for us. We cannot manually insert 400 pages of images and resize them in Framemaker. And MS Word has its own issues with long/large documents.

With MS Word, we currently resize the PDF we receive by printing the PDF to new page dimensions that match the size of the MS Word text flow area, 6.5 x 8.5 for example. We then export the resized PDF pages as JPG files into a folder. Acrobat exports and names the graphics ._page_1, ._page-02, etc. in the Windows folder. We then drag and drop the jpg files from the folder into MS Word at the insertion point. The images  are automatically inserted in the proper order, perfectly sized.

With Framemaker we cannot import all the pages of a PDF. Framemaker appears to only permit 1 page at a time as far as I can tell. This is not practical for us.

We need the ability to:

1. import (or "place" using InDesign terminology) a pdf where the import process will import all pages of our third party pdf into an appendix for example.

2. during import,

     A. all the imported pdf pages are imported automatically (not 1 at a time) and new pages are created in Framemaker. (Pagemaker used to call this autoflow, I believe).

     B. the imported pages should be automatically resized to the "text" flow region of the Framemaker document.

As I described above, we can continue to resize the pdf to the Framemaker main body text flow and that will solve 2B above, but the automatic import of a several hundred page PDF does not seem possible.

Does anyone know if this can be accomplished in Framemaker or via the Framemaker SDK? If so, any recommendations, suggestions or people interested in coding this for us?

Thanks in advance and thanks for reading.

Joe

[Arnis Gubins]

This issue can esaily be handled with a script in FrameMaker (i.e. the same way it is done in InDesign).

You could contact Rick Quatro (see: http://www.frameexpert.com/ ). IIRC, he's already done this for clients.

[ConnJoe]

Arnis, thank you for confirming and for the lead. I'll be contacting Rick.

Joe

[Bob_Niland]

For anyone for whom a 3rd-party script solution is unavailable or unsatisfactory, such as someone on an older FM version, the process can be partially automated using Adobe standard tools.

• Acrobat Pro (and perhaps the current "Standard") can export, as a single operation, all of the pages in a PDF, file-per-page, in a variety for file formats, such as PDF and EPS. With the appropriate Job Options, you might even be able to scale pages to final desired size.
• Illustrator can batch process such files for a variety of edits (such as scaling)

You'd still need to import the pages one at a time, but import might be all you'd need to do.

I seem to recall needing to do this once or twice (on FM7.1).

[ConnJoe]

Error7103:

Thanks for the post. We are already using a process to size the PDF to the correct image size. In addition to these "vendor" reports, we also have to provide our raw data test sheets which we scan to PDF files. These packages also can run into several hundred and in a few occations up to 7-800 pages.

In both cases we resize the PDF to the correct size we need, typically about 6.5 x 8.5. Then export the files from the resized PDF to JPG files via Acrobat save as image. In MS Word we can simply drag and drop the exported JPGS. We can't do the same in Framemaker and it's slowing our migration from Word to Framemaker.

I'm actually stunned that Framemaker doesn't support a  basic feature like drag and drop. Even Word has that! And to some extent, InDesign has most of the functionality to import multiple pages from a PDF. I just thought for sure Framemaker would have the functionaity to import entire PDF docs like InDesign as well as auto flow the imported pdf into the Framemaker file as graphic images.

Maybe someday!! Thanks!!! I appreciate the response.

Joe

[franz josef gigler]

In Extendscript it is really quite easy, once you've found out that the PageNum attribute of the graphic object is what one is looking for. Here some sample code for importing page i+1 of some pdf with the specified filename:

---

    ...

    var frame = doc.NewAnchoredAFrame(tLocFrame); // adds a new AFrame at the specified TextLocation

    frame.GraphicIsSelected = true; // makes that AFrame "active"

    var importParams = GetImportDefaultParams(); // gets the default parameters for an import

    var importReturnParams = new PropVals(); // I never know what this is for 😉

    doc.Import(doc.TextSelection.beg, filename, importParams, importReturnParams); // imports the first page of the pdf

    var graphic = frame.FirstGraphicInFrame; // this is the inset object for the pdf we just imported

    graphic.GraphicIsSelected = true; // selects the graphic

    graphic.PageNum = i; // switches to page  i+1 of the imported pdf

    ...

---

so everything you need is to know the number of pages in the pdf and a loop in which you repeatly Import the same pdf and than reset the PageNum attribute accordingly.