Data merge output pdf with addition pdf attachments

[flygraphics]

I am working on a document for Product Spec sheets and a combined Quote sheet which will contain information, images and technical aspects pulled from an excel sheet using Data Merge. My question is as follows:

Is there a way to add information for links to other pdf documents and have them attached at the output? As an example set up a quote sheet for a range of products. The quote will be manual input. When turning to pdf, is there a way to attach a group of pdfs to the output file so that the document would ideally contain the quote and all the product spec sheets that are included in the quote?

I'm not sure if it's possible using data merge but is there a way to set up a parent/template file for this?

[Mike Witherell]

Neat idea, but it doesn't work that way in PDF.

[flygraphics]

Bummer. What if you could insert the spec sheet PDFs individually as images on each page with a script? So that they could just be added as extra pages in the output file. 

[m1b]

Actually your idea about adding the pdfs to an indesign document (perhaps a new temp document) and then exporting that should work fine. It would need some scripting though. Have you done any scripting? Also the script would need to know which pdfs to import so you'd need a systematic workflow. Have a think about it. - Mark

[Mike Witherell]

Have you considered exploring Acrobat DC for automating chores like that?

[flygraphics]

That sounds interesting. If I made a Quote in a pdf form would there be a way to automate it by adding the additional pages to the document upon saving and completing the form?

[hhas01]

This sounds like a general automation task, not specific to Adobe tools (although you could certainly use those too):

1. Pull a list of spec numbers from the Excel,
2. Locate the corresponding product sheet PDFs in a folder, and
3. Append those PDFs’ contents to the end of your main Quote PDF.

Worth searching around online to see if there are existing apps/scripts which do what you want. It’s probably quite a common business task so I’d wager there are and you can find something that’ll work out of the box. Microsoft’s own 365 would be the natural place to start: Excel is MS’s bailiwick and PDFs are used everywhere in business.

If you don’t find something that quite fits your needs, the next step would be to create a script that does. It’s a small, straightforward job for someone with scripting experience and a little familiarity with the file formats involved.

If you know a little JavaScript you can probably lash it together yourself. I’d suggest a quick rummage on npmjs.com, searching for the following phrases:

• xlsx
• pdf merge

That will turn up libraries for reading cell values from Excel files and for merging PDF files together.

(I can’t comment on the quality/appropriateness of specific libraries on npm, but I expect there’ll be something Good Enough.)

If you don’t know any scripting, write up a brief of what you require (basically the list above), with some Before and After example files/screenshots (a picture paints a thousand words), and find someone to write a script for you. From what you’ve described I’d estimate 4 hours coding plus 4 hours to iron out any details in user testing.

HTH