Adding PDF Bookmarks to Files

Introduction: This tutorial shows how to automaticaly add PDF bookmarks to the selected files using the AutoBookmark™ plug-in for the Adobe® Acrobat®. Each bookmark is assigned an "Open a file" action and links to a single external file. Bookmark titles are composed from the corresponing file names. Files of any type can be bookmarked.; The tutorial shows how to:; Add Bookmarks to Files.; Use this operation to add new bookmarks that link to the selected files into a currently opened PDF document.; Add Bookmarks to All Files in Folder.; Use this operation to add new bookmarks that link to all files (of any type) in the selected folder into a currently opened PDF document.; Add Navigational Bookmarks to All Files in Folder.; Use this operation to create common navigational bookmarks to each file in the collection and add them into each PDF document in the collection. It takes few seconds to turn a large unmanageable collection of PDF files into a perfectly interactive and navigable "binder" ready to be placed on a CD/DVD or published online.; The "Add Bookmarks to Files" operation is also available in the Action Wizard (Acrobat's batch processing tool) and can be used for batch processing.
Prerequisites: You need a copy of the Adobe® Acrobat® along with the AutoBookmark™ plug-in installed on your computer in order to use this tutorial. You can download trial versions of both the Adobe® Acrobat® and the AutoBookmark™ plug-in.

Add Bookmarks to Files ^↑overview
Step 1 - Open a PDF File: Start the Adobe® Acrobat® application and using "File > Open..." menu open a PDF file.
Step 2 - Select File(s) to Add Bookmark(s) to: Select "Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > More... > Add Bookmarks To Files..." in the main menu.; Select files to add bookmarks to from the "Open" dialog and click "Open" button.
Step 3 - Specify Bookmarking Parameters: Specify bookmarking parameters in the "Bookmark Files" dialog.; Use "Open linked documents in:" pull-down menu to select how bookmarked documents are open (in a new window, in the same window or using preferences).; Optionally, enter text to insert before and/or appended after a bookmark title (a filename is automatically used as a title).; Check the "Include file extension into bookmark title" option to use file extension in the bookmark titles.; Click "OK" to create bookmark(s).
Step 4 - Inspect the Results: The plug-in creates bookmarks that link to the user-selected files. New bookmarks are created by using file names as bookmark titles. Each bookmark is using a "relative path" to link to a target file (using an "Open a file" action). All files in the linked set can be moved to another folder or disk while maintaing the working links to the files. All files needs to be moved/copied as a set.
Add Bookmarks to All Files in Folder ^↑overview
Step 1 - Open a PDF File: Start the Adobe® Acrobat® application and using "File > Open..." menu open a PDF file.
Step 2 - Select a Folder with Files to Link to: Select "Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > More... > Add Bookmarks To All Files In Folder..." in the main menu.; Select a folder from "Browse For Folder" dialog that contains files to link to. Click "OK".
Step 3 - Specify Bookmarking Parameters: Specify bookmarking parameters using "Bookmark All Files In Folder" dialog.; Use "Open linked documents in:" pull-down menu to specify how to open the linked files (in a new window, in the same window or using preferences).; Check the "Include sub-folders" option to bookmarks all files from the sub-folders.; Check the "Show expanded bookmarks" option to display bookmark that correspond to folders in the "open" state showing all child items.; Optionally, enter text to insert before and/or appended after a bookmark title (a filename is automatically used as a title).; Check the "Include file extension into bookmark title" option to use file extension in the bookmark titles.; Click "OK" to create bookmarks.
Step 4 - Inspect the Results: Click "OK" to close the statistics dialog that shows number of bookmarks created:; Inspect the results.; The plug-in automatically retrieves a list of all files from a user-selected folder and create bookmarks that link to them. This operation adds one top-level bookmark (that has no action) with the name of the input folder with second-level child bookmarks that links to the files. New bookmarks are created by using file names as bookmark titles. Each bookmark is assigned a "relative path" to link to a target file (using an "Open a file" action).
Add Navigational Bookmarks to All Files in Folder ^↑overview
Step 1 - Put All PDF Documents into a Single Folder: Place all project PDF documents into a single folder. Use sub-folders to organize PDF documents into a logical structure. Make backup copies of original PDF files.
Step 2 - Open the "Bind Documents" Dialog: Start the Adobe® Acrobat® application and select "Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > More... > Add Navigational Bookmarks To All Files In Folder..." to open the "Bind Documents" dialog.
Step 3 - Select Desired Options: Check the proper boxes to add file extensions to bookmark titles or to use "Go to a page view" action to open PDF files. Click "Continue" once done.
Step 4 - Select a Project Folder: Select a project folder as input. Click "OK".
Step 5 - Edit and Organize Bookmark Titles: The "Edit Bookmark Titles" dialog appears on the screen showing the file and folder names. This structure will be used for bookmark titles and can be customized. Optionally, edit bookmark titles and organize bookmarks into a desired order/levels.; Use the toolbar buttons to create, delete, edit or sort bookmark titles:; Use the buttons to organize bookmark titles into a desired order:; Optionally, move selected bookmark to the bottom (top) of the list by clicking on the button:; Optionally, move selected bookmark one level down (up) by clicking on the button:; Use "Find/Replace with" controls to search and replace text in bookmark titles. Here is an example how to replace "_" with "," in the bookmark titles:; Use the "Export To Text..."/"Import From Text..." buttons to export/import bookmark titles to/from an ASCII text file. Use these operations to export bookmarks for editing in any text editor (for example, Notepad) and importing bookmarks back.; Here is an example of an ASCII text file that contains bookmark titles:
Step 6 - Finish Editing Bookmark Titles: Click "OK" to finish editing bookmark titles.
Step 7 - Start the Process: Click "OK" in the "Confirm Processing" dialog to start adding bookmarks to all PDF files in the selected folder. It is advisable to make a backup copy of all project files to avoid losing the original documents.; The common set of bookmarks is inserted into each PDF file in the folder. Display settings for each document are modified to automatically show a bookmark panel when a document is open. Click "OK" to finish.
Step 8 - Examine the Results: Once processing is completed, every PDF document gets a set of common navigational bookmarks that are inserted before any bookmarks that may already exist in the original PDF documents. Open any PDF document from the set. Click on any bookmark to open a corresponding document.; The resulting PDF files can be burned onto a CD/DVD disk or copied to a shared network folder.; Click here for a list of all step-by-step tutorials available.