Arranging PDF Pages Using Bookmarks
- Introduction
- This tutorial shows how to arrange pages in PDF documents via bookmarks using the AutoBookmark™ plug-in for the Adobe® Acrobat®. The AutoBookmark plug-in provides two distinct sorting options:
- Sorting bookmarks
- Sorting pages based on the bookmark order
- These two methods provide full control over bookmark and page order in PDF documents.
- Sorting Bookmarks
- The bookmarks can be sorted by:
-
- Alphabetically
- By Date (assumming that bookmark titles contain dates)
- By Referencing Page Number
- Each bookmark level can be sorted separately.
- Sorting Pages
- The pages in PDF document can be sorted based on the current bookmark order. Use bookmarks to establish a logical order of the pages in the document, then sort pages into the same order. For example, bookmark a first page of each "chapter" in the book and then sort pages to arrange chapters into the defined order. If a different order is desired, move bookmarks accordingly and then again sort pages. This method provides a powerful way for quickly moving page around without tedious work or keeping track of page numbers. All what is necessary is just a set of bookmarks. The sorting operation correctly handles page ranges, so there is no need to bookmark every page.
- This method is useful when a PDF document contains multiple logical sub-documents that need to be put into a specific order. The following diagram shows page sorting by using 3 bookmarks. The bookmarks point to the first page of each sub-document (pages 1, 4 and 7). Each range of pages (sub-document) is shown in a different color before and after the sorting:
- Input Document Description
- The input PDF document used in this tutorial contains multiple reports of the variable page length. The first page of each report is bookmarked.
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- Bookmarking Approach
- We are going to sort bookmarks alphabetically in ascending order. Next, the document pages will be sorted based on the bookmark order. At the end we are going to insert auto-incrementing numbers in front of each bookmark title.
- These operations are available in the Action Wizard (Acrobat's batch processing tool) and can be used for automating of document processing workflows.
- Prerequisites
- You need a copy of 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.
- Step 1 - Open A PDF Document
- Start the Adobe® Acrobat® application and open a PDF document that need to be processed using "File > Open…" menu.
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- Step 2 - Open The "Sort Bookmarks" Dialog
- Select "Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > Sort > Sort Bookmarks..." to open the "Sort Bookmarks" dialog.
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- Step 3 - Specify Bookmark Sorting Settings
- Select the "Alphabetical Sorting" method. Check the "Ascending" option. Click "OK" to sort bookmarks.
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- The bookmarks have been alphabetically sorted.
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- Step 4 - Open the "Sorting Pages" Dialog
- Next, we are going to sort pages based on the current order of the bookmarks. Select "Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > Sort > Sort Pages..." to open the "Sorting Pages" dialog.
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- Step 5 - Sort Pages
- Click "OK" to sort pages.
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- The order of the pages has been changed to conform to the order of the bookmarks as shown on the following diagram:
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- Step 6 - Open the "Add Prefix/Suffix" Dialog
- Select "Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > Modify Bookmarks > Add Prefix/Suffix To Bookmarks..." to open the "Add Prefix/Suffix" dialog.
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- Step 7 - Specify Prefix/Suffix Settings
- We are going to add auto-incrementing numbers before each bookmark title. Type
{number}.into "Insert before each title box. Click "OK". .PNG)
- Step 8 - Examine The Results
- At the end of the procedure we have alphabetically sorted bookmark titles (by doctor's name) in ascending order, arranged document pages based on the bookmark order and inserted an auto-incrementing number at the begining of each bookmark title.
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- Alternatively, you can automatically add/remove leading numbers using a different operation.
- You can find a list of other step-by-step bookmarking tutorials here: http://www.evermap.com/abm_bm_summary.asp#tutorials.