Bookmarking Text at Specific Location
- Introduction
- This tutorial explains how to create PDF bookmarks using text located in a specific page area. For example, a large PDF document may have relevant text located on certain pages that can be used for bookmark titles. The AutoBookmark™ plug-in provides various ways to search for these text attributes and create bookmarks using this text. The steps below demonstrate one simple method for achieving this.
- The sample PDF document used to demonstrate below features text located in the same place on each page. This text has an identical font, size and color etc. We will configure the plug-in to search this page area for matching styles and create bookmarks using any text found.
- Using this method, the plug-in creates a new bookmark every time the text in this page area changes. This ensures that duplicate bookmarks are avoided. The sample PDF document used here contains groups of consecutive duplicate pages, but the goal is to produce only three bookmarks titled “FIRST/SECOND/THIRD”:
- Click here to see a separate tutorial that shows how to use the "Generate from Text Styles..." Autobookmark™ feature. This tool offers more advanced bookmarking features, providing more control over how bookmarks are generated and presented.
- Prerequisites
- You need a copy of Adobe® Acrobat® along with the AutoBookmark™ plug-in installed on your computer in order to use this tutorial. Both are available as trial versions.
- Step 1 - Open the Bookmarking Tool
- Open the PDF document that you want to create bookmarks for in Acrobat. Then highlight an example of the text that you wish to bookmark.
- Now select "Plug-Ins > Bookmarks > Bookmark Text By Example..." from the main menu to open the "Add Bookmarks By Example" dialog.
- Step 2 - Open Settings
- The highlighted text's profile is now listed under "Selected styles:". Press "Settings..." to configure a search area.
- Step 3 - Draw a Search Area
- Open the "Text Location" tab, and check the "Match text located only in the following area:" option to activate the settings below. Now press "Set Page Area From a Sample Page...".
- Use this window to draw a box around the specific page area to search for text. Optionally use the zoom tool to expand an area of the page - then use the draw tool to mark an area of the page. Press "OK" to proceed.
- Press "OK" again.
- Step 4 - Create Bookmarks
- Now choose where new bookmarks are placed - e.g. "After existing" ones.
- Optionally save and reuse this settings configuration for future documents via the "Save/Load..." buttons. Settings will be saved with an *.abms file extension.
- Press "Run" to run the procedure.
- Step 5 - Inspect the Results
- A report box shows the number of bookmarks that have been created. Press "OK" to close it.
- Check the new bookmarks - here, text on the relevant pages has been identified and a bookmark created for each:
- You can find a list of other step-by-step bookmarking tutorials by clicking here.