Extracting Bookmarked PDF Pages into a Separate File
Introduction
It may be necessary to extract only the bookmarked pages of a PDF document into a separate file. The AutoSplit™ plug-in features a useful tool that simplifies this process. In this tutorial, we look at how to use it to extract bookmarked pages from a PDF document. This operation automatically creates a temporary PDF document consisting of the extracted pages – the bookmarks are also transferred and will direct the user to pages in the newly created document.
Note that as bookmarks point to a single page, only one page per bookmark is extracted. Only the bookmarks that have “Go to a page view in the current document” actions are going to be used for the extraction, as this is the only action type that points to the pages in the same document. If multiple bookmarks point to the same page, only one copy of that page is extracted as pages will not be duplicated.
The tool offers two extraction methods:
1. Extract all bookmarked pages
2. Extract pages from a set list of bookmarks
Extract bookmarked pages
Sample Document Description
The sample document used to demonstrate this feature contains many bookmarks and hierarchical bookmark trees. We use the tool to extract all pages that these bookmarks point to. Click here. to see a list of bookmarking tutorials useful for creating bookmarks in PDF files before using this tool.
Prerequisites
You need a copy of Adobe Acrobat along with the AutoSplit™ Pro plug-in installed on your computer in order to use this tutorial. Both are available as trial versions.
Step 1 - Open the Tool
With the required document open in Adobe® Acrobat®, select “Plug-ins > Split Documents > Extract Bookmarked Pages…” from the main menu to open the "Extract Bookmarked Pages" tool.
open the tool
Step 2 - Extract All Bookmarked Pages
By default, the "Use all bookmarks from the document to extract pages" option will be selected. Press "OK" to carry out this procedure.
default settings
Step 3 - List Bookmarks for the Extraction
Optionally select the "Use only bookmarks from the list" option to manually specify the bookmarks to extract pages from. If extracting pages from a list of bookmarks, bookmark titles are matched regardless of their text case and leading/trailing whitespace. Bookmark titles can be written one-per-line in the box below.
Alternatively, they can be added one at a time via the "Add..." button.
After pressing "Add...", the "Select Bookmark to Define Page Range" dialog opens. Use it to select a bookmark to be added to the list, then press "OK".
The "Add All" button can be used as another way to add all bookmarks to the list, so that all the pages they point to can be extracted.
Step 4 - Save the Configuration
The user has the option to save the current configuration by using the "Save to File..." button. Press it to save the listed bookmarks for the page extraction as a standard *.txt document.
A text file can also be manually prepared using any plain text editor (such as MS Notepad). Make sure to save the file in “UTF-8 with BOM” format if any non-Ascii characters are used in the text. The *.txt files can be reused later via the "Load from File"... button.
save settings
Step 5 - Confirm the Procedure
Press "OK" to confirm the extraction.
A report box will display the number of pages that have been extracted. Press "OK" again to close it.
Step 6 - Check and Save the Output File
The "Pages Extracted From..." document will have been created and will be open in Acrobat. Inspect it to ensure that the bookmarked pages have been successfully extracted. Now use the "File > Save As..." menu to save the file in a specific location.
Select a desired location and optionally rename the file before pressing "Save".
You can find more AutoSplit tutorials here.