Extracting Custom Page Ranges from PDF File
- Introduction
- This tutorial shows how to extract custom page ranges from a PDF document using AutoSplit™ plug-in for the Adobe® Acrobat®. Use this method to extract one or more page ranges into separate PDF files. The number of output documents and page ranges for each document are specified by the user. The tutorial shows how to extract 3 different page ranges into 3 different files.
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- This operation is also available in the Action Wizard (Acrobat's batch processing tool) and can be used for automating of document processing workflows. The Action Wizard support is available in AutoSplit Pro plug-in only.
- Prerequisites
- You need a copy of the Adobe® Acrobat® along with the AutoSplit™ plug-in installed on your computer in order to use this tutorial. You can download trial versions of both the Adobe® Acrobat® and the AutoSplit™.
- Step 1 - Open a PDF File
- Start the Adobe® Acrobat® application and open a PDF file to process using "File > Open..." from the main menu.
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- Step 2 - Open the "Split Document Settings" Dialog
- Select "Plug-Ins > Split Documents > Split Document..." from the main menu to open the "Split Document Settings" dialog.
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- Step 3 - Select Split Method
- Select the "Use manually defined page ranges" method for the "Split Method". That will activate the "Define Output Documents And Page Ranges" section.
- Click "Add Output Document" in the "Define Output Documents And Page Ranges" section.
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- Step 4 - Specify Page Range(s)
- Specify desired individual page numbers and/or page ranges that should be extracted into the new document. You can enter page numbers as a comma-separated list, e.g., 1, 4-8, 10-20.
- Check the "Create a separate output document for each page range" option to use page ranges divided by comma for the separate output documents. If this option is unchecked, then all entered pages and page ranges will be added into the single output document.
- We have checked the "Create a separate output document for each page range" option and entered "6, 38-47" to extract page 6 and pages 38-47 into separate output documents.
- Click "OK" once done.
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- Step 5 - Add More Output Documents
- The new document entry will be created in the output document list (Document 1, Document 2, and etc.) This name has nothing to do with actual output document name and merely serves as placeholder for the document template. Note that two document entries were added at the previous step: "Document 1" to contain page 6, and "Document 2" to contain pages 38-47.
- Click "Add Output Document" button to add more output documents.
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- We have one more document using "51, 87-90" page range and left the "Create a separate output document for each page range" option unchecked. This settings will extract page 51 and pages 87-90 into the same output document.
- Click "OK" once done.
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- Step 6 - Specify Output File Naming
- The next step is define the way how to name output PDF files. The AutoSplit™ allows to specify file naming scheme in many different ways. We are going to show how to automatically name output files after the corresponding page ranges to create filenames such as "PagesFrom_6_to_6.pdf", "PagesFrom_37_to_38.pdf" and etc.
Select "No Prefix" in the "Name prefix:" pull-down menu. Enter "Pages" into the "Base filename:" field. - Next, click "Add..." button to add a variable naming component to the filename.
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- Select the "Page Range" option in the "Select What To Add To Output Filename" dialog. This option will automatically add page ranges to the base file name. Click "Next>>".
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- Step 7 - Start Splitting
- Click "Browse..." and specify output folder for the resulting files.
- Click "OK" to proceed.
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- Click "OK" in the confirming dialog to start splitting.
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- Step 8 - Inspect the Results
- The "AutoSplit Results" window shows the list of the output documents. Click "Open Output Folder" to inspect output files.
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- The output folder contains the following 3 files named after the corresponding page ranges:
- PagesFrom_6_To_6.pdf contains page 6 from MyFile.pdf.
- PagesFrom_38_To_47.pdf contains pages 38-47 from MyFile.pdf.
- PagesFrom_51_To_90.pdf contains page 51 and pages 87-90 from MyFile.pdf.
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