Mapsoft Automator Version 1.5

A Publishing Tool for use with Adobe® Acrobat®

(V5 upwards)

Running under WindowsTM Operating Systems

Issue 2

March 2005

ii

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Automator

Welcome.......................................................................................................................... 5

About This Manual .......................................................................................................... 7

Notational Conventions ......................................................................................... 7

System Requirements ..................................................................................................... 7

Getting Started ................................................................................................................ 8

Security ................................................................................................................. 8

Accessing Automator ...................................................................................................... 9

Defining Tool Configurations ......................................................................................... 10

Previously Defined Configurations...................................................................... 11

Defining Tool Configurations within Automator................................................... 12

Running Automator ....................................................................................................... 13

Creating an Automator configuration .................................................................. 14

Specifying the Files ............................................................................................. 18

Logging and Backup Strategies .......................................................................... 20

Starting Automator .............................................................................................. 21

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Welcome Automator is a robust, very powerful, automation tool which delivers a professional solution for working with Adobe Acrobat’s Portable Document Format (PDF) documents to your desktop. It is a unique automation macro builder tool designed to be used in conjunction with the following Mapsoft publishing tools, which have themselves been designed to assist publishers and writers in working with PDF files.

AcroBatch A very powerful feature which makes the majority of the batching commands supported within Acrobat (via the Edit Batch Sequence facility) available from within the Automator environment. For example, you could automate JavaScript operations from within Automator.

BookMarker Creates a hierarchical set of bookmarks automatically. Bookmarks up to any nested level can be created, based on the headings found within a document.

ContentScaler Changes the size of a page’s contents without altering the actual page dimensions.

DocuMerger Allows you to merge template PDF files with existing document content.

Flattener Dramatically reduces the size of certain PDF files by removing active parts like navigation buttons and forms. Flattener can also move content from annotation (like form content and markup) right into the document so that it can be archived or viewed easily.

ImagePlacer Stamps images in a variety of formats onto your PDF document(s), either as an overlay on top of existing content, or as a watermark below it. Images can also be transparent.

Impress Stamps text stamps onto selected file(s). Stamps can include variable information such as date/time information and page numbering, including Bates numbering and Roman numerals formats.

InfoSetter Sets Acrobat information options including Title, Subject, Author, Keywords and the Base Uniform Resource Locator (URL) used for links to the World Wide Web (WWW).

MaskIt Masks/hides the contents of selected areas within a page or range of pages.

MediaSizer Alters the media size of the selected PDF document without changing its contents.

OpenOptions Manages Acrobat’s document opening options, including Initial View, Window and User Interface options.

PageManager Allows you to create a new blank PDF document. You can also create new pages and specify their size, and remove, insert and replace existing pages.

PDFSplitter Splits a large PDF document into smaller documents. Optionally, any pre-existing links within the original document can be retained when that document is split into smaller documents.

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SecuritySetter Manages Acrobat’s Security options within a document, including owner password and access rights.

ThumbNails Exports thumbnails for your selected document(s) as image files for use in desktop publishing or on websites.

TOCBuilder Generates Table of Contents automatically from existing bookmarks within a file. TOCBuilder automatically creates the linked references.

You can select any of the above Mapsoft tools for use with Automator, either on their own (across single or multiple documents) or in combination with each other. If used in combination, they can be used in whichever combination and order you require in order to create a sequence of actions (known as an Automator configuration) for those tools. Each tool can be added to this sequence more than once, and each time it is used it can have different settings. This sequence of actions can then be applied to one document or across a library of documents. Sequences of tasks can be saved and re-used.

The above list may not be an exhaustive list of all Mapsoft publishing tools that can be used with Automator: as Mapsoft increases its portfolio of products it is possible that additional tools may be supported by Automator in the future. Please contact Mapsoft if you have any queries as to whether a Mapsoft publishing tool can be used in conjunction with Automator.

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About This Manual This manual gives full details on using Automator. It assumes you have a working knowledge of your computer, its operating system and of Acrobat.

Full details on the use of all the individual tools that can be used in conjunction with Automator can be found in their own individual User Guides, available when you purchase the relevant tool from Mapsoft.

Notational Conventions The following notational conventions are used throughout this manual:

Cross-references to other sections or manuals appear in Bold Italics.

Any variable items from where you have to choose a particular option appear in italics. Italics are also used for emphasis.

Names of buttons and fields appear in bold: for example, select OK.

References to menu items are shown as follows: Plug-Ins > Mapsoft > Automator… In this example you would select the Plug-Ins option from within Acrobat followed by the Mapsoft option and then the Automator option.

System Requirements Generally the requirements for Automator are the same as for the version of Acrobat that you are using. However, as an approximate guide, the minimum hardware and software requirements to run Automator are:

i486 or Pentium processor-based personal computer.

Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP or Windows NT V4 with service pack 3 or later.

8MB of RAM (16MB on Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional).

Acrobat Version 5.x or later.

CD-ROM drive.

Please refer to the Acrobat documentation for the minimum requirements for your version of Acrobat.

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Getting Started Automator offers unsurpassed facilities for automating the use of publishing tools within your desktop environment. However, before running Automator over any of your PDF files, you should be aware that any changes made to your files by any of the tools invoked during Automator’s run are saved automatically.

You are strongly advised to keep backup copies of any files before running Automator over them.

Automator can automatically backup your files for you before it commences its run providing you set the Make Backups option within Automator before you start the batch run. This will make a backup of the last saved version of the file. This may not match a version that is currently open so you are strongly advised to ensure that all files used within an Automator operation are closed. If Automator finds that any of the relevant files remain open after commencing its run, it will automatically close them before proceeding. However, Automator will not save any of these files before closing them (but does not output a warning message to this effect). It is your responsibility to ensure all files to be used by Automator are in a saved state prior to commencing an Automator run.

Automator can also generate a log file each time it is run. You can choose if you want to overwrite the contents of an existing log file (the default) or append data on the current Automator run to an existing log file.

If you attempt to process files that are read-only, Automator will skip over them without modifying them and an entry to this effect will be made in the log file. Similarly, if any of the files you attempt to process require an Open or an Owner password which you have not provided to Automator, then these files will not be processed and an appropriate message will be captured in the log file.

Security When performing Automator sequences on files that have password security applied you must provide the correct passwords in the Automator dialog box. If Automator encounters a protected file it will use the passwords you provided to try to open the file and then remove all security from within it. The Automator configuration will then be able to process the files as required. If it is important that the security is re-set, then this should be done by adding Mapsoft’s SecuritySetter plug-in as the final tool in the sequence, which should be configured to set the security back to the previous setting.

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Accessing Automator The Automator tool is accessed by selecting the Plug-Ins > Mapsoft > Automator option on Acrobat’s main menu. The Automator dialog box will then display:

The tool’s main dialog box has two separate views, each accessed by clicking the appropriate tab, Batching or Apply, located at the top-left of the Automator dialog box.

The Batching view (shown above) displays when Automator is first selected. It controls which tools are to be invoked by a particular batch sequence, the order in which they are to be invoked, and the settings that are to be used with each tool.

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The Apply view contains options controlling the files to which the batch operation is to apply. This can be the current document, a single file, or multiple files. It can even be all PDF files within a directory.

Before you can set an Automator configuration, you must first make sure that you have defined the tasks each individual tool within the sequence is to perform when it is invoked by Automator. These tool configurations can be created either ‘on-the-fly’ within Automator or within the individual Mapsoft tools themselves.

Defining Tool Configurations Each Mapsoft tool invoked within a batch operation must be used with tool configurations that have been defined for that particular tool. Do not confuse tool configurations and Automator configurations. A tool configuration defines the settings for an individual Mapsoft tool. An Automator configuration is a sequenced list of Mapsoft tools and their individual tool configurations that are to be used in this batch run. For example, if an Automator configuration first uses Mapsoft MaskIt to mask existing page numbering within files followed by Mapsoft Impress to stamp sequential page numbering information across those files, you must first define the relevant mask and stamp configurations for the MaskIt and Impress tools respectively. You can define these tool configurations either within the tool itself (in this example within MaskIt and Impress) or ‘on-the-fly’ while using Automator itself.

You can use a mixture of pre-defined tool configurations and those set on-the-fly in the same Automator run.

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Previously Defined Configurations All the Mapsoft publishing tools that can be used in conjunction with Automator offer the facility of saving a tool configuration for later re-use with that tool and for use with the Automator batching facility.

The way in which you create a tool configuration is identical for each Mapsoft publishing tool. This is described in general terms below. However, for full details on using each individual Mapsoft tool see that tool’s associated User Guide.

To use Mapsoft publishing tools to define a tool configuration:

1. Open the appropriate PDF document.

2. Select the relevant Mapsoft tool from the Plug-Ins > Mapsoft option on Acrobat’s main menu. For example select Plug-Ins > Mapsoft >MaskIt. Your chosen tool’s main dialog box will then display.

3. Enter your settings.

4. Enter a name for your new tool configuration into the Name Configuration field in the appropriate tool’s dialog box, as illustrated below for MaskIt.

5. Next, click the Save button. This saves the settings you have just defined and makes them available for use within an Automator session. This procedure is the same for all supported Mapsoft tools.

There is no limit to the number of different configurations you can save for each individual tool, although each must have a different name.

Each tool configuration defined using any of Mapsoft’s supported publishing tools will then be available for selection within Automator. See Running Automator below for details on how to select tool configurations when using Automator.

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Defining Tool Configurations within Automator

If, while using Automator, you find that one of the Mapsoft publishing tools you wish to use in a particular batch run, does not already have a suitable task configuration, you do not have to come out of Automator in order to set a new configuration for that tool. Instead, you can invoke the relevant tool’s dialog box directly from within Automator itself, where you can then create and save the tool configuration you require ‘on-the-fly’.

To define a tool configuration within Automator:

1. Select the Automator tool by selecting the Plug-Ins > Mapsoft > Automator options on Acrobat’s main menu.

2. When Automator’s dialog box displays, click once on the name of the tool (for example Mapsoft MediaSizer) for which you wish to create a new configuration.

3. Drag and Drop that tool into the Process field.

4. Double-click on that tool’s name in the Process field.

5. The dialog box for the tool you selected will then display. For example, if you selected MediaSizer, the main MediaSizer dialog box will display, over the top of the Automator dialog box.

6. Set the options you require within the tool’s dialog box and then save them as a new tool configuration by entering a name into the Name Configuration field and then clicking Save.

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7. Click Close to return to the Automator dialog box where the new configuration will automatically be selected for that tool as illustrated below:

Running Automator To run Automator, you must first create an Automator configuration, then select the files to which that particular sequence of tools is to be applied before finally actually running Automator. An Automator configuration is a sequenced list of those Mapsoft tools and their individual tool configurations that are to be applied to the selected files in this batch run. An Automator configuration should not be confused with tool configurations which are for individual Mapsoft publishing tools.

Each of the tools you select for use within a batching sequence is invoked in the order in which it is selected within the Automator tool. In the example below, MaskIt with the configuration ‘MaskLogo’ will be invoked first, followed by ContentScaler with the configuration ‘AllPages65%’, and finally MediaSizer with the configuration ‘AllPages2A5’.

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Creating an Automator Configuration You can select as few or as many of Mapsoft’s supported publishing tools in whichever combination and order you require to create a sequence of actions, (known as an Automator configuration). However,

If you specify both ContentScaler and MediaSizer in the same sequence, you must specify ContentScaler first if these two tools are to have the effect you require.

If PDFSplitter is used in a sequence you must ensure it is always placed first in the sequence list, or alternatively it must be used alone.

If applying security, it is always advisable to do this last, as once set, some security settings will not permit any further changes to be made to a document.

A particular tool can appear more than once in a sequence with different tool configuration settings each time it is used.

You should also note that if you attempt to run a sequence of tasks that contains a tool configuration that has either been deleted, or is missing, then Automator will terminate its run and will output an error message identifying the first tool in the sequence that contained an erroneous configuration.

The following steps illustrate how you can create an Automator configuration.

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To create an Automator configuration:

1. Open Automator by selecting Plug-Ins > Mapsoft > Automator on Acrobat’s main menu.

2. When Automator’s dialog box displays, click once on the name of the Mapsoft publishing tool (listed in the Tool field) that you wish to be invoked first in this particular batch run. In the example below we use MaskIt.

3. Drag and Drop that product into the Process field.

4. Click on the arrow in the Configuration field to display a list of the tool configurations that have already been defined for MaskIt, as illustrated below.

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5. Select the particular configuration you wish to use with this tool, or create a new configuration if a suitable one does not already exist. See the section Defining Tool Configurations Within Automator above for full details on how to create tool configurations ‘on-the-fly’.

6. The name of the selected tool configuration will then appear automatically next to the name of the appropriate tool in the Process field as in the example below, where the MaskIt tool configuration ‘MaskLogo’ has been selected.

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7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 until you have added all the tools you wish to be invoked in this batch run. In the example shown below ContentScaler with its configuration ‘AllPages65%’ has been selected followed by MediaSizer with its configuration ‘AllPagesToA5’

When run, this sequence of tasks will invoke first MaskIt, to hide a logo, then ContentScaler to reduce the contents of the pages to 65% of their original size, and finally MediaSizer to resize the media to A5.

8. Optionally, use the Up and Down buttons to re-order items within the Process list at any time to ensure the tools are listed in the order in which you wish them to be invoked.

9. Enter any User Password (open password) and/or Master Password (owner password) that will be needed for any of the files that are to be used in this run of Automator. Files requiring either of these passwords will be skipped during the batch run if the appropriate passwords are not supplied here.

You can only specify one user password and one master password here. If, when applying a task sequence to multiple files, two or more files have different passwords, then only the file with the passwords matching those specified here can be processed. It is your responsibility to check the security settings for each file before commencing an Automator run.

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10. Once you have a complete sequence of tools and their associated configuration

settings, optionally enter name for this Automator configuration and then click Save. This will enable you to re-use this particular sequence of tools and their configurations without needing to re-define it.

Do not confuse this last step with creating new configurations for individual Mapsoft tools. An Automator configuration is a complete list of those Mapsoft tools and their settings that are to be included in a batch run in the order in which you have selected them, so allowing you to re-run this particular sequence of tools over another set of files without the need to re-define the list.

You are now ready to specify the files on which you wish this sequence of tools to operate.

Specifying the Files The options controlling the selection of files can be found behind the Apply tab in the Automator dialog box.

To specify the files to be used with Automator:

11. Click the Apply tab to display the Apply view of the Automator dialog box.

Either check the Current Open Document Only button to select the current document (if one is open), or check the As Specified Below button to select alternative file/s. If you checked the As Specified Below button, now enter the name(s) of the appropriate file(s) into the Path field as illustrated below.

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12. There are a number of different ways in which you can do select the files you require:

You can simply Drag & Drop to pull the relevant files into the Path field.

You can click Browse to display a further dialog box from where you can locate and select the files you require. You can use wildcards when specifying which files you wish to select.

You can even select every PDF file found in a particular directory. To do so, select the Directory button. This displays a further dialog from where you can then select the relevant directory. All PDF files within that directory will then be selected for processing by the selected tools. (If files you don’t want are pulled in, highlight them within the Path field and click the Remove button.) If you use the Directory facility you can also optionally set the Process all Subfolders option. This ensures the tools included in this batch run will not only search the selected directory for any valid .PDF files, but also any child directories located inside the main directory

If you do run Automator over a particular directory, and one of the files within that directory is also pointed to by a specific Browse selection, you should be aware that that particular file will be processed twice. This could be useful, for example, for using a file as a progress meter using the serial number generator in the Stamper tool.

You can also select the From List button to select all the files or directories from a list. The file can be comma or line delimited. When a file that uses wildcards is selected, the panel will be populated with a list of all those files and directories which match that wildcard criteria.

13. Files are processed in the order in which they are shown in the list in the Path field. Should you wish to change the order, highlight the appropriate file/directory and use the Up or Down buttons, located on the right-hand side of the panel to re-order the list. This facility is particularly useful if the order in which the files are operated upon is important (for example if you wanted to run serial numbering or page numbering sequentially across multiple files).

14. Optionally set the Optimise option if required. This ensures that the files created by the tools used during the batch run will be saved in a format which will facilitate efficient viewing on the Internet. This typically reduces file size and restructures the file’s contents to enable page at a time downloading (Byte Serving).

15. Optionally, click the Create List button to generate a text file listing the files shown in the Path field in the appropriate order. This text file can be edited with a standard text editor.(You can insert wildcards as these are supported by Automator.) This file can then be used to create a new list in another session of Automator, by selecting the From List button.

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Once you have selected the appropriate files you are then ready to setup your logging and backup strategies before finally starting the batch run.

Logging and Backup Strategies To specify logging and backup strategies:

16. First, decide if you want a log file to be generated for this particular run of Automator. If you want a log file to be created click the Create log file option. Then select the name and location of the log file using the Browse button. Leave the Overwrite Current Log check box checked to overwrite the log file on each run of Automator or un-check it to append data to an existing log file. Check the View Log File at End of Run checkbox if you wish the log file to be displayed automatically at the end of the current Automator run. In the following example, a log file, first log.txt containing information on just this run, will be created in the C:\Test Files directory and its contents will automatically display when the Automator finishes its run.

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17. Next, choose if you wish backups of your original files to be created automatically or not. When Automator is run over files the original files are modified and then saved. By selecting the relevant radio buttons you can create a copy of the original files (either in their current location or in a specified directory) before those files are modified. If you choose the Into Folder option you will create a replica of the whole directory structure for holding the backups.

Once you have chosen the tools which are to form part of this batch run, the sequence in which they are to be run, the files to which they are to apply and what your logging and backup strategies are to be (following the steps outlined above) you are ready to start the batch run itself.

Starting Automator To start the Automator run:

18. Simply click the Apply button at the foot of the Apply view of the Automator dialog box to run Automator.

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