#1
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Automate filling in PDF Forms from Word?
Hi all
I have to fill in a lot of government pdf forms and want to automate the process from data we already have in a DB, table or merge document. Converting the pdf to a Word document (either from Word or Acrobat X) doesn't work because the output is always different enough from the government's form that it will be rejected. Is there a practical, efficient way to make this work? A thought. Is it workable to scan the pdf form as an image, and then use the image to watermark a Word document? If I do this, how do I get my data into the correct place? Thanks for your help. -DL |
#2
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Word 2010 cannot automate PDFs on its own. At the very least you'd need to employ Adobe Acrobat Pro for this. As for working with a scanned image, that might be possible but the scan would need to be:
• an image of the page (i.e. not using OCR) • resized to exactly the same scale as the original; and • overlaid with a table and/or textboxes so that the table cells/textboxes are positions over the input fields on the image. In other words, a lot of effort to avoid filling in the PDF.
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Cheers, Paul Edstein [Fmr MS MVP - Word] |
#3
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Hi Paul, thanks for the answer.
Yes, I take your point, but the work only has to be done once, since we reuse the government forms frequently. The goal is use Gov form x, and be able to fill it from data already entered elsewhere for Person A, Person B, etc. I have not see a way to do this with Acrobat. If you know of an Adobe solution, can you past a link? -DL |
#4
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An Acrobat solution would have to be tailored to the individual document and would presumably be predicated upon the PDF having fillable fields (which you could presumably add before automating it). That, in turn presupposes the PDF has no protection - something commonly added to prevent alteration of forms intended for manual completion. For PDF automation specifics, you would do best to ask in an Adobe forum. Also, have you asked the Govt. Depts concerned for versions of the forms you could automate?
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Cheers, Paul Edstein [Fmr MS MVP - Word] |
#5
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Thanks. Yes, the forms are protected, and there is no other format offered.
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#6
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If they're protected, I doubt even Acrobat Pro could automate them unless they already have fillable fields.
__________________
Cheers, Paul Edstein [Fmr MS MVP - Word] |
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