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Merging PDFs in HTML

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mktgrph1

Programmer
Mar 18, 2010
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I have been asked to add a function to a CD full of PDFs, accessable through a HTML Web Page/Internet Browser. I need to be able to make a selection from the list of PDFs, them merge them and save the merged files to the users computer.
 
Hi mktgrph1

What function do you need to add?
Do you want to put them in order and then merge them into one PDF file?
Are they then going to be posted on the internet?

IMacQuarker
 
The function is merging PDFs acording to the users selection from the complete list of PDFs. It's intended to work on a stand alone CD.
 
Hi mktgrph1

Two things you might do:
Open Acrobat with no files open.
Under File choose Combine/Merge Files Into a Single PDF.
That opens a window to drag all the files into.
Once the files are there you can arrange them by highlighting one and move it up or down, Then save and you will get a file named Binder.pdf with the files in the selected order. Then if necessary burn another disk for your friend to download.
Or you could choose Assemble PDF Portfolio and drag the files there in order and see if that works.

Hope this helps
IMacQuarker
 
Sorry, maybe I'm not explaining it well.

There is a CD with an HTML website on it, forming a User Interface for the media on the CD. There is list of PDF's in one of the HTML files. A user, who may or may not have Acrobat, and might only have Reader, will select some of these PDF files, and will have a "merge" button that will save the resulting merged file onto the user's hard drive.

We actually have this working on a .asp web server (internal, not visible on the web) but I've been asked to make this merging work from a stand alone CD. I'm certain this can be done, with applications running on the CD, but seems to require code well beyond my skill level.
 
Sounds like you'll have to get Adobe Acrobat or some other PDF creating/editing program running from within that CD, as PDF isn't like a txt file that you can just cut/copy/paste at will - you have to do some work there... requiring specific products to do so. Perhaps something can be done with one of the many PDF printer type programs? Maybe where you'd script the printing of 2 files at once, somehow forcing them into one new file.... at least that's a guess at it.
 
hi mktgrph1
I still don't completely understand the desired end result.
If the customer/client has the actual CD in their comp, then why not separate the PDF files from the html and place them on the CD and they can download what they want.
Or place the individual PDF files on the web and provide a link with each PDF in the HTML to click to download the actual file.
I think it would require some programming to have the client select several files and have them combined into one PDF file.

Hope this helps
IMacQuarker
 
The only thing I can think of would be if you can find a free/cheap utility that you can include on your CD, that accepts command line insturctions that you can pass the path(s) of the PDFs you want to combine and the path to the output file. I don't know if there is going to be any other way to do this.
 
Basic question - WHY do the PDF's all have to be combined into one file ? Plain old Windows Explorer will let you flag the files you want by holding down the control key and clicking on them, then copying the whole batch to another drive. The full Acrobat product - Standard or Pro - will let create one PDF from a slew of other files. I suspect that your internal web server that's doing this function has a copy of Acrobat Standard or Pro on it that the ASP is using to combine the files.

Fred Wagner

 
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