Using PDFs in the Indexing Process

Maximizing your efficiency

Connie Binder, MLS

[email protected]
http://www.conniebinder.com
 Table of Contents

Working with clients PDF File Specifications .................................................................................................................1

Acrobat Manuals1

Find ..................................................................................................................................................................................2
Advanced Search ..............................................................................................................................................................3
Include Comments ........................................................................................................................................................ 3
Proximity Searching....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Preferences ......................................................................................................................................................................5
Commenting ................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Search ........................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Numbering Pages .............................................................................................................................................................7
Getting Terms from PDF into Indexing Software ..............................................................................................................8
Copy and Paste ............................................................................................................................................................. 8
Drag and Drop ............................................................................................................................................................... 8
Megabit Macros ............................................................................................................................................................ 8
Copy Chunk to Word ..................................................................................................................................................... 9
Highlighted Text to Word ............................................................................................................................................ 10
Splitting Double-page Spreads into Single-page Files .................................................................................................... 13
Revised Editions/Page Reflow ........................................................................................................................................ 18
Compare Documents................................................................................................................................................... 18
Add Watermarks ......................................................................................................................................................... 20
Combining Separate Chapters into One PDF File ............................................................................................................ 24
Separating one PDF File into Separate Chapters ............................................................................................................ 25
Signing PDF forms and contracts .................................................................................................................................... 28
Keyboard shortcuts ........................................................................................................................................................ 29
Pinning items to the Quick Tools bar .............................................................................................................................. 30
 Working with Clients: PDF File Specifications

In order to fully utilize the benefits of indexing from PDF files, you want these features in the PDF files you receive:
Fully searchable
Logical page numbers (page number in box matches number on printed page)
Single-page layout
No watermarks

If you have Acrobat Standard or Professional, you can renumber pages and split a double-page file into a single-page file,
but it will save time if you receive the files you need from the publisher.

Acrobat Manuals
Acrobat 9 Standard: http://help.adobe.com/archive/en_US/acrobat/9/standard/acrobat_standard_9.0_help.pdf

Acrobat X Standard: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/standard/using/acrobat_X_standard_help.pdf

Acrobat X Pro: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/pro/using/acrobat_X_pro_help.pdf

Acrobat XI online help: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/11/topics.html

Acrobat XI PDF manual: http://help.adobe.com/archive/en/acrobat/XI/acrobat_reference.pdf

Acrobat DC online help: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/topics.html

Acrobat DC PDF manual: https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/acrobat_reference.pdf

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 Find
Available in Acrobat Reader, Standard, and Professional

Shortcut: Ctrl+F

Menu: Edit > Find

This brings up the little find box in the corner of the screen:

Type in your search term and hit the <Enter> key.

This will find the next occurrence of your term. You can keep hitting <Enter> to find each occurrence of the term.For
more options, click on the down arrow next to the Find search box.

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 Advanced Search
Available in Acrobat Reader, Standard, and Professional

Shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+F

Menu: Edit > Advanced Search

This brings up the Search dialog box:

Where would you like to search? You can run your search over the current document, or all of the PDF documents in an
entire folder. This is handy if you have each chapter for a book in a separate file, but you want to search the entire book
all at once.

Whole words only: Leave the box unchecked to get singular and plural forms of a word. You could find pirate,
pirates, and piracy with one search, but be careful, because a search for pira will also return conspiracy and
spiral.

Case-Sensitive: Use this for searching for a proper name or title. For examples, you want to find the pamphlet Common
Sense, but not discussions about people who used common sense.

Include Comments: Check this box if you have marked up a file, typing index entries into the comments box when the
language of the PDF doesnt include the index term. For example, the text may discuss feeding dogs. The word
nutrition is never explicitly mentioned, but you want it as an index term. If you include it in your comments as you
mark up the PDF, checking this box will allow you to search the PDF for it.
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Proximity Searching (Advanced Search box, Show More Options)
This is useful if you are looking for a concept that includes two or more words, but not always in the same order, such as
fisheries management and management of fisheries. It is also good for finding discussions of relationships between
people, such as Thor and Loki youll find the two of them in close proximity of one another.

Look In: For the proximity option to appear, you need to set Look In: to a folder, not just a single document. You can
have just one PDF in the folder that you search. Use the dropdown to Browse for Location.

What word or phrase would you like to search for? Type your search terms here, in any order

Return results containing: This must be set to Match All of the words in order to do a proximity search.

Proximity: Check the Proximity box

Range of words for Proximity searches: Youll set this in the Preferences.

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 Preferences Commenting
Available in Acrobat Standard and Professional

Shortcut: Ctrl+K

Menu: Edit > Preferences

This brings up the Preferences dialog box. Under Categories, select Commenting

To copy text that you highlight or underline into the comment pop-up, check the last box. This will allow you to edit and
search the term, and make it possible to export all of your highlighted terms for later import into indexing software.

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 Preferences Search
Available in Acrobat Reader, Standard, and Professional

Shortcut: Ctrl+K

Menu: Edit > Preferences

This brings up the Preferences dialog box. Under Categories, select Search.

Ignore Diacritics and Accents: Checking this box enables you to search for an accented word without having to type in
the accent marks, so typing caf would find cafe and it would finde caf

Range of words for Proximity searches: Proximity searches look for two or more words in proximity to one another. The
default is 900 words. That is far too great. I like using 5-10 words, depending on the text. Ideally, you will set it to a
number that will get you the terms when they are related, but not when they are in separate discussions on the same or
neighboring pages.

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 Numbering pages
Available in Acrobat Standard and Professional

Some PDF files have page numbers in the top menu bar and on the page thumbnails that do not match the page number
printed on the pages of the manuscript. Renumbering the pages so that they match will speed up indexing, help prevent
locator errors in the index, and facilitate navigation to a specific page.

Tools menu (right side of screen) > Document Processing > Number Pages

Page Thumbnails (left side of screen) > Options > Number Pages

Top menu: View > Tools > Document Processing. Then select Number Pages

This brings up the Page Numbering dialog box:

Select the Pages to be renumbered. You can renumber all of the pages, type in the range of pages you want to number,
or (I find easiest) before entering this Page Numbering dialog box, use the Page
Thumbnails to select the pages you want to renumber.

Select the numbering Style for the section.

Add a Prefix if you are numbering an appendix with page numbers that begin with A- or something similar.

In the Start box, indicate the page number that should appear on the first page of the renumbered section.

Click OK, then repeat for any other sections that need renumbering. Navigate to several different sections of your file
and make sure the page number in the menu bar matches the one on the manuscript page.

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 Getting Terms from PDF into Indexing Software
Available in Acrobat Reader, Standard, and Professional

Note: All of these work with CINDEX; similar functionality is assumed with other indexing programs.

Copy and paste

Highlight the word or phrase you want to copy, Ctrl+C to copy, Alt+Tab to move to your indexing software, Shift+Ctrl+V
to paste without formatting (putting the word or phrase in the font of your indexing software instead of the PDF font).

Drag and drop

Use your mouse to grab a word or phrase and drag it into your indexing software. This will bring over the PDF font, as
well as the word or phrase.

Note: In Adobe Reader, under Preferences, uncheck the Enable Protected Mode at Start-up box.

Margaret Bersons Megabit Macros

These are truly magical, like copy and paste on steroids. Available only for Windows systems, there are versions for
CINDEX, Macrex, and Sky. You must first download and install the Macro Express program ($39.95; 30-day free trial),
then download Margaret Bersons Megabit macros ($65). A full description of what the macros do is on the Megabit
Macros website. My favorite macros:

1. copy a name, paste it into a CINDEX record, invert it, return to the PDF

2. copy a string of names, paste each one into a separate CINDEX record, invert them properly, return to the PDF

3. copy text (like a book title), paste it into CINDEX, italicize it, add parentheses, wait for me to add the authors
name within the parentheses, then return me to the PDF

4. copy and paste text, removing line breaks

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 Copy chunk of dense text to Word

Maria Sullivan demonstrated this at an ASI conference. This is an option to consider when you have a chunk of text that
will have a large number of index entries.
1. Copy a chunk (paragraph, page, multiple pages) of text from the PDF, and paste it into Word.
2. Delete all terms that you dont want in your index.
3. Separate each index term onto a separate line.
4. Turn on Reveal Formatting (click the little paragraph sign)

5. Highlight the terms from the one page you want to start with. If you are working with only one page of the PDF
at a time, this will be all of them.
6. Ctrl+H to open the Find and Replace dialog box

7. Find what: ^p (this tells it to find the end of line character)

8. Replace with: ^t395^p (^t tells it to add a tab, 395 is the page number for all of the highlighted entries, ^p adds
the end of line character).
9. Hit Replace All
10. Word will ask if you want to search the remainder of the document. Click No. You only want the page numbers
added for that first chunk of text.
11. Repeat for any other text you have brought into Word, being careful to note page breaks. Once you are done
and the Word file is nothing but index entries, save it as a plain text file. Use the import feature of your indexing
software to import the entries into your index.

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 Highlighted Text into Word
Note: This uses the physical, not the logical page numbers. If you find a way to display the logical page number in the
Comments box, please let me know!

In Acrobat Standard and Professional, you can set your Acrobat preferences to copy the selected text into the comment
pop-ups. For the free Acrobat Reader, you would have to manually type the text into the Comment pop-up.
Shortcut: Ctrl+K
Menu: Edit > Preferences
Under Categories, select Commenting

Check the bottom box: Copy selected text into Highlight, Cross-Out, and Underline comment pop-ups
Click OK

Turn on the Highlighting tool

Keystroke: U
Top menu: Highlight icon
Comment pane > Annotations > Highlight icon
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Highlight the terms you want to move to your index.

Open the Comment pane > Comments List > Options menu > Create Comment Summary

This opens the Create Comment Summary dialog box.

Choose a Layout: Comments only

Include: All comments

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Uncheck the Pages containing no comments box.

Click Create Comment Summary

Acrobat will return a page-by-page list of your highlighted terms:

You will have the option to save this in a number of formats. I have found that comments (vital terms for my index)
disappear if saved in anything other than PDF format. So, do not save it as a Word or text file. Instead

Ctrl+A to select all

Ctrl+C to copy

Move to a new Word document

Ctrl+V to paste

You will have all of your terms, separated by page, with a lot of extra junk. Do a find and replace to get rid of the extra
junk (keep the page numbers until you have added them to the index terms). It is easy to write a macro to pull out all of
the junk if you do this often. Once you have your list of terms, one per line, follow the instructions for copying a dense
chunk of text to Word, from step 3.

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 Splitting Double-page Spreads into Single-page Files
Available in Acrobat Standard and Professional

You should never have to do this. Ask your clients to give you single-page files (see page 1). If you cannot get single-page
files or do not have time to wait for them, here is an option.

First, make sure that you really do have a double-page spread sometimes a single-page file is set to display as a two-
page view.

View > Page Display

If Two Page View or Two Page Scrolling is checked, change it to either Single Page View or Single Page Scrolling
and you are in business.

If Single Page View or Single Page Scrolling is checked and you are seeing a two-page spread, you need to get a new
single-page file or split the file.

There are basically four steps to this copy, crop, split, combine.

1. Copy Create two new files, one for the left-hand pages and one for the right-hand pages
a. Open your double-page spread file
b. Save as Right.pdf (you can use other names for the files, but be absolutely sure that the left-hand
(even-numbered) pages file falls alphabetically before the right-hand (odd-numbered) pages file or your
pages will end up in the wrong order left and right work for me.)
c. Save as Left.pdf
d. Close all files

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2. Crop the pages to the correct size
a. Open Right.pdf
b. Note any single pages at the beginning or end of the file.
c. Using the Pages Thumbnails options list, choose Crop Pages (Ctrl+Shift+T).
d. This brings up the Set Page Boxes dialog box

e. In the Page Range section, select the pages you want to crop (probably all, unless there were single
pages at the beginning or end).
f. In the Margin Controls section, be sure Constrain Proportions is NOT checked.
g. Determine the amount of the page you need to crop ( the width)
h. In the Margin Controls section, type the amount that you need to crop in the Left box (you want this file
to contain only the right-hand pages, so you crop the page size from the left).
i. If the page size in inches is difficult to divide by two, try selecting a different unit from the Units drop-
down at the top.
j. Click OK
k. Save and close the file
l. Open Left.pdf
m. Repeat the process that you followed for the Right.pdf file, but in step h, put the crop width in the Right
box.
n. Save the file.

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3. Split each file into individual pages
a. Open the Left.pdf file
b. From the Tools > Pages section, choose Split document

c. Max pages: 1
d. Hit the Output Options button

e. Select Add label and number BEFORE original name (really important otherwise your pages wont sort
correctly)
f. Uncheck the Use label box (really important otherwise your pages wont sort correctly)
g. Hit OK
h. Click the Apply to Multiple box

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i. Use Add Files to add the Right.pdf file to the list
j. Click OK
k. Acrobat will work its magic, splitting the files into individual pages (this may take some time)
l. Close the file
m. You should have a separate file for each page from the Left file, and from each page from the Right file
(1_Left.pdf, 1_Right.pdf, 2_Left.pdf, 2_Right.pdf, etc.).

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4. Combine Create a combined file of all of the separate pages
a. From the Create dropdown, choose Combine Files into a Single PDF
b. If you had single pages at the beginning or end, you can just add the left one for that page. If there is a
single page at the beginning, I often add both the left and right so I can later view the file in Two Page
View
c. Adobe is arithmetically challenged, so you have to add the files a chunk at a time first 1-9, then 10-99,
then 100-999, etc. Otherwise it thinks that 11 comes before 2. Once you have selected all of the pages
you want to combine, double-check that they are in the correct order. You can move them up or down
to fix things if necessary.

d. Hit OK and wait this may take some time.

e. Save and close the file with an intelligent name
f. Reopen it and make sure all is copacetic.
g. Delete all of the intermediate files (1_left, 1_right, etc.) that were created.
h. Make sure that your new file is where you think it is and that it opens and looks right.
i. Empty the recycling bin.

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 Revised Editions and Page Reflow Compare Documents
Available in Acrobat Professional

Menu: View > Compare Documents

Use the Choose buttons to browse for the files you want to compare. In the First page and Last page boxes, type in the
pages to be compared. Acrobat recommends that you dont compare more than 250 pages at a time. Click OK and
Acrobat will present you with a Summary:

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Click on the Get started hyperlink to see the changes. Hovering over a changed section will reveal what was changed. If
you open the Comments List, you will see all of the changes and can sort them by page number or comment type
(material that was added, deleted, or changed):

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 Revised Editions and Page Reflow Adding Watermarks
Available in Acrobat Standard and Professional

Tools > Pages > Watermarks > Add Watermark

If you want to compare two files by paging through them as they are tiled vertically, adding a watermark to the old file
can help prevent you from confusing it with the new file as you update the index entries. If you have highlighted your
entries in the old file, it will be even easier to compare the files for changes.

***Helpful hint*** When comparing the files, I ALWAYS position the old file on the left, and the new file on the right.
ALWAYS.

To add a watermark, from the Tools pane > Pages > Watermark > Add Watermark

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You can play with settings to find what works best for you. Here is my method:

In the Source section, Text box, type OLD

In the Appearance section, set the Opacity to 60%

To make the process faster the next time you need to apply this watermark, you can save your settings. At the top of the
dialog box, click Save Settings, and give this a name that makes sense (I call it Old Center).

If you have multiple old files (separate chapters of one book, perhaps) you can apply the watermark to all of the files at
once. Just click the Apply to Multiple button (lower right), and choose the files that need a watermark.

Click OK

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To make it more helpful, I add OLD at the top, middle, and bottom of the page. This is especially useful if you are
working with a file that contains a lot of images. That center OLD might not be particularly visible on a dark page.

To add additional watermarks to the same file, Tools pane > Pages > Watermarks > Add Watermark

Click Add New to bring up the Add Watermark dialog box again

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In the Source section, Text box, type OLD

In the Appearance section, set the Opacity to 60%

In the Position section, set the Vertical Distance to 1 from Top

Click Save Settings and give it a name

Apply to Multiple, if necessary.

Click OK

Repeat that again, but set the Position section, Vertical Distance to 1 from Bottom.

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 Combine Separate Chapters into one PDF file
Available in Acrobat Standard and Professional

From the Create dropdown, choose Combine Files into a Single PDF

Menu: File > Create > Combine Files into a Single PDF

Use the Add Files button to select the chapters to combine

Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to put your chapters in order

Hit OK and wait this may take some time.

Save and close the file with an intelligent name

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 Separate One File into Separate Chapters
Click on the bookmark ribbon on the left panel:

This will display a list of the bookmarks in the file. If there are bookmarks for each chapter, you can proceed to split the
file.

If there are no bookmarks, youll need to add them.

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Adding Bookmarks

Navigate to the first page of the first chapter.

With the bookmark panel open, click on the new bookmark icon:

Give your bookmark an intelligible title. This will become the file title for that chapter.

Repeat for each chapter.

Save the file. You are now ready to split the file.

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Split the File

From the Tools pane > Pages section, choose Split Document

Choose Split document by: Top-level bookmarks

Click the Output Options button

Choose Use bookmark names for file names

Be sure that the Do not overwrite existing files box is checked. In case something goes wrong, you do not want to lose
your original file.

Click OK to exit the Output Options dialog box.

Click OK to exit the Split Document dialog box and start the process.

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 Signing PDF Forms and Contracts
Available in Acrobat Reader, Standard, and Professional (options are slightly different in each)

There are a number of official and legal ways to sign PDF forms. This may or may not be one of them, but it is expedient.
The Acrobat manuals give many more options for you to explore.

First, make a backup copy of the original file, just in case you thoroughly mess things up.

Open the Tools pane > Sign & Certify > Apply Ink Signature

Using your mouse, sign on the dotted line. It can be helpful to magnify the file (I like 400%). You may need to practice a
bit to get a signature you are happy with. Ctrl+Z will delete your last effort. Save your file. The next time you need to
send off a signed document, you can open this file, copy your signature (one part at a time), and paste it into the new
document that needs signing.

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 Keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl+Shift+N: go to page. You type in the page number and Acrobat takes you right there. This is great to get back to the
beginning of a page range during data entry, and to check on a particular heading during the index editing process. If you
navigate to a page, then do Ctrl+F for Find, it starts looking on that page.

Ctrl+Y: Magnification size. Quickly expand the text to a readable size.

Ctrl+0 (thats a zero): Zoom to page level. This makes it fast for paging up or down or scrolling through pages.

Ctrl+2: Zoom to full width. Makes reading the PDF easier.

Ctrl+F: Find

Ctrl+Shift+F: Advanced Search

Ctrl+Shift+T (Acrobat X): Crop (useful for splitting two-page spreads)

C (Acrobat XI): Crop (useful for splitting two-page spreads)

Ctrl+Shift+RightArrow: Highlight word to the right

Ctrl+Shift+LeftArrow: Highlight word to the left

For a full list of keyboard shortcuts, see the manual relevant to your software. Page numbers were accurate on August
28, 2015, but check the table of contents Adobe updates the manuals and page numbers may change.

Acrobat 9, page 358

Acrobat X Standard, page 346

Acrobat X Pro, page 484

Acrobat XI, page 27

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Pinning Items to the Quick Tools Bar
Available in Acrobat Standard and Professional

If you are a mouser, or often use features that dont have keyboard shortcuts, you can pin items to the Quick Tools bar.

Place your cursor on the tool bar and right-click. From the menu, select Quick Tools

That brings up the Customize Quick Tools dialog box. You can choose what displays (and doesnt) on your toolbar.

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