Macro Button that invokes an Acrobat PDF search?

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Bob W - 19 Nov 2007 17:02 GMT

It would be wonderful if the great power provided by Acrobat PDF Advanced
Search Options (when PDF full text indexing is used) could be seamlessly
accessed by a Word user within Word, via a hyperlink or macro button. For
example, if a tech writer is writing a proposal and needs to very quickly
scan all past proposals for examples of [whatever], it would be wonderful if
he/she could click on a macro button embedded in the proposal template for
just this purpose. This envisioned macro would provide a dilaog box for the
writer to type in a search phrase, and then it would launch an Acrobat
Advanced Search, automatically passing that search phrase parameter to
Acrobat where all past proposals reside, fully indexed, for this purpose. I
suspect that macro button would also need to name the index(es) that the
template creator intended to be used for that particular macro button. The
overall idea is to get the user to the desired reference info as effortlessly
as possible, rather than requiring them to go through a bunch of screens in
Acrobat. (it takes at over eight mouse clicks to step outside of Word, find
and launch Acrobat Reader, negotiate one's way to the indexed search screen,
specify which indexes to use, and type the desired search phrase...some
people could forget what they were looking for!)

Could it be that I've come up with (gasp) a great new idea, or (more likely)
i'm just describing something that already exists - or can't possibly exist?

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Jay Freedman - 19 Nov 2007 18:34 GMT

Hi Bob,

It's a wonderful dream, but you'll have to ask Adobe to give Acrobat Reader
a new capability first. It doesn't have any way to launch Advanced Search
from the command line.

According to
http://support.adobe.com/devsup/devsup.nsf/docs/51412.htm?OpenDocument you
can pass the name of the PDF file to open, and you can use the /p or /t
switches on the Reader command line to print a PDF file. There are no other
command-line capabilities, or at least none that are documented anywhere
that Google could find.

You can use this Word macro (and assign a toolbar button to it) that will
launch the Reader with one click, but then you'll have to start up Advanced
Search manually with Ctrl+Shift+F.

Sub LaunchAcrobatReader()
' verify that this path is correct on your PC:
Shell "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe", _
vbNormalFocus
End Sub

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Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

> It would be wonderful if the great power provided by Acrobat PDF
> Advanced Search Options (when PDF full text indexing is used) could
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> likely) i'm just describing something that already exists - or can't
> possibly exist?

Reply to this Message

Bob W - 19 Nov 2007 19:44 GMT

Thanks, Jay; I posted the idea on Acrobat's Requested Feature user forum;
maybe someone will notice it. One other minor thing I guess that can be done
to reduce the clicking, is to set Acrobat Reader's edit\preferences to
"always use Advanced Search".

> Hi Bob,
>
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
> > likely) i'm just describing something that already exists - or can't
> > possibly exist?

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