AppendPDF Users Guide

Usage: appendpdf [options] paramFile1 [paramFile2 ...]]
Usage: appendpro [options] paramFile1 [paramFile2 ...]]

-b                  : Include bookmarks
-eb                 : Include embedded files
-extra              : Include named destination links and bookmarks, article threads (recommended)

The Following parameters are available in AppendPDF Pro only

-f                  : Number from first page in output document
-u <string>         : Remove old stamps with UndoLabel

-listfonts          : Print list of available fonts in the appligent_home fonts folder
                      
-portfolio <string> : Build Portfolio; options "icons" or "details", also called portable collections

-vars               : List of variables to be substituted in the Cover, TOC, or Extras stamp File 
                      Example variable list - ( "name,value,name,value" )
-vardelimiter       : Delimiter character for variables in the Stamp File ( default is % )

Save Options

-i                  : Save using an incremental save
-w                  : Save as linearized pdf
-optimize           : Optimize the output file to try to reduce file size
-nocomp             : Do not compress using Object Streams; compatible with all versions of Acrobat
-comp               : Compress using Object Streams; Acrobat 6 and later
-iso32000           : Set file for ISO 32000 compliance (PDF 1.7)
-o                  : Path to the output file or directory

Command List File

-cmds               : Path to the file of commands -cmds only compatible with General Options

Encryption Options

-encrypt            : Encrypt output file
-keylength <int>    : Key Length.  Valid options are 40 and 128.  Default is 128.
-ownerpass <string> : New Owner Password (Required)
-userpass <string>  : New User Password
-noprint            : Do Not Allow Printing
-nomodify           : Do Not Allow Modifying the Document
-nocopy             : Do Not Allow Copying text or graphics
-nonotes            : Do Not Allow Adding or changing notes or form fields
-nofill             : Do Not Allow Fill or Sign of Form Fields
-noaccess           : Do Not Allow Accessibility
-noassembly         : Do Not Allow Document Assembly
-nohighres          : Do Not Allow High Resolution Printing

General Options

-v                  : Version information
-help               : Help information
-h                  : Help information
-l                  : Log to a file
-p                  : Show progress information
-n                  : Show no information on the screen
-r <string>         : Product registration code

Introduction

AppendPDF is a command-line-driven application that appends pages of one or many PDF documents to create one new document. AppendPDF is designed to run in tandem with other processes in an unattended environment and to handle high-volume and on-demand production needs.

Memory Requirements

Minimum free memory available to run the application: 512 MBytes

Windows Installation

Windows installation is handled by the installer and does not require any special handling.

Unix Installation

Setting environmental variables (All Unix Platforms)

In this release, there are two additional environmental variables that need to be set for AppendPDF on all UNIX platforms. If you run AppendPDF from the appendpdf script created during installation, these environmental variables will be set by the script. If you run appendpdfapp directly, you will need to set these environmental variables to run AppendPDF. Once AppendPDF is installed, you can view the variables needed by looking at the appendpdf script created by the installer. 

Setting the Appligent home directory (All Unix Platforms)

The environmental variable that stores the location of the Appligent home directory is APPLIGENT_HOME. The default location for the Appligent home directory is /usr/local/appligent. The Appligent home directory contains the library files and resources needed to run AppendPDF. It also contains license information for AppendPDF.

Example:

export APPLIGENT_HOME=/usr/local/appligent

Setting the APDFL library path (All Unix except AIX)

The APDFL library path must be added to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable. The APDFL library path is located in a subdirectory of the APPLIGENT_HOME directory.

The path should be set to ${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Example:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Setting the APDFL library path ( AIX Only )

The APDFL library path for AIX must be added to the LIBPATH variable. The APDFL library path is located in a subdirectory of the APPLIGENT_HOME directory.

The path should be set to ${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Example:

export LIBPATH=${LIBPATH}:${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Registration numbers for AppendPDF

In previous versions of AppendPDF, the AppendPDF registration number was required as a command line option with the -r flag each time appendpdfapp was run. A appendpdf script was provided that automatically added -r and the registration number to the appendapp command line when the script was run.

In the current release, in addition to getting the registration number from the command line, AppendPDF can get the registration number from a license file in the appligent home directory. License files are created by the installation script and stored in the ${APPLIGENT_HOME}/license directory. With a valid license file, the -r is no longer required on the command line. The -r option can still be used as in previous versions, and will override the value in the license file.

Introduction

The element <appendparam> specifies that this is an AppendPDF Pro or AppendPDF parameter file. It has one attribute, version, which should be 1.0. The table below describes the attributes of the element <appendparam>.

Content of the <appendparam> Element

Element	Level	Required	Content
<appendparam version=”1.0″>	Top		Topmost element, contains entire parameter spec
+ <outputpdf>	2		The name of the new, appended file
+ <sourcepdfs>	2		Input files to be appended
+ <docinfo>	2		Document information
+ <extras>	2		Modes for opening and displaying files

XML Code Sample

<appendparam version="1.0">
     Insert parameter specifications here
</appendparam>

Introduction

The element <outputpdf> specifies the output file for the appended document. The following table lists all the elements and their attributes along with the tree view.

The table below describes the elements specifying <outputpdf>.

Contents of the <outputpdf> Element

Element	Level	Pro	Required	Content
<appendparam version=”1.0″>	Top			Topmost element, contains entire parameter spec
<outputpdf>	2			The name of the new, appended file
<file>	3			Text: Name and path of the new, appended file
+ <sourcepdfs>	2			Input files to be appended
+ <docinfo>	2			Document information

XML Code Sample

To specify an output file, outputfile.pdf, insert the code:

<appendparam version="1.0">
   <outputpdf>
      <file>
         /fullpath/outputfile.pdf
      </file>
   </outputpdf>
<!-- . Indicates skipped sections -->
<!-- . -->
<!-- . -->
</appendparam>

Element for <outputpdf>

file

Specifies the path and filename of the output, appended PDF file.

Introduction

The element <sourcepdfs> specifies the input files, page ranges, and Table of Contents entry text for the appended document. You can specify more than one input file. To specify multiple page ranges from one file, specify an inputpdf, using the same file, for each page range.

The table below describes the elements specifying <sourcepdfs>.

Contents of the <sourcepdfs> Element

Element	Level	Required	Content
<appendparam version=”1.0″>	Top		Topmost element, contains entire parameter spec
<sourcepdfs>	2		Input files to be appended
<inputpdf>	3		Input PDF file
<file>	4		Text: Name and path of input file
<startpage>	4		Text: Start page of range to extract
<endpage>	4		Text: End page of range to extract
+ <inputpdf>	3		Additional PDF Files

XML Code Sample

Specifying an input file.

<appendparam version="1.0">
 <!-- .  Indicates skipped sections--> 
 <!-- . -->
 <!-- . -->
   <sourcepdfs>
      <inputpdf>
         <file>
            /fullpath/input1.pdf
         </file>
         <startpage>
            3
         </startpage>
         <endpage>
            10
         </endpage>
         <TOCEntry>
            Input File 1
         </TOCEntry>
      </inputpdf>
   </sourcepdfs>
<!-- . -->
<!-- . -->
<!-- . -->
</appendparam>

Elements for <sourcepdfs>

inputpdf

Specifies the details of an input file.

You can specify more than one file by including multiple sets of <inputpdf> tags.

file

Specifies the path and filename of an input PDF file.

startpage, endpage

Specifies the start page and end page of a range of pages to extract and append to the output document. The example above will extract pages 3 through 10 of the input document.

Specifying page ranges

The following notes apply to specifying page ranges:

TOCEntry (AppendPDF Pro only)

Specifies the text to use in the Table of Contents to identify this range of pages. <TOCEntry> is only used if you include a TOC page, see Table of Contents — XML. If you want to append an <inputpdf> without an entry in the Table of Contents, use an empty <TOCEntry> tag as shown below:

<TOCEntry/>

Examples

For clarity, the following examples use truncated path names. We recommend that you use full path names for all files. The following examples are from the sample files included with AppendPDF Pro.

Including the entire file

To include the entire file, do not specify a page range:

<sourcepdfs>
   <inputpdf>
      <file>
         ./samples/pdfs/sample1.pdf
      </file>
   </inputpdf>
</sourcepdfs>

To explicitly specify all pages in a file and a TOC entry

<sourcepdfs>
   <inputpdf>
      <file>
         ./samples/pdfs/sample1.pdf
      </file>
      <startpage>
         1
      </startpage>
      <endpage>
         -1
      </endpage>
      <TOCEntry>
         sample document 1
      </TOCEntry>
   </inputpdf>
</sourcepdfs>

Other examples

The following additional examples use a generic example file.

Including one page of a file

To include only page 7 of a file:

<sourcepdfs>
   <inputpdf>
      <file>
         ./samples/example.pdf
      </file>
      <startpage>
         7
      </startpage>
      <endpage>
         7
      </endpage>
      <TOCEntry>
         example document, page 7
      </TOCEntry>
   </inputpdf>
</sourcepdfs>

Including a range to the end of the file

To include from page 7 to the end of the file:

<sourcepdfs>
   <inputpdf>
      <file>
         ./samples/example.pdf
      </file>
      <startpage>
         7
      </startpage>
      <endpage>
         -1
      </endpage>
      <TOCEntry>
         example document, page 7 to end
      </TOCEntry>
   </inputpdf>
</sourcepdfs>

Including the last page only

To specify the last page when you are not sure what number it will be:

<sourcepdfs>
   <inputpdf>
      <file>
         ./samples/example.pdf
      </file>
      <startpage>
         -1
      </startpage>
      <endpage>
         -1
      </endpage>
      <TOCEntry>
         example document, last page
      </TOCEntry>
   </inputpdf>
</sourcepdfs>

Introduction

The element <docinfo> specifies values for fields Acrobat uses in its document information feature. You can specify values for the following information fields:

The table below describes the elements of <docinfo>.

Contents of the <docinfo> Element

Element	Level	Required	Content
<appendparam version=”1.0″>	Top		Topmost element, contains entire parameter spec
⇔ <docinfo>	2		Document Information
<infopair>	3		Specifies a key-value pair
<key>	4		Text: Information field name
<value>	4		Text: Information field value

XML Code Sample

<appendparam version="1.0">
 <!-- . Indicates skipped sections -->
 <!-- . -->
 <!-- . -->
   <docinfo>
      <infopair>
         <key>
             Title
         </key>
         <value>
             Using AppendPDF Pro
         </value>
      </infopair>
   </docinfo>
 <!-- . -->
 <!-- . -->
 <!-- . -->
 </appendparam>

Elements for <docinfo>

infopair

Specifies a key-value pair as described below.

key

Specifies the Document Information field to set:

• Title
• Subject
• Author
• Keywords
• Custom

You can set a single key or any combination of keys.

value

Specifies the value of the Document Information field specified by <key>.

Usage notes for the elements of <docinfo>

Custom fields

• Custom fields can be either strings or dates. These fields will appear in the document information window within Acrobat, and can be searched using Adobe Catalog, or retrieved using Appligent’s APGetInfo utility.
• A string can consist of any name and text value that would add meaningful meta data information to the document.
• A date must be of the format (D:YYYYMMDDHHmmSSOHH’ mm’), where:

YYYY is the year: required
MM is the month (01-12): optional/default = 01
DD is the day (01–X1): optional/default = 01
HH is the hour (00–2X): optional/default = 00
mm is the minute (00–59): optional/default = 00
SS is the second (00–59): optional/default = 00
O is the relationship of local time to Universal Time (UT): optional/default = unknown
+ means local time is later than UT
– means local time is earlier than UT
Z means local time is UT
HH’ is the absolute value of the offset from UT in hours (00–2X)
mm’ is the absolute value of the offset from UT in minutes (00–59)

• Adobe Catalog can perform boolean searches on dates, for example, finding an invoice after 2006 but before 2008.

Example

   <docinfo>

    <infopair>
      <key>Author</key>
      <value>Appligent, Inc.</value>
    </infopair>

    <infopair>
      <key>Title</key>
      <value>AppendPDF Pro Test</value>
    </infopair>

    <infopair>
      <key>Subject</key>
      <value>testing AppendPDF Pro with sample files</value>
    </infopair>

    <infopair>
      <key>Keywords</key>
      <value>testing AppendPDF Pro sample files</value>
    </infopair>

    <infopair>
      <key>ExtraText</key>
      <value>AppendPDF Pro document</value>
    </infopair>

    <infopair>
      <key>DocDate</key>
      <value>D:200707142X2059+04’00’</value>
    </infopair>

  </docinfo>

Introduction

The element <extras> specifies additional attributes you may want to define for the output file. You can specify:

• Open mode — whether Acrobat will show the navigation pane with bookmarks, thumbnails, or not at all.
• Bookmark mode — how bookmarks will be displayed in the Bookmark pane.
• View mode — the zoom level at which Acrobat opens the document.
• Open to page — the page number to which you want the document to open.
• Stamp file — a stamp file to stamp any optional text or images onto the body of the document. (AppendPDF Pro only)
• Display Mode — the display properties of the Acrobat window when a document is opened.
• Layout mode — The screen layout at which Acrobat will display the document.

The table below describes the elements of <extras>.

Contents of the <extras> Element

Element	Level	Required	Content
<appendparam version=”1.0″>	Top		Topmost element, contains entire parameter spec
⇔ <extras>	2		Specifies how a document should open
<openmode>	3		Specifies navigation mode in which file should open
OR <showbookmarks>	4		Empty: Specifies that bookmarks should show
OR <showthumbnails>	4		Empty: Specifies that thumbnails should show
OR <shownone>	4		Empty: Specifies only the document should show
OR <fullscreen>	4		Empty: File opens in full screen mode
<opentopage>	3		Text: Specifies page at which the file should open
<viewmode>	3		Specifies the view that the file should open in
OR <actualsize>	4		Empty: File opens actual size
OR <fitheight>	4		Empty: File opens so window fits full height
OR <fitpage>	4		Empty: File opens so window fits full page
OR <fitvisible>	4		Empty: File opens so visible area fits the window
OR <fitwidth>	4		Empty: File opens to fit full width of window
<bookmarkmode>	3		Specifies the initial state of bookmarks
OR <openbookmarks>	4		Empty: Show all bookmarks
OR <closebookmarks>	4		Empty: Collapse all bookmarks
OR <openlevel>	4		Specifies number of bookmark levels shown
<layoutmode>	3		Specifies the initial display layout mode
OR <single>	4		Empty: One page at a time
OR <onecolumn>	4		Empty: Pages in a continuous vertical column
OR <twocolleft>	4		Empty: Two pages side by side, first page left
OR <twocolright>	4		Empty: Two pages side by side, first page right
<displaymode>	3		Specifies the initial window display mode
OR <hidetoolbar>	4		Empty: File opens with tool bar hidden
OR <hidemenubar>	4		Empty: File opens with menu bar hidden
OR <hidewinui>	4		Empty: File opens without window controls
OR <fitwin>	4		Empty: Window opens resized to fit the first page
OR <centerwin>	4		Empty: Centers document window on screen
OR <showtitle>	4		Empty: Displays document title on title bar

XML Code Sample

<appendparam version="1.0">
 <!-- . Indicates skipped sections -->
 <!-- . -->
 <!-- . -->
   <extras>
      <stampfile>
         /fullpath/stampfile.txt
      </stampfile>
      <opentopage>
         5
      </opentopage>
      <openmode>
 <!-- Choose only one of the 4 options -->
         <showbookmarks/>
         <showthumbnails/>
         <shownone/>
         <fullscreen/>
      </openmode>
      <bookmarkmode>
 <!-- Choose only one of the 3 options -->
         <openbookmarks/>
         <closebookmarks/>
         <openlevel/>
      </bookmarkmode>
      <viewmode>
 <!-- Choose only one of the 5 options -->
         <actualsize/>
         <fitheight/>
         <fitpage/>
         <fitvisible/>
         <fitwidth/>
      </viewmode>
      <layoutmode>
 <!-- Choose only one of the 4 options -->
         <single/>
         <onecolumn/>
         <twocolleft/>
         <twocolright/>
      </layoutmode>
      <displaymode>
 <!-- Choose one or more of the 6 options -->
         <hidetoolbar/>
         <hidemenubar/>
         <hidewinui/>
         <fitwin/>
         <centerwin/>
         <showtitle/>
      </displaymode>
   </extras>
</appendparam>

Elements of <extras>

opentopage

The page number at which to open the document.

stampfile (AppendPDF Pro only)

Specifies the path and filename of a stamp file for the appended document. These stamps will not be added to the cover page or the Table of Contents.

viewmode

Specifies the zoom level when the document opens.

actualsize

The document opens at actual size.

fitheight

The document opens so the full height of the page fits into the document window.

fitpage

The document opens so the full page fits into the document window.

fitvisible

The document opens so the visible area of the page fits into the document window.

fitwidth

The document opens so the full width of the page fits into the document window.

bookmarkmode

Specifies the initial state of the document’s bookmarks in the navigation pane.

openbookmarks

Expands the bookmark list to show all bookmarks in the navigation pane when the document is opened.

closebookmarks

Collapses the bookmark list to show only the top level bookmarks in the navigation pane when the document is opened.

openlevel

Expands the bookmark list through level n. For example, for n=3, all bookmarks up to and including the third level are shown. The fourth and higher level bookmarks are collapsed.

layoutmode

Specifies the display page layout when the document opens.

single

Displays one page at a time.

onecolumn

Arranges the pages in a continuous vertical column.

twocolleft

Arranges two pages side by side, the first page on the left.

twocolright

Arranges two pages side by side, the first page on the right.

displaymode

Specifies the window display mode when the document opens. You can specify more than one option.

hidetoolbar

Specifies that the Acrobat tool bar will not be displayed when the document opens.

hidemenubar

Specifies that the Acrobat menu bar will not be displayed when the document opens.

hidewinui

Specifies that the Acrobat window controls will not be displayed when the document opens.

fitwin

Resizes the document window to fit the first page when the document opens.

centerwin

Centers the document window on the screen when the document opens.

showtitle

Displays the document title, rather than the file name, on the title bar and the Windows menu.

Usage notes for the elements of <extras>

Cover pages, Table of Contents pages and body pages each use an independent stamp file. Stamps listed in the Extras section are applied only to the body pages, and will not affect the cover or the TOC pages of the output PDF.

Example

The example specifies using extrasstamp.txt as the stampfile; opentopage is page 7; viewmode as fit the full document width to the window; openmode set to show bookmarks and bookmarkmode displaying 3 levels of bookmarks. displaymode will be set to center the window on screen and show the document title in the title bar.

   <extras>
      <stampfile>
         /fullpath/extrasstamp.txt
      </stampfile>
      <opentopage>
         7
      </opentopage>
      <viewmode>
         <fitwidth/>
      </viewmode>
      <openmode>
         <showbookmarks/>
      </openmode>
      <bookmarkmode>
         <openlevel>
            3
         </openlevel>
      </bookmarkmode>
      <displaymode>
         <centerwin/>
         <showtitle/>
      </displaymode>
   </extras

Introduction

The Source Files Block is required. Following the first line of the parameter file is the list of input or source files that AppendPDF Pro or AppendPDF will use to create the new document. Before beginning the list you must enter the keyword begin_source and at the end of the list insert the keyword end_source. Files will be appended in the order that they appear in the source files list. After each filename are commas and page numbers; this is the notation that AppendPDF Pro and AppendPDF uses for specifying pages and page ranges. Specifying pages is discussed in detail below.

This is an example source file block:

begin_source
Sample1.pdf
Sample2.pdf,1,2
Sample3.pdf,1,1
Sample3.pdf,3,3
Sample4.pdf,2,4
end_source

It is important to make sure that none of your source files have names with commas in them. Since AppendPDF Pro and AppendPDF uses commas for describing page ranges, it will try to interpret any comma it sees as being a part of page information. Each parameter file can have only one source files block. Extra source blocks will be ignored.

Specifying page ranges in your source files block

In AppendPDF and AppendPDF Pro page ranges are delimited by commas. In the source files block shown above, each file has a range of pages specified. The different ways for specifying which pages you want to use are described below. When specifying pages do not insert spaces between file names and commas, or commas and numbers.

• If no pages are specified with a file, all pages from that file will be appended to the new document. For example:

Sample1.pdf

• To specify a single page to append from a file, after the file name add a comma, the page number to be appended, another comma and the same page number. This indicates that the beginning and ending page are the same, as in Sample3.pdf below:

Sample3.pdf,1,1

• To specify a range of pages place a comma after the file name, the number of the first page in the range, another comma, and the last page number of the range. The following example of Sample4.pdf specifies the range of pages 2 through 4:

Sample4.pdf,2,4

• To specify multiple, non-contiguous pages from a single document, multiple entries need to be made in the parameter file. Below, see that Sample3.pdf is listed twice, once to add page 1 and a second time to add page 3:

Sample3.pdf,1,1
Sample3.pdf,3,3

• To specify all pages from a specific page in a document, list the starting page only. Appending will start from this page and go to the end of the document. The sample below will append pages 2 through the end of Sample3.pdf:

Sample3.pdf,2

• To specify that only the last page of a document be appended, use the special notation -1 as shown with Sample2.pdf below:

Sample2.pdf,-1

sample4.pdf,2,-1

Introduction

The Document Information Block is optional. Within Adobe Acrobat there is a feature to view information about a file by choosing Document Properties from the File menu. With AppendPDF Pro and AppendPDF it is possible to populate certain fields of the Document Info with the parameter file. A sample of a Document Properties dialog screen from Acrobat is shown below.

Document Info screen

Below is a Document Info screen in Acrobat for a Sample PDF, also called Document Properties.

Title, Author, Subject, and Keywords are fields in the Document Info screen as shown in the figure above. These are the fields that can be modified by AppendPDF Pro and AppendPDF. Enter values in the parameter file as you would like to see them appear when you call up the Document Properties in Acrobat. The fields Title, Subject and Author refer to information specific to that document. Keywords (this is Acrobat’s Keywords, not to be confused with the many other references to keywords in this manual) are usually simple words used for sorting and grouping (December, ProjectX, personal, etc.) and are useful for those who will be indexing their documents with Acrobat Catalog and would like to improve searching efficiency. More about indexing can be found in the Acrobat Guide or the Reader Guide if you don’t have the full version of Acrobat. (Either guide can be found under the Help menu of its respective application.)

To specify document information in a parameter file, list the name of the field followed by its value in parentheses. Before beginning this section the keyword begin_info must be added to the parameter file. At the end of the list close the section with the end_infokeyword:

begin_info
Title (AppendPDF Pro Test)
Subject (testing AppendPDF Pro with sample files)
Author (Appligent, Inc.)
Keywords (testing AppendPDF Pro sample files)
end_info

There is no set number of tabs or spaces that need to appear between the field name and the value in parentheses, as long as there is at least one tab or space. Also, if you do not want to include a Document Info field (for example, if you want Title and Subject, but not Author and Keywords) make sure that keyword is not listed in the Document Info block. Items listed with empty parentheses will cause AppendPDF or AppendPDF Pro to fail.

Make sure that all Document Info keywords (Title, Subject, Author, Keywords) are spelled correctly or AppendPDF and AppendPDF Pro will treat them as custom strings. Custom strings are discussed in the next section.

Optional Custom Information to Add within Document Info

AppendPDF and AppendPDF Pro support two custom field types: strings and dates. These can be added within the Document Info block of the AppendPDF or AppendPDF Pro parameter file which saves them in the keywords section of the Document Properties. The keywords can then be indexed with Acrobat Catalog.

The name of a custom string can be anything you want. Give it any name that will have meaning to you and/or be easy for you to remember. For example:

String1 (This file created by AppendPDF Pro)

or

ExtraText (AppendPDF Pro document)

Custom dates need to conform to the format D:YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. Acrobat Catalog allows dates to be searched using boolean operators. You can tell Catalog to find, for example, invoices whose date is greater than 1999 and less than 2000. A custom date in the Document Info block of the parameter file can be entered as:

DocDate (D:20170714235659)

This example indicates a date of 14 July 2017 with a time of 23:56:59.

Adding Comments

Comments in your parameter file are lines of text that you don’t want to be read by AppendPDF Pro or AppendPDF. They can be either notes to yourself or descriptions of what something does or is used for, which can be useful if others will be accessing the file. Additionally, comments can be used for testing or debugging. You may want to prevent a file from being used in the source list, instead of deleting and retyping the name of the file you can simply “comment it out”. Comments start with the hash or number symbol: # and must be placed at the beginning of a line:

#This is a comment in my parameter file.

The following is an incorrect comment:

begin_source #beginning of the file list

Complete Parameter File Example

Now that we have gone through all of the pieces of a parameter file, we show one in its entirety. This example is almost the same as the sample paramscomplete.txt parameter file that comes with your copy of AppendPDF Pro. The example below uses all the parameter options.

#Complete Parameter file for use with AppendPDF Pro with a cover letter

#Name for the new, appended file
./samples/paramsletter.pdf

#List of files and pages for appending with text for Table of Contents
begin_source
./samples/pdfs/sample1.pdf,1,-1,(sample document 1)
./samples/pdfs/sample2.pdf,1,-1,(sample document 2)
./samples/pdfs/sample3.pdf,1,-1,(sample document 3)
./samples/pdfs/sample4.pdf,1,-1,(sample document 4)
end_source

#Cover page block
begin_coverpage
CoverPage (./samples/pdfs/lettersample.pdf)
StampFile (./samples/stampfiles/letterstamp.txt)
end_coverpage

#Table of Contents block
begin_TOC
TOCPage (./samples/pdfs/toc.pdf)
StampFile (./samples/stampfiles/tocstamp.txt)
BookMarkText (TOC Page)
HeaderHeight (100)
FooterHeight (240)
LeftMargin (20)
RightMargin (20)
FontName (Helvetica)
FontSize (14)
ColorSpace (DeviceRGB)
Red (0)
Blue (44)
Green (87)
LineSpace (3)
Leader (.)
PageColumnWidth (40)
end_TOC

#document info block
begin_info
Title (AppendPDF Pro Test)
Subject (testing AppendPDF Pro with sample files)
Author (Appligent, Inc.)
Keywords (testing AppendPDF Pro sample files)
ExtraText (AppendPDF Pro document)
DocDate (D:20170714235659)
end_info

#Extras block for Stamp Files
begin_extras
Open_Mode (ShowBookmarks)
View_Mode (FitPage)
end_extras

#End of parameter file

The parameter file is a text document which requires the new file name and the list of documents to append. The document information is optional. The Cover page, TOC, and Extras blocks are also optional and used only with AppendPDF Pro.

When this example file is run with AppendPDF Pro, the user will get an output file called appendprocomplete.pdf that contains all of the pages listed in the Source files block of the parameter file.

When File > Document Properties or File > Properties is selected in Acrobat, the Title, Subject, Author, and Keywords fields will be populated with the information as shown in the Document Info block of the sample parameter file. A custom string and date have been added for searching with Acrobat Catalog.

The pages of the appended documents (not the cover or the table of contents) will be stamped by the stamp file listed in the Extras block.

In this chapter…

…you will learn about the options available within AppendPDF.

AppendPDF Options

Refer to General Command-Line Options for details on the general options.
Refer to Applying Standard Security for more information about the security options and working with encrypted documents.

The following is an example of command syntax for AppendPDF.

$ appendpdf [options] parameterfile1.txt [parameterfile2.txt...]

The table below shows command-line options for AppendPDF.

Options summary

-cmds — Allows you to process a collection of commands at one time  (optional)

To process multiple commands quickly and efficiently, use the -cmds <filename> option.  The file specified by -cmds, the commands file, should contain one or more single-line commands.  Each command is just like an ordinary AppendPDF command line without the executable name. The commands file does not support wildcards in file names. The following is an example of command-line syntax when running with -cmds:

$ ./appendpdf -p -l logfile.txt -cmds CommandFile.txt

CommandFile.txt contains a list of commands for AppendPDF to process. Below is an example of CommandFile.txt:

-p -iso32000 /appligent/appendpdf/samples/parameters.txt
-p -iso32000 /appligent/appendpdf/samples/paramsbasic.xml
-p -optimize /appligent/appendpdf/samples/tutorial.txt
-p -w /appligent/appendpdf/samples/paramscomplete.xml

-b — Include bookmarks (optional)

Specifies to include the bookmarks of the original PDF files in the new, appended document. If a page (or pages) from an input document has a bookmark, that bookmark will appear in the bookmarks list, in the correct order, in the final appended document.

Note: AppendPDF handles bookmarks that have been created using “Named Destinations” in a special way. If a file has bookmarks with Named Destinations and you append it using -b, AppendPDF will convert the Named Destinations to Regular Destinations and then make the bookmark. Other Named Destinations that are not bookmarks will be ignored.

-extra — Copy named destination bookmarks/links and article threads (optional)

This flag will copy any named destination bookmarks/links, and article threads into the appended document. The -extra flag will only include named destination bookmarks/links and article threads when appending complete documents.  If you are specify a page range for your input files and -extra is on the command line,  no extra bookmarks or article threads will be copied over into the appended document.

-eb — Keep embedded files (optional)

AppendPDF will keep any embedded files included in input files as part of the final output file. This option supports any file type that Adobe Acrobat can embed into a PDF document.

In this chapter…

…you will learn how to run AppendPDF on the command line.

• Running AppendPDF gives examples of running the AppendPDF software with various configurations of command-line options.
• AppendPDF Examples runs through the sample files included.

Running AppendPDF

This section gives a variety of examples to help guide you through using AppendPDF on the command-line.

• The basic command
• Using more than one parameter file
• Using wild cards
• Keeping bookmarks and using most options

The basic command

The simplest form of the AppendPDF command, shown on Windows is:

> .\appendpdf .\Samples\parameters.xml

This creates a new output file defined in parameters.xml as parameters_xml.pdf in AppendPDF, appending the pages from the documents listed there.

Using more than one parameter file

AppendPDF can process multiple parameter files at one time. Use the -l and -p options to create a log file. Progress and error messages are printed to the specified log file, and to the screen, as shown below on UNIX:

$ ./appendpdf -p -l logfile.txt ./samples/parameters.xml./samples/tutorial.xml

Processing parameter file : ./samples/parameters.xml
Output : ./samples/parameters_xml.pdf
Appending source files...
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample1.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample2.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample3.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample4.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample3.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample3.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample4.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample4.pdf
done.

Processing parameter file : ./samples/tutorial.xml
Output : ./samples/tutorial_xml.pdf
Appending source files...
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample1.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample2.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample3.pdf
Appended : ./samples/pdfs/sample4.pdf
done.
AppendPDF completed successfully.

Make sure that all path names are correct for all files listed on the command line and in the parameter file.

If the same documents are used in different parameter files, AppendPDF will open and close them separately, each time they are needed. To process three separate parameter files, param1.xml, param2.xml, and param3.xml:

$ ./appendpdf ./path/param1.xml ./path/param2.xml ./path/param3.xml

Using wild cards

Instead of listing all the files on the command line, use ? or * to match one or more characters in a filename:

param?.xml processes any file named “param” and any single character and a .xml extension:

$ ./appendpdf param?.xml

*.xml processes any file in the current working directory with the .xml extension:

$ ./appendpdf *.xml

param* processes any file in the current working directory with “param” in its file name, both xml and txt files:

$ ./appendpdf param*

* processes all files in the current working directory both xml and txt files:

$ ./appendpdf *

Keeping bookmarks in appended files

Use the -b option in AppendPDF to keep bookmarks:

$ ./appendpdf -b ./samples/parameters.xml

If a page in a source document is bookmarked, the bookmark for that page will appear in the bookmarks list in the order that the page appears in the new appended document.

Using most options together

You may combine any AppendPDF options together in one command:

$ ./appendpdf -p -l mylog.txt -b ./samples/parameters.xml

The output from this command will be a document as named in parameters.xml, with bookmarks. The screen will show progress information and all progress will be written to the log file, mylog.txt.

AppendPDF Examples

Here we examine some of the samples in the “Samples” subdirectory of AppendPDF.

A basic append

Find the parameter file in the Samples directory.

To append the sample files:

1. Change your working directory to the AppendPDF directory.The parameter file parameters.xml uses relative paths from here for all files. The example will fail if you do not run from this directory.

   The default location for AppendPDF on Windows is:

   C:\Appligent\AppendPDF

   On other platforms, it will be wherever you installed it.

2. Enter the following command for UNIX and Mac OS X:

   $./appendpdf ./samples/parameters.xml

   or in Windows:

   > .\appendpdf .\samples\parameters.xml

3. Open the output file ./samples/parameters_xml.pdf in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to see the results of the sample files appended together.

Running the other samples

AppendPDF includes another example parameter file named tutorial.xml. Run this one for more examples of what AppendPDF can do.

Introduction

AppendPDF is a command-line application. If you are used to the Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X operating system, you may not be familiar with running command-line tools. This section shows you all you need to get started.

• Windows tells you how to use AppendPDF on Windows.
  
  

Windows

To run AppendPDF in Windows, you need to open a Command Prompt window.

In Windows 7:

• Click Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt

In Windows 10:

• Click Start > Windows System > Command Prompt

The Command Prompt window opens.

Some basic commands

At the command prompt, you type each command, and press the Enter key to execute it. You can use the mouse to select text to copy or cut to the clipboard, but you cannot position the cursor with it. The command line is completely keyboard driven. Navigation keys are shown below:

In addition to running programs, you have many commands to navigate and maintain the system. Two important ones are cd and dir.

Changing directories

Use the cd command to change directories. For example, to change to the directory that AppendPDF is located in, type:

C:\>cd \Appligent\AppendPDF\

The command prompt changes to:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>

to show you where you are.

To move back one level, use the shortcut of two periods (..)

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>cd..

Don’t forget to press the Enter key after every command. You will now be in this directory:

C:\Appligent>

Move back to AppendPDF:

C:\Appligent>cd AppendPDF

Listing the contents of a directory

Use the dir command to list the contents of a directory:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>dir

The computer responds with a listing of all the contents of the AppendPDF directory.

If the directory contents fly by too fast to read, do this:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>dir /p

The /p switch tells DOS to display one page at a time. Press the Enter key to see the next page.

To see the contents of all the subdirectories at the same time, type:

C:\Appligent\AppendPDF>dir /s

This displays the contents of AppendPDF and all the subdirectories under it.

Running AppendPDF

To run AppendPDF, type the commands on the command line as shown in other sections of this manual and press Enter. In the next example, we’ve truncated the command prompt path for clarity. A simple command would be:

> .\appendpdf \path\samples\parameters.xml

The parameters.xml file contains all the parameters to create a complete compiled PDF document.

Now, refer to the rest of this User Guide for details about using AppendPDF.

E-mail

Telephone & Fax

• Telephone: +1 610 284 4006
• Fax: +1 610 284 4233

A member of our friendly, knowledgeable support staff will reply as soon as possible, generally within one business day.

International Support

Customers from locations outside the United States, including Germany, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia can contact us directly or connect with one of our many resellers.

When contacting support please provide the following information:

• Name of the Product
• Product Version Number
• Operating System
• Your Name
• Company Name
• Your Email Address
• Your Phone Number
• Product Registration Number
• Any files to help us reproduce your problem (if needed)

New Features

Please see the AppendPDF Options for the full documentation of the new features.

AppendPDF 5.5

Fixed in this release

Options set in Advanced Tab of the first input PDF file are copied over into the output appended document.  In previous versions of AppendPDF, if a Language was set in the first input file, the Language was not copied into the appended document.

Document property information was not getting overwritten in the output file if the first input PDF already contained data in the fields (Title, Author, Subject).  In version 5.5, document property fields are now properly updated with the information set in the parameter file.

AppendPDF 5.1

-cmds <filename>

To process multiple commands quickly and efficiently, use the -cmds <filename> option. The file specified by -cmds, the commands file, should contain one or more single line commands. Each command is just like an ordinary StampPDF Batch command-line without the executable name. The commands file does not support wildcards in filenames.

When you use the -cmds option, many of the StampPDF Batch options should be set in the -cmds file instead of on the command line. The following options are supported on the command line when using the -cmds option:
-r, -l, -n, -p

If the same option is set on the command line and in the a record of the -cmds file, the option value from the -cmds file record will be used.

For more information on the -cmds option, see Command Collections.

AppendPDF 5.0

For document optimization, use -optimize. This flag reduces file size in most instances, and performs a variety of functions:

• encode any non-encoded streams using Flate compression
• remove ASCII85 filters from all streams
• replace LZW encoded streams with Flate encoding
• merge identical XObjects and images
• optimize common sequences in page content
• merge identical font descriptors and encodings

To maximize compression, use -comp.  This flag will apply object level compression, typically reducing file size by 2%.

Note: PDF files support the simultaneous use of multiple types of compression. Object level compression was developed by Adobe Systems to reduce the size of PDF files, with a typical reduction of 2%. The object level compression mechanism is not always understood by older versions of Acrobat or third party PDF software, and limits compatibility to Acrobat 6 or higher.

To not use object level compression, use, -nocomp. This flag will not add object level compression and will remove object level compression, if found; resulting in a document that is compatible with all versions of Acrobat.

To create an ISO 32000 compliant PDF, use -iso32000. This flag sets the output file version for ISO 32000 compliance (Adobe PDF version 1.7).

• -b on command line: All bookmarks from the original files are copied into the appended document. NEW behavior for version 5.0: If an input file does not have ANY bookmarks, a top level bookmark is created. The name of the bookmark will be the “Title” of the PDF. If there is no “Title” set, then the name of the PDF will be the name used for the bookmark.  JavaScript bookmarks are now also supported. Top level bookmarks are always expanded.
• -extra: This flag will copy any named destination bookmarks/links, and article threads into the appended document. If this flag is on the command line AND a page range is specified for an input file, no extra bookmarks or article threads will be copied over into the appended document

AppendPDF 4.3

• New XML Parameters: Additional functionality has been added to the XML which provide more control over the appearance of the output PDF document.

• <extras>: This new element specifies additional attributes you may want to define for the output file.
• <opentopage>: The page number at which to open the document.
• <openmode>: Specifies what is displayed when the document opens in Acrobat. Options for openmode are:
  • <showbookmarks>: The document opens with the bookmarks navigation panel showing
  • <showthumbnails>: The document opens with the thumbnails navigation panel showing.
  • <shownone>: The document opens with no navigation panels showing.
  • <fullscreen>: The document will open in the fullscreen mode.
• <viewmode>: Specifies the zoom level when the document opens. Options for viewmode are:
  • <bookmarkmode>: Specifies the initial state of the document’s bookmarks in the navigation pane. This does not affect the visibility of the bookmark pane.
  • <openbookmarks>: Expands the bookmark list to show all bookmarks in the navigation pane when the document is opened.
  • <closebookmarks>: Collapses the bookmark list to show only the top level bookmarks in the navigation pane when the document is opened.
  • <openlevel>: Expands the bookmark list through level n. For example, n=3, all bookmarks up to and including the third level are shown. The fourth and higher level bookmarks are collapsed.
• <layoutmode>: Specifies the display page layout when the document opens.
  • <single>: Displays one page at a time.
  • <onecolumn>: Arranges the pages in a continuous vertical column.
  • <twocolleft>: Arranges two pages side by side, the first page on the left.
  • <twocolright>: Arranges two pages side by side, the first page on the right.
• <displaymode>: Specifies the window display mode when the document opens. You can specify more than one option.
  • <hidetoolbar>: Specifies that the tool bar will not be displayed when the document opens.
  • <hidemenubar>: Specifies that the menu bar will not be displayed when the document opens.
  • <hidewinui>: Specifies that window controls will not be displayed when the document opens.
  • <fitwin>: Resizes the document window to fit the first page when the document opens.
  • <centerwin>: Centers the document window on the screen when the document opens.
  • <showtitle>: Displays the document title, rather than the filename, on the title bar and the Windows menu.

Fixed Issues

• -n – Do not write anything to screen. The option to not write anything to the screen (or STDOUT) now works.
• Links with named destinations, articles and threads can be copied into the appended document by including the -extra flag on the command line.
• The -eb flag to include embedded files is not working in this version.

Known Issues

Stamping and Setting Doc Info

Occasional problem with setting and stamping doc info (title, author, subject) on document.

Verification of correctly formed XML files

Occasionally, AppendPDF will not verify a correctly formed XML file when the DTD is included in the XML file. AppendPDF returns the error message “Error in parameter file.” To run a file that gives this error with AppendPDF, remove the DTD from the XML file.

Form fields

Form fields are incompatible with AppendPDF. If your document has form fields, AppendPDF will not rebuild the form tree within the PDF document following the append operation. Thus, form fields will not function properly after being appended.

Linking Problems

When portions of documents are appended, links in the appended section will work only if they link to a page within that section. If multiple sections of the same document are appended, links between those sections will not work.

Bookmarks

If your file contains Named Destination bookmarks, you need to include the -extra flag on the command line for the bookmarks to be copied into the appended document. 

To Get Help

Contact technical support by:

emailing support@appligent.com, or calling 610-284-4006

Please provide the following:

Product name and version number
Operating system
Your name, company name, email address, and phone number
Description of your question or problem

Responses are typically emailed within one business day.