How to create Actions in Acrobat X

How to create Actions in Acrobat X

Lori DeFurio – October 14, 2010

Acrobat X Pro includes a great new capability called guided Actions.

Accessing the Actions Wizard panel from the Tools pane reveals the 7 pre-installed Actions to help you save time and standardize processes by automating routine, multi-step tasks.Actions can be applied to a single file or you can point the Action at a folder of files.

When creating the action you decide 1.

How and where Acrobat should access the files to use, 2.

What steps should be executed and 3.

Where should the output files be placed?Let's look at the installed Actions first - and then we'll create one together.

I'll select Publish Sensitive Documents.

The steps are presented to me and I'll select Next.

Now I can easily just follow the instructions on the screen to direct me through this multi-step action.First I need to redact out sensitive information from the file.

This is nice - there are instructions on how to use the Redaction tools if this is the first time I'm using the product or the action.

I'll select all the information in the document that is sensitive - like these phone numbers and email addresses.Now that I'm done - I'm instructed to select "Next Step" - and I do.

Now I'm prompted to remove hidden metadata - ok - and now the file is saved to the desktop and I'm done.

Imagine if I had 20 files to do just now - I just point at a folder of files and Acrobat will walk me through each file step by step until all are completed.

There's really no chance of me missing a step because the action guides me along.Of course - if want to edit one of the pre-installed Actions - I just click on Edit Actions and I'm presented with the 7 Actions.

I'll click on the one we just used, make a copy and I'll add a final step - applying protection to keep people from editing my file.

I'll add Encrypt - select Password Security and select No changes allowed.

Add my passord, select OK.

I'll need to rename the Action - and select Save.

That's it - and now I can share this action with anyone by just clicking the export button.Lastly - I want to show you how to create an Action from scratch.

Just select Create New Action.

There are three steps to creating an Action: 1.

Where should Acrobat access the files to use - I can select files when I run the program, files currently open in Acrobat, files or folders on my computer.

I can start the action by scanning directly into Acrobat or I can tell Acrobat to combine all the files I select into a single PDF file before I start my tasks.2.

Now I'll select the steps to perform my action - let's start with ensuring that the document author is always set to Adobe Systems Incorporated - so I'll leave title, subject, and keywords as is but set the Author to Adobe.

That means that all the files I process with this action will have the appropriate author, and not someone's name or email address.

I have the ability to add an Instruction Step - Let's call this File Compatibility - I'll add some instructions to the user about which file compatibility setting to use...Next step; let's make sure we create a small file, but per the instruction step - I'll let the author set the version manually by checking the prompt user box.

And lastly I'll apply security, adding password security to protect the file from changes.And 3 - I'll select how to save the file or files - again I have choices - I can have Acrobat ask me while I'm running the action; I can put the file back in the folder it was opened from or another pre-designated folder, or can run the action without saving the changes in the original PDF file.

Additionally - I have some save options - I can save with a new file name, and Ican save to another file format, and so on.I'll click Save, give the action a name and description, and we're done.

Don't forget to visit the Actions Exchange on AcrobatUsers.com to share actions with other community members.