PDF in Excel

[Herb Flores]

Is it possible to open a PDFxChangePro4 file (set of prints) in Excel? With all the operating menu attached and be able to modify it while in Excel?

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Herb,

I'm not sure what you mean here:

With all the operating menu attached

what is an operating menu?

I think you are asking if you can open a PDF in Excel and work on it. In a nutshell, Excel is a spreadsheet program and not designed to open and modify PDF files.

Perhaps I have missed something here, if you can clarify what you want to do maybe there is something but in all honesty I think there may be a misconception around how files and their associated applications work.

Do let me know.

Paul

[Herb Flores]

Hi Paul,

I have been trying to open Excel in PDF with the full operation of excel in PDF and vise versus. I was just curious if this is possible and to sync them both together so when I click on an object in the PDF, it counts it in the excel spreadsheet.

Is this even remotely possible using Visual Basic 2010?

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

To the best of my knowledge - I'm afraid it is impossible to do as you want

[Herb Flores]

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Herb,

I can understand your disappointment but there is really nothing that we could do in this respect!

Regards,
Stefan

[capn_buzzcut]

Herb,
You are apparently a contractor like myself (plumbing here), so I know what you're driving at. What I do is use viewer to highlight the plans, then arrange 2 windows on my screen - one for the plans and the other for excel. I perform the takeoff like that, and even use viewer's measuring tools to determine pipe quantities. A large monitor is very helpful.

It's still doing by hand sort of, but it sure beats the old days of paper plans and highlighter pens, and I can print out copies of the highlighted plans for use in the field. A large printer is helpful too. The only way I know of to do click and count takeoffs is by using some form of estimating software.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi again,

indeed I'm pleased to hear this is working better than the old paper way. Unfortunately we are at an impasse here and cannot make this happen any differently.

good luck!

[Herb Flores]

capn_buzzcut,

Hello. Not plumbing, process piping but you know it's in the trade. I do a lot of complicated take offs and I use basically the same method. I do have 3 screens, one for the PDF or CAD prints, one for the spreadsheet and one for the specifications.

I create hyperlinks somewhat automatically in a sense. When I click on an item in the spreadsheet ( it has 4 pinned areas) one takes me to all the points or places on the prints for that line item,one takes me to the specification for that item, one takes me to the submittal and the other takes me to an alternate view or elevation shot or a detail drawing.

When I hoover over the spreadsheet items on the pinned places, I have it so a small pop up page of the location is displayed at the pinned marks.
The same for the prints, I pin them for each item and it can direct me to the item on the spreadsheet, the submittal or specifications. How awesome is all that? I feel like a real pro hyperlinker!

P.S> I forgot to add that I have an extensive data base for all the industrial piping and I put them in different drop down lists in Excel so when I need Stainless valves go to that list, click and click size for what ever valve and it places it in the row under description. It took a few years to generate all that.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for sharing this Herb!

Cheers,
Stefan

[Herb Flores]

My pleasure but could not be done without PDF Pro 4. Honestly.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

[capn_buzzcut]

Well now you've got me curious, or maybe I'm missing something. Can you describe how you create these hyperlinks?

[Herb Flores]

capn_buzzcut,

I can make some screen shots if you like with notes to explain. Need a PM to send them to.

[capn_buzzcut]

Windows messenger or email at dyers-jimh@triad.rr.com

[Herb Flores]

I will make that up tonight and have it ready tomorrow morning.

[capn_buzzcut]

Thanks!

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Herb,

we'd love to see them here too!

[Herb Flores]

OK. I will post them here if that is not breaking any rules.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Herb,

As long as what you are posting is not copyrighted, and you put the images inside an archive first - you can post them here without any problems

Cheers,
Stefan

[capn_buzzcut]

Herb, did you have a chance yet to post this information?

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

indeed! - "inquiring minds want to know..."

[Herb Flores]

Hi Herb,

As long as what you are posting is not copyrighted, and you put the images inside an archive first - you can post them here without any problems

Cheers,
Stefan

I got trumped with the word copyrighted above. I do not want to be suspect in unethical practices. Every print, spec, manufacturer submittal is copyrighted. The stuff I do can be disclosed but not using or displaying the other documents.
http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/ Surf thru that and find out how many requests there are daily for removal of material.

I don't want to be in a blender set on puree. Now I know why there are link on several things on the net, news articles linking to a fact or instance. If they post that info on that page, it could be described as copyright infringement.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Herb,

Apologies if this sounded suspicious. We are not suspecting anything, but in order for you (and us) to not have any issues - if the content is copyrighted and you are not the rights holder - then it's best to only link to such content.

Best,
Stefan

[capn_buzzcut]

What I want to know is how you create hyperlinks in Excel to a location in a pdf and vice versa (with popup thumbnails, no less!), which is what I understood you to be doing, but maybe it's not. Can you create a new blank document of your own within each application to show us the technique?

[Herb Flores]

send me some docs and I will show you how. No problem there.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Here is an Excel workbook with 4 lines each of which would be linked to one of the PDFs in the attached archive.

Can you do a simple example using these? I'm interested in seeing your work. Feel free to make what ever changes to the files you see fit!

regards

[Arnold]

I would be very interested in seeing how it works also. Over here I cannot even get Excel to link to a pdf without a warning message. This warning only seems to happen with PDFX Viewer. If it opens in Acrobat Reader there is no warning message. Excel 2000, Windows XP sp3.

[Herb Flores]

I downloaded the file and will do that today after work. Does anyone know of a good open source video screen capture so I can detail how to do the linking? I think that's what you really want to know.

@ Arnold, I still get that warning every now then. Office 2010/Win7

Cheers

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Herb,

I can't recommend any specific screen capture software - but here is a good selection:
http://download.cnet.com/windows/video- ... -software/
You can filter by "Free to try" or truly "Free" products - and then pick up the one with the highest overall score - it will definitely do the work

Looking forward to the resulting video!

Cheers,
Stefan

[Herb Flores]

Thanks

[Arnold]

Stefan,

Do you know of a way to stop the warning message I (and Herb) get when opening a pdf with PDFX Viewer from an Excel link? A few months back I downloaded something from Microsoft that gave instructions on how to stop it, but it did not work with PDFX Viewer. I agree with Herb, PDFX Viewer and Excel are a great combination for estimating. My industry is asbestos abatement so generally there is not as much detail as he would have.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi guys,

are you referring to this warning I get when linking to a PDF file location?





or are you embedding the file as an object? It was my understanding that the objects are Adobe specific and hard coded that way in Excel. I allowed network locations and this mapped drive in the Excel Trust center and I get this warning regardless of if I use Adobe or PDF-XChange as the default PDF application.

I may be approching this differently from you however...

[Arnold]

I am not sure it is hard wired to Acrobat. I found an article by Microsoft on how to disable the warning message. Article ID: 829072 - Last Review: September 12, 2011 - Revision: 5.0. How to disable hyperlink warning messages in Office 2003. I could not find one for Office 2000 but I suspect it is pretty much the same.

I try to hyperlink to pdf's in Excel 2000 and this is the warning message I get -

>>Some files can contain viruses or otherwise be harmful to your computer.
It is important to be certain that this file is from a trustworthy source.
Would you like to open this file? <<

No quotation marks so the article indicates that the warning is coming from HLINK.dll. It goes on to list 2 methods to fix it. The first method is to find the pdf extension in folder extensions and make some changes. I do not see a pdf extension on my computer. I no longer have any version of Acrobat on my computer, only PDFX Viewer. I am not sure what to adjust based on the second method. Any thoughts on how to stop the messages?

Thanks.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Arnold,

Paul had in mind a different error message, one that is indeed associated with objects, and which happens if you have specifically included the PDF file inside the excel spreadsheet in a special way.

The message you've got is simply a security warning that comes from Excel itself - and is a general warning that you should be carefull when opening linked content.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829072

Best,
Stefan

[Arnold]

I understand. That warning does not pop up if I link to a WordPerfect file which is also not an office file. I don't think it pops up if the pdf files are set to open up with Acrobat. I had hoped it would be easy to stop that warning for pdf's opened with PDFX Viewer also. I will keep messing with it, but it is nothing major.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Arnold,

I see. If you manage to find anythign further - do share it here in the forums!

Best,
Stefan