I have a .pdf form I have created in Adobe Acrobat XI Pro. The form will be distributed and individuals will complete the form and email me a copy at various times.
I need to get the information from the form into an Excel spreadsheet as I receive the forms back.
Is that possible?
Direct answer: "Yes"
A bit more verbose answer: There are several possibilities.
a) Use the "Merge Data Files into Spreadsheet" function, which can be found in the Forms pane in the Tools panel of Acrobat XI (and in the More… dropdown in the Prepare Forms Tool in Acrobat DC). There you specify from which files you want to extract the data, and Acrobat creates an according table.
This is quick and easy, and can process a whole batch of files, but it has the issue that you have no control over the fields you want to export and their order.
b) Use the doc.exportAsText() method on the forms; this will create a tab-delimited file, which you then can merge into your spreadsheet. This would be file per file, but you could create an Action which does run on a whole folder.
c) Use some logic to assemble a tab-delimited text, and create and then export a Data Object (which would be a tab-delimited file, as in case b). This gives you maximum control, and you can even export "calculated" data, which does not exist as such in the form, and/or have full control over the format of an exported field contents. This too is file per file, and could be turned into an Action.
Related
I noticed that anytime I export from somewhere like Salesforce where the Phone = +123124141.
The data in Excel will just become =123124141 or #NAME? or some other Error spouted from Excel.
This makes data patch extremely painful and manual. Any ideas how to get around this?
When you create the file, use a different extension than .csv or .txt (these ones are interpreted by EXCEL as a green light to interpret columns as numeric/date, etc and format accordingly. Use .DAT, for example. When you open it from within EXCEL it will invoke the text import wizard, and there you should choose comma separated (or tab separated, etc, as the case maybe), and on the final screen of the wizard, choose the columns you don't want reformatted (you can choose all of them, if you like), and choose Text. Now the column values will be kept intact.
Alternatively you can first create a blank workbook/sheet, and use Data From Text to invoke the Wizard and bring the data in the same way.
If you don't want EXCEL to launch and open when you double-click on a .CSV file, without asking questions, you can remove the file-association (of CSV with EXCEL) using Windows explorer.
It is reasonably easy to develop a VBA macro to import such delimited files using 'TEXT' data types to automate what the Wizard would do.
I have a big spreadsheet(Excel file A) which will be updated every month. Also, I created a parametric search in another Excel file(file B) which can pull data from Excel file A. Therefore, Once I send my parametric search Excel file B to my colleagues, they can always pull the fresh data without updating file B (I would need to update file A monthly to keep data fresh)
I tried to connect data by using Microsoft Query/web data. However, I noticed that if I use web data, the source link changes everytime I update the File A. Therefore, the file B connection won't work.
(I uploaded the file A to JIRA as an attachment. I tried to upload to Sharepoint, but Excel does not recognize Excel file on Sharepoint as an Excel file, it recognize as a html file. Therefore, I gave up using sharepoint)
Is there a better way to achieve what I have described above?
Thanks,
Jennifer.
Since you are using SharePoint, choose From File > From SharePoint folder and input the root URL (e.g. https://companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/workspacename/).
This should give you a dialog box like this once you've logged in:
Click on Edit to open the query editor.
You likely only want one particular file in there, so click on Binary in the row that corresponds to the File A that you should have already uploaded to that space. This will import the Excel file.
Click to expand the Table in the row that corresponds to the table that you want to import. This should be the table you keep up to date that gets loaded in.
I need to do a mail merge. Our form is in PDF format. I have my data in an Excel file. Is there an easy way to mail merge?
IF not I have to convert back to Word and do it in there.
I do not program or know how to run scripts etc. so sending me code wont help.
Thanks
Liz
In my company we use regularly PDF Mail Merger for all types of PDF forms that we have to send in bulk. We find it very easy to use.
Usage:
You will be guided through 4 steps:
Upload PDF file
Upload Excel file
In the Editor you can drag'n'drop placeholders onto the PDF
Click to start the PDF generation
Advantages:
Works with any kind of PDF file (doesn't require fillable form fields)
Many spreadsheet formats supported (Microsoft Excel, Open Office Spreadsheet, CSV, TXT etc.)
New PDF Form templates are set up very quickly
PDF Form templates can be reused with one click
No programming knowledge is required
Disadvantages:
The free plan only covers the generation of 100 documents
Screenshots:
Home Screen
Upload PDF File
Editor for drag'n'drop placeholders
[Note: I posted the same answer for a similar question]
I have a client that reads their reports in Microsoft access...the woe is she tries to export the report to an excel file by right clicking on the report and going to export->Excel
This works, but the labels are not in the right order etc... in the report they are right..but in the exported file they need more data (or she wants more). I have to say I am perplexed how to somehow intercept the export and write my own xls file out based on the query that generated the report... or some other way? Maybe another report that is generated that is for the sole purpose of exporting that has the columns in the final xls file the way she wants...I am not a guru at this just know enough to be dangerous so I am not sure what the best method to attack this is and get it where the exported report as an excel file has the columns she wants.
You have two options one is more efficient and one more flexible:
More efficient:
Write the query to a CSV file file using IO statements
More flexible:
Build the Excel file cell by cell using an Excel object. Of course you can use loops and make it generic so it will work with any query passed as a parameter
Like many, I have spreadsheet that draws data from over 40 text files as data sources. The text files are from another app, and need to be periodically updated into Excel.
The set of data source files and spreadsheet need to be able to be duplicated and run on different systems. This is where the astonishing inability of Excel to support data import from the spreadsheet folder (or relative paths at all) becomes a big problem. This question mentions the issue but has no solution.
I developed a crude workaround for this (IMHO) fundamental flaw in Excel. Map your spreadsheet folder to a drive letter with SUBST. Then import the data from the SUBST drive letter. That drive letter and path will become part of the spreadsheet, buried deep in dialogs, and very inconvenient to update. So instead, whenever you copy or move the spreadsheet, re-create the SUBST to the current folder. Ugly, but effective.
New Question: Using this technique, when I open the spreadsheet and click Refresh to refresh from the data sources, I have to click "Import" on over 40 dialogs - one for each file. How can I automate that process?
I discovered that under a data range properties, there is a setting for "Prompt for file name on refresh". By unchecking that, it is no longer necessary to click import for every linked file. The properties for each linked data source must be adjusted individually. There doesn't seem to be any ability to multi-select data sources.