Defining an address block

You can define document properties in an address block in each document in a PDF file. After you define the document properties, you can extract and view them or save them in a text file.

Note: Use the Define Multiple Properties function to define document properties for addresses if:

  • The address components are not in block form.

  • You want to give the document properties your own names.

  • The Define Address Block function assigns one or more components of the address text to the wrong document property.

To define an address block:

  1. Open a PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Professional and either load a control file that contains a page group definition or define a page group.
    Tip: Tip: Before you select an address block, scan your sample PDF file for the most complicated and longest example of addresses in the PDF files that you are going to process. For example, if the first document in your PDF file contains an address of only three rows, and page 80 contains a five-row address, draw the box around the five-row address so you can work with the most complicated address. When you view document property values, you can verify that each document property in shorter address blocks has the proper value.
  2. Left-click just above the top left corner of an address area and drag the mouse to capture all rows of the address.
  3. Select Define Address Block from the popup menu.
  4. Examine the Selected Address section of the Define Address Block window. If you have not captured all the lines in the address block, click Cancel and draw the box around the address again. Repeat this step until the address you want is displayed in the rows of the Selected Address table.
  5. Type a Name for the address block.
  6. Use the Extraction Conditions section to specify the page in each document from which address block data will be extracted. Do either of these:
    • Select Pages based on a rule, and then select a rule from the drop-down list. The default rule is First Front Only. You can also:
      • Click the Add content icon icon to define a new rule. See Defining a rule for more information.
      • Click the Rules Manager icon icon to go to the Rules Manager.
      Important: The Last Back, Last Front, and Last Page rules do not work with address block extraction.
    • Select Specific pages and type the page in each document that you want.

      If you specify multiple pages, RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat extracts the address block from the last specified page in each document. Examples:

      • You specify pages 2–4. If a document has four or more pages, the address block is extracted from page 4. If a document has three pages, the address block is extracted from page 3. If a document has two pages, the address block is extracted from page 2.
      • You specify pages 2,4. If a document has four or more pages, the address block is extracted from page 4. If a document has 2–3 pages, the address block is extracted from page 2.
      • You specify pages 2–n. Because n represents the last page, the address block is extracted from the last page if the document has two or more pages.
        Important: If you specify only page n, RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat does not extract the address block from any page in a document.

  7. Select an address type:
    • Address lines 1–7

      This option defines seven document properties (Doc.Address.1 through Doc.Address.7) based on the first seven lines in the address block. Subsequent lines are ignored.

    • U.S. addresses

      This option defines eight document properties:

      • Doc.Address.FullName

      • Doc.Address.Primary

      • Doc.Address.Secondary

      • Doc.Address.Other

      • Doc.Address.City

      • Doc.Address.State

      • Doc.Address.ZipCode

      • Doc.Address.CityStateZip

    Each component of address text in the Selected Address becomes a value for a document property in the Address Document Properties area.
  8. Check to make sure that each document property has the proper value.
  9. Click OK to create the document properties for the address block.
  10. Click Ricoh ⇒ View Document Property Values to verify the properties have the content you want.
  11. Optional: You can edit the address block definition by double-clicking its box or by right-clicking the box and selecting Edit.
  12. When you are ready to save all your enhancements to the PDF file, including the new document properties for the address block, click Ricoh ⇒ Save Control File.
  13. Make the control file accessible by your RICOH ProcessDirector server and include its name and location in an IdentifyPDFDocuments step. This control file must also contain the page group definition that defines the documents in the PDF files processed by that step.

Related information:

Defining a rule
Parent topic: Working with document properties