Using RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat

In this section:

1. RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat
   RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat is an Adobe Acrobat Professional plug-in that you use to define and display enhancements in a PDF file that represents the PDF files that are processed by the steps in your workflows.
2. Adding the plug-in icon to the Acrobat quick launch bar
   Before you can mark up a PDF file, you must make the plug-in the active tool in Adobe Acrobat. Clicking the plug-in icon is a convenient alternative to clicking Ricoh ⇒ Select in the menu bar. You can permanently place the RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat icon on the Adobe Acrobat quick launch bar.
3. Preferences
   You can set preferences for RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat to customize it for the way that you process PDF files.
4. Units of measure
   RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat uses the units of measure from the Pages & Ruler Units you set in Adobe Acrobat preferences.
5. Loading RICOH ProcessDirector document properties
   To use RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat to define text in a PDF file as a RICOH ProcessDirector document property, you must import the list of RICOH ProcessDirector document properties.
6. Loading media objects
   After installing RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat, load RICOH ProcessDirector media objects. After you load them, you can use them to define media and finishing options for specific pages in a PDF file.
7. User interface
   The plug-in user interface consists of the Ricoh menu added to Adobe Acrobat, a right mouse button popup menu, a left mouse button popup menu, and windows that you use to perform RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat functions.
8. Previewing markup
   After you add markup to a sample PDF file, you can preview markup placement. Previewing lets you verify that PDF files are going to print as expected when RICOH ProcessDirector applies the markup that you saved to a control file. Preview also lets you verify that media and finishing options are going to be applied to the intended pages.
9. Working with control files
   As you use RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat to mark up a PDF file, instead of saving markup in the PDF file itself, you save markup to one or more control files. RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat uses a control file to extract data, and RICOH ProcessDirector uses control files in the different stages of preparing a PDF file for printing.
10. Modifying markup definitions
    After you add markup to a PDF file, you might need to delete the markup, move it to a new location, or modify its properties. RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat provides several ways to edit and delete markup, document properties, and a page group definition.
11. Defining a page group
    A page group defines the pages ranges for each document in your PDF file. You save one page group definition to the control file that you specify in a RICOH ProcessDirector IdentifyPDFDocuments step. We recommend that you define a page group before you add markup.
12. Working with document properties
    You can define document properties from data in your PDF file that you want to use for later print processing. When RICOH ProcessDirector processes PDF files with document property definitions, it extracts, or mines, values from each page group in a PDF file. For example, you can create document properties to extract data in each page group in a PDF file and define that data as the content of a barcode that prints on a page in the same page group.
13. Working with rules
    A rule is a set of one or more conditions. You can apply the conditions specified by a rule to place markup, extract data, or specify media and finishing options. You can also include a rule as a condition within another rule.
14. Adding markup to a PDF file
    You use RICOH ProcessDirector Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat to add markup to a PDF file that represents your production PDF files. You mark up a PDF file by drawing a box around existing content or by drawing a box to add new markup. You can preview the PDF file as you add markup to verify its content and placement on specific pages. When you are done enhancing the sample PDF file, you save your changes to one or more control files and make them accessible by a RICOH ProcessDirector server so it can apply the control files to production PDF files.
15. Working with page inserts
    The Inserts Manager dialog shows information about page inserts from other PDF files. You can add, edit, and delete page inserts. You also can set the order in which RICOH ProcessDirector adds the inserts to the documents in a job when the BuildPDFFromDocuments step runs.
16. Media and finishing
    You can specify media and finishing options for your sample PDF file and apply them as page exceptions to the job-level media and finishing options specified for RICOH ProcessDirector jobs.