[Ohiodig] EXT: Re: undoing PDF/A settings on a large group of files

Thu Nov 4 16:45:26 EDT 2021

Hi Amy-

I asked a couple folks from our IT digital accessibility unit, and here was one response (which might overlap with the action info you found)

---

Hi all,

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is creating a custom action to batch convert all of the PDFs off of the /A format, run the tagging, OCR, and language functions, then re-saving them all in the /A format again. Acrobat’s Action Wizard allows for custom actions which you can run on individual files or entire folders of files, and it’s pretty robust with what you can do with it. That said, it’s not something I have a lot of experience with, so I wouldn’t have anything else to offer outside of some supporting documentation.

Creating and managing custom actions in Action Wizard:

Adobe Acrobat Pro Action Wizard<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhelpx.adobe.com%2Facrobat%2Fusing%2Faction-wizard-acrobat-pro.html&data=04%7C01%7Cvdressle%40kent.edu%7C7de214445f9b4cd5090208d99fd1c089%7Ce5a06f4a1ec44d018f73e7dd15f26134%7C1%7C0%7C637716545490418178%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=WwUZad74yF0AscdrUcuzRopE1Yri0%2BfVbuTNOUdW%2Bk4%3D&reserved=0>

JavaScript for Acrobat API Reference (PDF) if needed:

JavaScript for Acrobat API Reference (adobe.com)<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fopensource.adobe.com%2Fdc-acrobat-sdk-docs%2Facrobatsdk%2Fpdfs%2Facrobatsdk_jsapiref.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Cvdressle%40kent.edu%7C7de214445f9b4cd5090208d99fd1c089%7Ce5a06f4a1ec44d018f73e7dd15f26134%7C1%7C0%7C637716545490428172%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=gTq1wQZn2f4fto3sAFIoFuj8lv3GQFcLe5vexVVSOvs%3D&reserved=0>

This help article describes saving PDF as PDF/A but I imagine it would work the other way too:

Solved: convert pdf to pdf/a batch process - Adobe Support Community - 9474446<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.adobe.com%2Ft5%2Facrobat-discussions%2Fconvert-pdf-to-pdf-a-batch-process%2Ftd-p%2F9474446&data=04%7C01%7Cvdressle%40kent.edu%7C7de214445f9b4cd5090208d99fd1c089%7Ce5a06f4a1ec44d018f73e7dd15f26134%7C1%7C0%7C637716545490438168%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=N753o31HJfx3REmNiaxCBIJUL5sDd8tLnzgaQqKnLxY%3D&reserved=0>

[cid:4c5a6c38-bb21-4ccc-8693-eb28ae6e6ce0]

So in theory you would create one or multiple custom actions to:

  1.  Save all PDF/A files as standard PDFs
  2.  Run tagging, OCR, and language functions on any that need it
  3.  Re-save all as PDF/A

There’s a note in the third link I posted above about Acrobat struggling with anything more than a few hundred PDFs at a time, so you might need to do multiple batches too.

Not sure if that’s helpful or if there’s a better way to do it since I also don’t do work with batch actions on PDFs, but maybe custom actions would be helpful in this case.

________________________________
From: Ohiodig <ohiodig-bounces at lists.library.ohio.gov> on behalf of McCrory, Amy via Ohiodig <ohiodig at lists.library.ohio.gov>
Sent: Thursday, November 4, 2021 2:43 PM
To: ohiodig at lists. library. ohio. gov (ohiodig at lists.library.ohio.gov) <ohiodig at lists.library.ohio.gov>
Subject: EXT: Re: [Ohiodig] undoing PDF/A settings on a large group of files

Following up, I found a solution. There's a page where Acrobat users can share automated actions they've created, and it includes what I was looking for. In case anyone else might find this resource helpful, here's the URL to the users' group. https://acrobatusers.com/actions-exchange/?trackingid=JZXYQ<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facrobatusers.com%2Factions-exchange%2F%3Ftrackingid%3DJZXYQ&data=04%7C01%7Cvdressle%40kent.edu%7Ca59515cf2928483bdf4f08d99fc2f26f%7Ce5a06f4a1ec44d018f73e7dd15f26134%7C1%7C0%7C637716481923624955%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=66ZZb6EgVUIBlIHElhmAo1YqCC2A7ryLltmzU2rDXmA%3D&reserved=0>

Amy
Acrobat Actions Exchange - Adobe Acrobat<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facrobatusers.com%2Factions-exchange%2F%3Ftrackingid%3DJZXYQ&data=04%7C01%7Cvdressle%40kent.edu%7Ca59515cf2928483bdf4f08d99fc2f26f%7Ce5a06f4a1ec44d018f73e7dd15f26134%7C1%7C0%7C637716481923624955%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=66ZZb6EgVUIBlIHElhmAo1YqCC2A7ryLltmzU2rDXmA%3D&reserved=0>
Use step-by-step Actions to automate routine, time-consuming tasks in Acrobat XI.
acrobatusers.com


________________________________
From: Ohiodig <ohiodig-bounces at lists.library.ohio.gov> on behalf of McCrory, Amy via Ohiodig <ohiodig at lists.library.ohio.gov>
Sent: Thursday, November 4, 2021 11:47 AM
To: ohiodig at lists. library. ohio. gov (ohiodig at lists.library.ohio.gov) <ohiodig at lists.library.ohio.gov>
Subject: [Ohiodig] undoing PDF/A settings on a large group of files

Hi all,

I have a large group of PDFs that need to be brought up to accessibility standards. I'm using the Action Wizard in Adobe Acrobat DC to run auto tagging and language declaration functions, so we won't have to edit each file one at a time.

The problem I've run into is that these files are all PDF/A's. Before making changes to any of them, you first have to click 'Enable Editing' after opening the file. So I need to set up a batch action to do this as the first step in the process. However, Enable Editing does not appear as an available process in the Action Wizard.

I can understand why this is--it sounds like a really bad idea to undo PDF/A protections on thousands of files at once! But in this case, we have to do it to run actions that will make the files more accessible.

Has anyone been able to create an automated way of running Enable Editing?

Thanks and best,

Amy

[The Ohio State University]

Amy McCrory

Digitization Program Manager

University Libraries Preservation & Digitization Department
125D Library Tech Center

1165 Kinnear Road  Columbus, OH  43212 USA

(614) 292-8647

Photography portfolio<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2F%2Famymccrory.wordpress.com%2F__%3B!!KGKeukY!lSDUg_mf5wYk9jNoDREOVL1IQSUquvvn6z-ZcTdcFCcYz5xOErbgmO-R3eCDm0tM_g%24&data=04%7C01%7Cvdressle%40kent.edu%7Ca59515cf2928483bdf4f08d99fc2f26f%7Ce5a06f4a1ec44d018f73e7dd15f26134%7C1%7C0%7C637716481923634952%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=QfwOIKliNXfk8nZD5O4tT6QzjZl5fXH1LvDREn%2Fw%2BI8%3D&reserved=0>

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