Adobe Acrobat Pro XI - Adding Javascript to a PDF

Devan Somaia picture Devan Somaia · Jun 19, 2014 · Viewed 17.8k times · Source

This may seem like a really novice question, but I have been tearing my hair out all day on this.

I am running the trial version of Adobe Acrobat Professional XI I am looking to add simple JavaScript to a PDF file.

The aim is to have a PDF file, that when opened, pops up with an alert message with Yes and No options. Click Yes, and the alert goes away, leaving the PDF to be read. Click No, and the file closes.

The main trouble I am having is where to write my code. I have used the JavaScript Debugger but it is not very intuitive, and doesn't seem to let me add JavaScript to the file, only run from within the debugger.

All the tutorials I have looked at online show me the code, but not where to write it.

Answer

iPDFdev picture iPDFdev · Jun 19, 2014

In Adobe Acrobat open Tools pane on the right, select JavaScript section and then Document JavaScripts.
Enter a script name and click Add. In the JavaScript editor remove the generated code and add yours:

app.alert({cMsg: "JavaScript action: hello", cTitle: "demo title"});

This code (if not placed in a function) will be executed automatically when the document is opened.