Find and replace text within a PDF

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   Hi,
Just wondering if there's a handy way to find and replace text within a PDF.

Scenario:
We have a PDF with text placement tags in it (note, this is not a PDF Form with fields as such), such as:
==========
Date <date>
Dear <firstname>, this is a PDF with some wonderful stuff on it.
==========

Having find and replace would allow us to search for <date> and replace it programmatically with today's date. Likewise with the <firstname> text area. However, the <firstname> bit could possibly present a problem as the length of the firstname may influence the placement of the text following it.

Anyone done anything like this before with QuickPDF without using a PDF form? Any planned functionality?

Any tips would be great.

Thanks

DB

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DanButton Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 19 Apr 11 Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote DanButton Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Find and replace text within a PDF Posted: 17 Feb 12 at 4:48PM
	Hi, Just wondering if there's a handy way to find and replace text within a PDF. Scenario: We have a PDF with text placement tags in it (note, this is not a PDF Form with fields as such), such as: ========== Date <date> Dear <firstname>, this is a PDF with some wonderful stuff on it. ========== Having find and replace would allow us to search for <date> and replace it programmatically with today's date. Likewise with the <firstname> text area. However, the <firstname> bit could possibly present a problem as the length of the firstname may influence the placement of the text following it. Anyone done anything like this before with QuickPDF without using a PDF form? Any planned functionality? Any tips would be great. Thanks DB

edvoigt Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 26 Mar 11 Location: Berlin, Germany Status: Offline Points: 111	Post Options Post Reply Quote edvoigt Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 17 Feb 12 at 9:09PM
	Hi, here a short idea. The problem seems to be the replace part. The bad part of my solution idea: you have to search alone in a object-content. It is to get over QP.GetObjectToString. It is nothing for people without a little understanding of PDF-operators. You would have to look for textoutputoperation and to find there your keys like <date>. The problem is, that it must not be a single string. It looks other (I show the most simple case): BT 1 0 0 1 70.8661 680.315 Tm (<date>)Tj ET But if there is letterspacing used, it looks more complicated. Let's assume you find this. Then you may replace (look into the PDF-spec. to be sytactically correct) it by your wished string. The good part is small: After this you give the modified objectcontent easy via QP.SetObjectFromString back to QPL. The documentation says "This is for advanced use only." There is some work for you. Cheers, Werner

DanButton Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 19 Apr 11 Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote DanButton Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Feb 12 at 9:14AM
	Thanks Werner - that's something for me to get started with - I'll give that a try! Cheers, DB

AndrewC Members Profile Find Members Posts Moderator Group Joined: 08 Dec 10 Location: Geelong, Aust Status: Offline Points: 841	Post Options Post Reply Quote AndrewC Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 Feb 12 at 2:55PM
	QPL currently doesn't support the replacing of text in a PDF file. It is not always easy to implement such a function as there are many ways to draw the same text in a PDF file 1. BT 1 0 0 1 70.8661 680.315 Tm (<date>)Tj ET 2. BT 1 0 0 1 70.8661 680.315 Tm (da)-10.0(te)Tj ET 3. BT 1 0 0 1 66.8661 680.315 Tm (d)Tj ETBT 1 0 0 1 70.8661 680.315 Tm (a)Tj ETBT 1 0 0 1 74.8661 680.315 Tm (t)Tj ET BT 1 0 0 1 78.8661 680.315 Tm (e)Tj ET