"Data Merging"

By Leah Lothringer
PDF Store Support Team
Issue 10 for 2006

In the last issue, I introduced PDF merging and discussed how to combine multiple PDF documents together. This week I will examine how to merge existing PDF templates with raw data.

Organizations commonly need to send information out to clients and customers on a regular basis (for instance, monthly invoices with unique names, amounts, etc.). Manually copying unique information from a data store to a collection of templates is a timeconsuming and error-prone job. The benefits of automating such tasks are extensive and there are many tools on offer that allow you to merge information in a data store with PDF templates. A data store could be a Microsoft Access database, an Adobe FDF file, or even a delimited text file.

For simple, efficient PDF mail merging, take a look at VisualMerge. The WYSIWYG interface enables users to select fields as they appear on the page and merge data from any common source, including MS Access, MS Excel and comma separated (CSV) files.

Like VisualMerge, ARTS PDF Variform Plus can also be set up to directly import information into PDF templates. Additionally, Variform Plus can also merge images and supports hot folders and programmatic control for maximum automation of repetitive tasks.

As for the repetitive task of emailing specific documents to specific users, PDF eBurst can help. This Acrobat plug-in will search for email addresses within a document and automatically send the resultant PDF document/s to the email address/es via your mail client.

For more products that can handle PDF data merging, visit the PDF Forms & FDF category at PDF Store.