PDF open

[kosmok]

Okay, I have been reading posts on this board and the web, some book reading and manual reading. Could someone simply state how to go about opening a PDF natively in my Acrobat professional app. so that when I click on it, Acrobat opens up to view the file? I'm assuming through an auto script to an apple script?

I downloaded troi file but could not get it to work. After I tried it, clicking on the script I created just blinked the screen.

I have inserted it in a pic format, able to view it by zooming, but it just doesn't give me the resolution I want.

I apologize for the newness of again another post. I'm just not getting along too well at this point. Once I get a little nudge I feel all will be well. I'm understanding a lot of this little gem of an app, but am stuck on just plain opening up a pdf. I would like to have it embedded and not referenced so I can forgot worrying about moving the file from it's original location.

Again, thanks for the patience and I hope some day to help others.

Have a nice day / night to all.

[Fenton]

Well, there have been several posts about this. But it's confusing, because it all depends how you put the thing IN the field as to what to do to get it out. This is one of those cases where what you see is not necessarily what you get. Graphics can be like that. If you Insert, "As reference only," then all you have to do is double-click to open it.

If you use Insert Picture of a PDF, with "As a reference only" unchecked, you are ONLY embedding the 1st page. Multiple pages are not supported by the picture format.

If you Insert File, "As a reference only," then you don't see it in the field, other than as an icon. But if you double-click on it the file will open, just like it would in the Finder. Whether it opens with Acrobat or Preview is up to you, Adobe and your default file mappings. I imagine Adobe takes over ".pdf" files.

If you Insert File, with "As a reference" unchecked, you also see only the icon. And it doesn't open when you double-click it. You have to go to Edit menu, Export Field Contents.

It sounds like the last is what you want. You can also use Insert Picture, embedded, into another container field. This gives you a quick read of the 1st page, with the entire file embedded in the other container field. That's the best completely embedded solution, in my opinion.

You can use AppleScript to automate insertion of both at once. Let me know if that's what you want and I'll post an example. It's not hard to do manually either, as the file navigation box stays at the last location. And Export Field Contents is fairly easy also.

I also sometimes use a Scripting Addition, GraphicsImporter to turn the PDF into a JPEG before embedding. Sound odd yes, but a JPEG looks better in the picture field. Normally in FileMaker a fully embedded PDF picture is not anti-aliased, so it's a little skinny and jagged at 100%. It looks OK and prints well at 400%, but that's too big to read. Maybe FileMaker will fix this. I don't know if it's a bug, but it's not expected, especially on Mac OS X, where most every other application that deals with images fully supports anti-aliased PDFs at any size.

[kosmok]

Yes, the last option is correct. I want a copy of the pdf inserted to remain in the DB for later viewing w/the original application ( acrobat Professional 6.0.2 ). I don't want to worry about the possibilit of moving the file and not finding it at a later date.

I have been trying all this a.m. to create a couple scripts w/the following ideas in mind.

Create a button that would duplicate the pdf in the field.

Send it to a temporary Folder on my HD.

Tell Acrobat to open all files in that temp directory, of which there should only be one at present ( the export ).

And then trash the contents of the folder after exit.

Seems a bit long and drawn out, but at this point until I learn more it's the only option. I'm still working on it though.

I have also read your post to sebastianzimmer about opening pdf in container's and it seemed helpful to the poster, but I couldn't understand it. Lol <-- SOOOOOO newbish . .

I believe you are selling a script that might do this. I didn't find a link for purchase it so I could not go any further.

[Fenton]

I wasn't aware that I was selling anything. But if anyone feels the urge...

I decided to upload my own complete files that show how to embed PDFs in FileMaker 7, in 2 different ways. I uploaded to the Sample Files forum, so they're easier to find later.

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=157196&an=0&page=0#157196