Merging Pdf's

[VincentO'B]

Hello everyone, Fmp 10, I am having a problem with my solution re. Pdfs.

Here's what I need to achieve. I have a database with Pdf's stored in container fields. They need to be merged and saved as Pdf's to be attached to an email (each pdf has different content), each email will have 7 merged Pdf attachments, I am using smtp_it plug in to achieve this.

I am merging the Pdfs and then saving to a folder,then inserting the files back into containers as ready to be emailed, yeah this works fairly well, although I am having some problems with the save and insert routine namely overwritng and naming conventions, I don't think this is insurmountable.

My question is. Can anyone think of a better way to do this whole process within Filemaker, it is very slow (hundreds of Pdfs) potentially thousands of contacts to be emailed it all seems a bit messy.

Am I missing something really dumb. Has anyone done this before and can point me in the right direction.

Your help will be much appreciated.

Vin.

[Fenton]

OK, I'll give this a go. I see you're using FileMaker 10. Please update this in your user profile here, as you've got FileMaker 6 (which is way old).

FileMaker 10 can do "Save As PDF [ append; $filepath ]

So, you can set the file path for the 1st PDF into a variable, using the script step Set Variable, in FileMaker syntax (look at any file path dialog to see syntax), then use that variable over and over, to append later PDFs to the first. This would a dynamic method; you would not need to save the multiple PDFs first; you'd just produce the merged PDF as you went.

An alternate method, if you've already got the PDF documents, and they are static, then you could use a Mac OS tool, or a plug-in to merge them. The Mac OS tool I would use would be Automator. Yes, it is a bit awkward to use. But it has a built-in Combine PDF Pages routine, in its PDF section of commands.

[VincentO'B]

Hi Fenton thanks for your reply. I should have said that the seven Pdfs have to remain separate (one per day) so append will not work I havn't tried it yet I assumed it would result in one combined Pdf. I will test this.

The merging happens to the Pdf headers (Contact names, Dates, etc).

The $ I have working well, I am merging contact details pushing the Pdf out to a folder naming it with $, inserting back into a container that is related to the contact ready for emailing as an attachment ( I am creating attachments.)

I suppose I was hoping someone would tell me that I could do this without the in/out routine, grasping at straws,

I will either have to buy 'Big Blue' or time the script to run through the night once a week.

Interesting about Automater, never thought about that I may be able to use it for part of the task.

Again many thanks for your quick reply.

Vin