Managing and Printing PDF's

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Author Message Colin Gilboy Senior Member Username: colin Post Number: 131 Registered: 09-2005 Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 06:19 pm:    Will move appropriate messages here Margaret G. Chewning FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: presbspec Post Number: 150 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 11:57 pm:    Hi all, sorry to be late back to the discussion, Had jury duty today, UGH. Anyway, I'm using Adobe Acrobat 7. As I described above, I have found that working my sections individually in Word, printing them to PDF (using the Acrobat as a print function) in a separate folder, its easier for me to do my QC as I work. I then have them all in the most complete edition to combine or bind into one file at the MS Explorer page. If I try to convert and combine with Word docs, I always had a problem. I looked for the neat feature Lynn was talking about, but I believe she owes her IT guy a big one, (I'll let her decide what). The discussion did get me thinking because my SpecsIntact when I final process a job file for final submittal in PDF add the blank sheets as needed and uses the Adobe distiller. I was thinking it was the same as acrobat, but in checking my program files discovered it was an additional program that came with my Acrobat 7. I'm still checking it out but that may be the key. If I get a chance to check it out further I'll let you know. Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 15 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 05:52 pm:    Steven, Single PDF files for an entire project manual are standard practice at my current firm. I does require some housekeeping to ensure there is a blank page at the end of each odd page numbered section. We create separate volumes for M/E/P. Wayne Margaret G. Chewning FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: presbspec Post Number: 149 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 07:56 pm:    I'll usually put together my project manual in small bites working in Word, print each section to PDF then combine all of the sections into a single PDF file adding the blank pages as needed. The printers love it. They don't have to worry about dropping a section accidently. If I pdf my sections as I complete them, the final steps take very little time. To find each section within the "bound" file, I use the bookmarks which generate automaticly when the individual sections are electronicly bound together. Steven Bruneel, AIA, CSI-CDT, LEED-AP Senior Member Username: redseca2 Post Number: 87 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 08:17 pm:    Yes, we very often create the single PDF's too, and it is an easy task for administrative staff, but so far it seems that only "the printers love it". Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED™ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 737 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 08:12 am:    We create single PDFs for Project Manuals, too, with separate volumes for MEP (and maybe Divisions 00 and 01, depending on the size and scope of the project, number of packages, etc.). The software that we use (the expected brand name) adds the blank page automatically; just click for "print with pagination". It does get challenging if at some point you have to insert an even-paged section for an odd-paged section (or vice versa), but I've created a PDF blank page for just that use. Christopher E. Grimm, CSI, CCS, LEED®-AP, MAI, RLA Senior Member Username: tsugaguy Post Number: 127 Registered: 06-2005 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 08:49 am:    I have previously used the single file method and it worked ok, inserting blank pages as others have done. I like the resulting "bookmarks" pane at the left especially if the filenames have the spec title in them (wrote a macro that does that). However, the file is big, and others on teams sometimes complain about not having individual sections available. Though we don't want the book split up, and it says not to split it up, I've found a good solution is to keep the pdfs in separate files, and simply make sure that the filenames ALWAYS begin with the MasterFormat section number. This way they automatically sort correctly. I just instruct the printing company to print them out in order of the filenames, usually double-sided for all except the bid form and table of contents. The blank pages take care of themselves. I send each volume in its own subfolder when using FTP, or its own zip file. When someone legitimately needs a single spec section they can easily get it. We have the front end and the related documents paragraph to stand on if this is ever abused. Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 16 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 10:44 am:    Margaret and Lynn, We use Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.1. Margaret, please describe how you use the bookmarks which generate automaticly when the individual sections are electronicly bound together? I make the consolidated PDF from MSWord files for Arch and from individual PDF consultants files for MEP. I cannot see that feature. We can go offline via e-mail: wayne.yancey@callison.com Lynn, please describe further how you add the blank page automatically; "just click for "print with pagination". Is this feature used when creating the master PDF file or when printing the master file. We can talk offline at wayne.yancey@callison.com. One annoying result when using Version 6 is after selecting the files, Acrobat places the first file last and the last file first requiring some move up or move down action. Seems odd. Thanks, Wayne Don Harris CSI, CCS, CCCA, AIA Senior Member Username: don_harris Post Number: 177 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 11:41 am:    Lynn: Can you help the group with "print with pagination?" I'm using Version 7 and can not find any reference to the function in the help files or on the web. Wayne: That's why we got Version 7. That idiotic problem is fixed. Now, if you are using Office 2007 products, you need to upgrade to Version 8. Version 7 does not play nice with Office 2007. Richard A. Rosen, CSI, CCS, AIA Senior Member Username: rarosen Post Number: 31 Registered: 08-2006 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 11:53 am:    I have been providing our project manuals in much the same way as Margaret and Lynn. The individual spec sections are converted and bound into a single PDF and then an AA creates the bookmarks and tags necessary to go directly to any section. None of our manuals on PDF is any larger than 3-4 MB after we use the "Reduce File Size" function of Adobe Professional. Our CA people like being able to carry the manuals with them on a PDA. Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED™ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 738 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 11:59 am:    I've got Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard. (we were warned not to upgrade to 7.1, which we were told is the version that doesn't play well with others) The way our IT department set it up is I have to open a document from the folder I wish to PDF. Then there is a pull-down menu where I select "print project". That's where I'm asked what files, whether I want one PDF or whatever. I get to select "print with pagination" and it inserts blank pages. Maybe, just maybe, that part is a gift from our IT guys, but I doubt it. I can "select all" or select a few and it keeps the proper order. I never used version 6 (or any other version), so I don't know how to compare this with any other. I just know this is slick. Robin E. Snyder Senior Member Username: robin Post Number: 170 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 12:55 pm:    What happens when you need to make a revision to a section? Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 735 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 01:54 pm:    then you reissue the section as "revised" with a date, highlight the changes, and turn that into a pdf. Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED™ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 739 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 09:06 pm:    If you are making a change before the document goes out, you can remove, delete, replace or insert another individual PDF in the composite PDF without a problem. Phil Kabza Senior Member Username: phil_kabza Post Number: 307 Registered: 12-2002 Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 10:09 pm:    I try to keep my sections even-paged as I work, so I don't have to worry about pagination later. I run a trial MASTERWORKS TOC with page count to spot errant odd-numbered section files, and pop them open and run a little macro to add a page with a "This page is blank" anal-retentive specifier statement centered on it. I then run the PDF batch file converter in MASTERWORKS on the whole project folder (don't include Excel files or yuck) - the MASTERWORKS batch converter runs much faster than Acrobat 7's multifile converter. Once that's done I then use Acrobat 7 to build a single bookmarked file. MASTERSPEC now installs with an option to include section numbers and names in the file name; this produces an easy-to-navigate set of PDF multifile bookmarks. Very clean. We provide the individual files plus the integrated PDF file to our clients. They then print them out, mark up hard copies while watching football on Saturday afternoon, scan the comments back into enormous files, and we pull them off their FTP sites. So much for clever high tech document management and paperless processes. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 860 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Friday, March 14, 2008 - 09:23 am:    ARCOM advised the Masterspec Architectural Review Committee (if I'm recalling this correctly) that the new version of Masterworks--to be released shortly--includes a feature to deal with the 'slip sheet' on sections with an odd number of pages. Bob Woodburn, RA CSI CCS CCCA LEED AP Senior Member Username: bwoodburn Post Number: 231 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Friday, March 14, 2008 - 10:05 am:    I just leave the extra page blank, since each section has an "End of Section": I insert a file named 00 00 00 BLANK PAGE.pdf. (After all, to be truly anal-retentive, not to mention more accurate, shouldn't the statement centered on the page say something like, "This page would have been blank if it weren't for this statement"?) Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 17 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Friday, March 14, 2008 - 10:52 am:    Bob, This posting left intentionally blank except for this sentence.