I've attached a script that adds two menu items into the "Tools" menu. "Collate" merges even and odd pages, and "Reverse" will as reverse the order of the pages in a PDF.
To install it, exit Acrobat. Save the script into Acrobat's Javascripts directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\Javascripts ), and restart Acrobat.
I hope you find this script useful!
OK, I JUST FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO THIS
Adobe Acrobat X Pro (may work with others also)
File
Create...
From Scanner...
Black and White (or another option)
Now scan the pages you have in order (pages 1,3,5,7.....)
when you are done it will give you three options
1. done
2. continue with more pages
3. continue with reverse sides
Select the third option to add the reverse sides of the pages.
Place the stack of papers to start from the last page first, and press scan again.
It will place the pages in the appropriate section of the document.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
was downloaded and placed in the following folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\Javascripts
It worked as described by “JBAITIS”.
Had to open first the PDF file having ODD pages, in Acrobat9.
Next from “TOOLS” selected “COLLATE”.
After a brief error message, the name of the second PDF file having all EVEN pages was selected.
Clicked OK and done!
NB: for “COLLATE” to work you have to open a PDF file first, preferably the odd-pages PDF file.
Thank you “JBAITIS” for a GREAT and essential time-saver program, and thank you all.
Dan
Here is the latest version of this script, compabible with Acrobat X. The functions have been moved into the "Edit" menu because there is no tools menu in Acrobat X. It still maintains compatibility with Acrobat 9. Unfortunately, you'll have to manually copy and paste this into a file because Adobe has disabled the file attachment feature on Jive Forums. ![]()
// Complements: Planet PDF (http://www.planetpdf.com/)
// Modified by Jeff Baitis for Acrobat 9 and Acrobat X compatibility
// Improved Collate function with status bar.
// Add a menu item to reverse all pages in the active document
app.addMenuItem({ cName: "Reverse", cParent: "Edit", cExec: "trustedReversePages();", cEnable: "event.rc = (event.target != null);", nPos: 0 });
// Add a menu item to collate with another document on the filesystem
app.addMenuItem({ cName: "Collate", cParent: "Edit", cExec: "trustedCollatePages();", cEnable: "event.rc = (event.target != null);", nPos: 0 });
trustedReversePages = app.trustedFunction(function()
{
app.beginPriv(); // Explicitly raise privileges
var t = app.thermometer;
t.duration = this.numPages;
t.begin();
for (i = this.numPages - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
t.value = (i-this.numPages)*-1;
this.movePage(i);
t.text = 'Moving page ' + (i + 1);
}
t.end();
app.endPriv();
})
// Collating pages
/*
Title: Collate Document
Purpose: User is prompted to select document to insert/collate.
Author: Sean Stewart, ARTS PDF, www.artspdf.com
*/
trustedCollatePages = app.trustedFunction(function()
{
app.beginPriv(); // Explicitly raise privileges
// create an array to use as the rect parameter in the browse for field
var arRect = new Array();
arRect[0] = 0;
arRect[1] = 0;
arRect[2] = 0;
arRect[3] = 0;
// create a non-visible form field to use as a browse for field
var f = this.addField("txtFilename", "text", this.numPages - 1, arRect);
f.delay = true;
f.fileSelect = true;
f.delay = false;
// user prompted to select file to collate the open document with
app.alert("Select the PDF file to merge with")
// open the browse for dialog
f.browseForFileToSubmit();
var evenDocPath = f.value;
var q = this.numPages;
var t = app.thermometer;
t.duration = q;
t.begin();
// insert pages from selected document into open document
for (var i = 0; i < q; i++) {
var j = i*2;
this.insertPages(j, evenDocPath, i);
t.value = i;
t.text = 'Inserting page ' + (i+1);
}
t.end();
// remove unused field
this.removeField("txtFilename");
app.endPriv();
})
jbaitis's js file is an Excellent job, if I may!
Wowie wow! This is what I've been pulling my hair out over for ages! Thank you so much for this JavaScript script. It works wonderfully and since I just wrote up a file for myself on installing and using it on a Mac, I thought I'd just copy/paste it here for other Mac users who are using Acrobat Pro X and need to collate their files. Hope this helps other Mac users:
So, for Macintosh users, there are Two Big Steps:
Big Step 1:
The CollatePages.js file has to be placed in
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/10.0/JavaScripts
folder. To create the file, you can simply copy the script above then paste it into Textedit (make it a plain text file). See important note 2 below for naming it.
Five Important Notes:

Big Step 2:
In Acrobat Pro, you collate two files: The odd pages file needs to be already open and the even pages file is opened using the Collate command (now under Edit in the menubar as the picture in Note 3 above shows). The file that gets added (presumably the even pages) gets interweaved with the first (already open) file starting at the second page.
If you have separate files for each page (either because they were scanned in separately or they were extracted within Acrobat to separate files) then you first need to combine them into one file for odds and evens.
The Reverse command simply reverses the page order of the open file; possibly helpful if a source file has its pages in the opposite order before collating.
Last, you could, if you want to, click on Yes (this was helpful) below.
Hi Earthmag!
Thank you for offering to contribute. May I request that you contribute to some of my favorite software-related organizations:
or any allied academic institution? That would be the best way of saying "thanks" with $$$ that I can think of! :-)
Please note that I am not the original author of either of the scripts -- I merely made them a little easier to install and to use.
Not to knock on Adobe, but until they figure out that this function is needed (this thread has been around for 4 years, do they read these things), you can use this:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfsam/files/pdfsam/2.2.2/pdfsam-x64-v 2_2_2.msi/download
It does exactly what you are asking for, and it is free. Once it is open, select "alternate mix".
There are many other functions too.
Adobe, if you are reading this, please compile your programs for Linux to please.
Did you look at the Planet PDF solution? For Acrobat X and XI you need to install the per
Thank you, GKaiseril! Yes, I looked at the Planet PDF solution but was unable to get it to work. The link you gave says that the new location for the JS is going to be Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\Privileged\10.0\JavaSc ripts, however, after C:\Users\Mark\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat I have no folder called "Priviledged". I turned on "Hidden Items". Maybe this is because I have Windows 8, I'm not sure. I can get to C:\Users\Mark\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\11.0 but there's no "Priviledged" folder there either. Nor is there any "JavaScripts" folder. I don't know where to go from here.
You can run the code using the JavaScript console for a one time use.
Open the odd pages PDF.
Open the JavaScript Console, "Ctrl + J.
Copy and paste the revised script to the console window.
Select all the text in the console window.
Use the Ctrl + Numeric Keypad Enter key to run the code.
You should now have the new menu options until you restart Acrobat.
I would move the code to add the menu items to after the creation of the trusted functions.
Thank you again, GKaiseril. This is a bit frustrating. Ctrl+J does not open the JavaScript Console. I took a look at http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/javascript_console and it says that you can also get there using Advanced>JavaScript>Debugger, but I can't find the "Advanced" menu item either. I'm running Adobe Acrobat XI v11.0.2 if that helps. Any other ideas?
I found the Tools button, but there is nothing there relating to JavaScript. I have "content editing", "pages", "interactive objects", "forms", "text recognition" and "protection". I've clicked on all of them and there is nothing. I also found a Common Tools button but there is nothing there either.
Thank you again. I'm getting close to giving up here, however. I found the JavaScript button which has a button "Set document actions". When I press it I get a box that says, "When this happens..." with options like "Document will close" and "Document will save." I opened up a couple of them and pasted in the JS and tried to run it, but nothing happened.
You can not just cut and paste the text for many reasons.
Like the old joke about the IBM repairman the walks to the computer. He runs his hand over the side of the computer. Pulls a hammer out of his tool box and taps the side of the computer.
The IS manager says, "I could have that!"
To which the repairman states "It is not in hitting the computer, it is knowing where to hit the computer!".
If the scripts are installed in the directory needed by your version and not necessarily the one in the article.
Also one cannot use Word for editing the text.
If you want more help more specific information is needed as to what exactly is not working, any pop up warnings, and any JavaScript errors.
One of the scripts adds a menu option, so you need to install that script in the "JavaScript" folder for the version of Acrobat that you are using.
These scripts can only work in Acrobat.
Look at PDFtk and the shuffle operation to collate pages. There are even more options than provided by the scripts/
If at 60+ and no computer training in college and not an IT professional, if I can figure this out, you should be able to resolve it.
@GKaiseril What version of Acrobat do you have? I have Acrobat 11 and I think that might be the issue. By the way, I hit my computer with a hammer and that did not help. Thank you for your continued assistance! I kind of gave up hope earlier, but I've got a 50-page document that needs collating so I'm willing to give it another try. (I'm still irritated that this isn't a standard feature, but hey...)
@Gkaiseril - So with Acrobat XI, what happens when you get to the "Set document actions" button? Here is what I said previously when I got stuck. I have no idea how to go from there.
Mark Cramer wrote:
I found the JavaScript button which has a button "Set document actions". When I press it I get a box that says, "When this happens..." with options like "Document will close" and "Document will save." I opened up a couple of them and pasted in the JS and tried to run it, but nothing happened.
Do not use the "Set Document" actions. These actions are for use when printing, opening, saving, or closing a PDF. They have nothing to do with combining PDFs and I do not see were they are appropriate.
If you get the scripts in the correct folder for your version of Acrobat, you should see the added buttons under the "Edit" menu option.
Holy cow! I'm finding this a little hard to believe, but I got it to work. With Adobe XI the folder is C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 11.0\Acrobat\Javascripts. I just copied the script above, saved it as collate.js and voilà. Amazing. Thank you, GKaiseril, for all the help! I'll put my hammer away now.
Hello, it sounds like the javascript solution will suit most people, but it is possible to do it yet another way!
For instance, you have scanned a book two pages per pdf page.
Create directories "odd" "even" and "output".
You crop all the odd pages and extract all pages to the odd directory as separate files.
Undo the crop, then crop all the even pages and extract all pages to the even directory as separate files.
The file prefix must be the same for the odd and even pages, which is why I use undo and recrop.
Select "Add Bates Numbering" under pages, edit page design.
Select the "odd" directory and output to the "output" directory. Add a zero to the original file name in output options.
Select the "even" directory and output to the "output" directory. Add a one to the original file name in output options.
You should have in the output directory pages in pairs like, mybook 10.pdf mybook 11.pdf, mybook 20.pdf mybook 21.pdf.
If you select "Combine Files" in Acrobat and select the "output" directory, they will appear in order.
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