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Apply actions and scripts

Last updated on Feb 26, 2026 | Also applies to Adobe Acrobat 2017, Adobe Acrobat 2020

Acrobat User Guide
Introduction to Acrobat
1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
3. What's new in Acrobat
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5. System Requirements
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Workspace
1. Workspace basics
2. Opening and viewing PDFs
3. Working with online storage accounts
4. Acrobat and macOS
5. Acrobat notifications
6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
8. Adobe Acrobat for Outlook
9. Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer
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Creating PDFs
1. Overview of PDF creation
2. Overview of PDF creation
3. Create PDFs with Acrobat
4. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
5. Using the Adobe PDF printer
6. Converting web pages to PDF
7. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
8. Adobe PDF conversion settings
9. PDF fonts
Editing PDFs
1. Edit text in PDFs
2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
4. Edit scanned PDFs
5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
6. Optimizing PDFs
7. PDF properties and metadata
8. Links and attachments in PDFs
9. PDF layers
10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
11. PDFs converted to web pages
12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
13. PDF articles
14. Geospatial PDFs
15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
16. Change the default font for adding text
17. Delete pages from a PDF
18. Edit a signed PDF | FAQ
Scan and OCR
1. Scan documents to PDF
2. Enhance document photos
3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
Forms
1. PDF forms basics
2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
3. Create and distribute PDF forms
4. Fill in PDF forms
5. PDF form field properties
6. Fill and sign PDF forms
7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
9. PDF form field basics
10. PDF barcode form fields
11. Collect and manage PDF form data
12. About forms tracker
13. PDF forms help
14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
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1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
4. Crop PDF pages
5. Add watermarks to PDFs
6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
Sharing, reviews, and commenting
1. Share and track PDFs online
2. Mark up text with edits
3. Preparing for a PDF review
4. Starting a PDF review
5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
6. Participating in a PDF review
7. Add comments to PDFs
8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
9. Approval workflows
10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
11. Importing and exporting comments
12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
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2. Convert PDF to Word
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4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
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8. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
9. File format options for PDF export
10. Reusing PDF content
Security
1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
2. Securing PDFs with passwords
3. Manage Digital IDs
4. Securing PDFs with certificates
5. Opening secured PDFs
6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
11. Protected View feature for PDFs
12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
14. Attachments as security risks
15. Allow or block links in PDFs
16. Allow or block links in PDFs
17. Edit secured PDFs
Electronic signatures
1. Sign PDF documents
2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
3. Send documents for e-signatures
4. Create a web form
5. Request e-signatures in bulk
6. Collect online payments
7. Brand your account
8. About certificate signatures
9. Certificate-based signatures
10. Validating digital signatures
11. Adobe Approved Trust List
12. Manage trusted identities
Printing
1. Basic PDF printing tasks
2. Basic PDF printing tasks
3. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
4. Advanced PDF print settings
5. Print to PDF
6. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
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1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
2. Accessibility features in PDFs
3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
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5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
6. Creating accessible PDFs
7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
Searching and indexing
1. Creating PDF indexes
2. Searching PDFs
Multimedia and 3D models
1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
4. Interacting with 3D models
5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
7. Enable 3D content in PDF
8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
11. Add comments to videos
Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
1. Print production tools overview
2. Printer marks and hairlines
3. Previewing output
4. Transparency flattening
5. Color conversion and ink management
6. Trapping color
Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
2. Preflight profiles
3. Advanced preflight inspections
4. Preflight reports
5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
6. Output intents in PDFs
7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
11. Preflight libraries
12. Preflight variables
Color management
1. Keeping colors consistent
2. Color settings
3. Color-managing documents
4. Working with color profiles
5. Understanding color management
Troubleshoot
1. Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
2. Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
3. Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
4. Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
5. Edit PDF forms created in LiveCycle Designer
6. Insufficient data for an image error on Adobe Acrobat
7. Resolve errors related to the AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

What are actions?

You can set your document with actions that are triggered when a bookmark or link is clicked or when a page is viewed. For example, use links and bookmarks to navigate different document locations, execute commands, and perform various tasks. Set actions in the Properties dialog box.

For other items like pages, media clips, and form fields, establish a trigger that initiates the action, and then define the action itself. Assign multiple actions to a single trigger.

The Locked option safeguards an object's look and feel and actions from unintentional changes.

Add an action to bookmarks, form fields, buttons, or clips

From the Bookmarks panel, right-click on a bookmark and then select Properties.

Or, double-click the Link, media clip, or form field and choose Properties.
Select the Actions tab.
In the Select Action menu, choose the desired action type and select Add. You can add multiple actions which will execute in the order they appear in the Actions list box.
(Optional) In the Actions tab, select an action and use the buttons to reorder, edit, or delete it.
Select OK to confirm the actions.
Close the Rich Media tool by clicking the cross icon at the right end of the toolbar.

Add actions to page thumbnails

To enhance the interactive quality of a document, you can specify actions, such as changing the zoom value, to occur when a page is opened or closed.

From the right panel, select the Page thumbnails icon.
Select the corresponding page thumbnail and select Page properties from the options menu.
Select the Actions tab.
From the Select Trigger menu, choose Page Open to set an action when the page opens, or choose Page Close to set an action when the page closes.
From the Select Action menu, pick an action and then select Add.
Determine the options for the action and select OK.
Available options depend on the chosen action.
To create a sequence of actions, select another action from the menu and select Add.
Use the Up and Down buttons to order the actions as desired.

Note

If you set an action to switch to Full Screen view on Page Open or Page Close, the same page will open or close in Full Screen view next time.
Close all open dialog boxes, if any. Select the cross icon at the right end of the toolbar to close the tool.

Action types

Here are the actions you can assign to links, bookmarks, pages, media clips, and form fields:

Execute A menu item: Performs a specific menu command.
Go to a 3D/Multimedia view: Directs to a designated 3D view.
Go to a page view: Navigates to a chosen destination in the current or another document.
Import form data: Imports form data from another file into the active form.
Multimedia Operation (Acrobat 9 and later): Executes an action for a multimedia object in the file, like playing a sound file. Add the multimedia object to the file first.
Open a file: Launches and opens a file. To open a linked file in a PDF, the reader needs the native application of the linked file.
Open a web link: Directs to a specific Internet destination using http, ftp, or mailto protocols.
Play a sound: Plays a chosen sound file, embedded in the PDF document.
Play media (Acrobat 5 Compatible): Plays a QuickTime or AVI movie, embedded in a PDF document, and compatible with Acrobat 5.
Play media (Acrobat 6 and later Compatible): Plays a movie, embedded in a PDF document, and compatible with Acrobat 6.
Read an article: Follows an article thread in the current or another PDF document.
Reset a form: Clears previously entered data in a form. Use the Select Fields dialog box to select reset fields.
Run a JavaScript: Executes a specified JavaScript.
Set layer visibility: Determines active layer settings. Set the layer settings before adding this action.
Show/Hide a field: Switches between displaying and hiding a field in a PDF document. Useful in form fields, for example, to show an object when the pointer is over a button and hide it on Mouse Exit.
Submit a form: Transmits form data to a specific URL.

Trigger types

Triggers activate actions in media clips, pages, and form fields. For example, you can set a movie or sound clip to play when a page opens or closes. Available options vary based on the specific page element.

For media clips and form fields (not links or bookmarks), you can use the following triggers:

Mouse Up (Acrobat Pro): Activates when releasing the mouse button after a click. This common button trigger allows users to avoid activating the action by dragging the pointer off the button.
Page Visible (media clips only): Activates when the page with the media clip becomes visible, even if it's not the current page. This can happen when pages are displayed side by side in a continuous page layout.
Page Invisible (media clips only): Activates when the page with the media clip is no longer in view.
Page Enter (media clips only): Activates when the page with the media clip becomes the current page.
Page Exit (media clips only): Activates when a user leaves the page containing the media clip.
Mouse Down: Activates when clicking the mouse button (before releasing). Mouse Up is generally the preferred trigger.
Mouse Enter: Activates when the pointer enters the field or play area.
Mouse Exit: Activates when the pointer leaves the field or play area.
On Receive Focus (media clips only): Activates when the link area gains focus, either through a mouse action or tabbing.
On Lose Focus (media clips only): Activates when focus shifts away from the link area.

About JavaScript™ in Acrobat

Netscape Communications developed JavaScript to simplify the creation of interactive web pages. Adobe has improved JavaScript for easy integration of this interactivity into your PDF documents.

You can use JavaScript code with actions tied to bookmarks, links, and pages. The Set Document Actions command lets you create document-wide JavaScript actions. For instance, selecting Document Did Save triggers the JavaScript after saving a document.

Acrobat Pro is needed to use JavaScript with forms and action wizards.

In Acrobat Pro, you can also use JavaScript with PDF forms and action wizards. Typical uses of JavaScript in forms include formatting, calculating, and validating data, and assigning actions. Field-level scripts, tied to specific form fields like a button, run when an event like a Mouse Up action happens.

To learn how to create JavaScript scripts, download the JavaScript manuals from the Adobe website. The 'Developing Acrobat Applications Using JavaScript' provides background information and tutorials, while the 'JavaScript for Acrobat API Reference' offers detailed reference information. You can find these and other JavaScript resources on the Adobe website.

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