Pasting Clipboard Data


Whatever you can add to the Adobe Reader clipboardwithin certain size limitationsyou can use as a custom stamp. If you can copy an image or a body of text, or take a screen shot of your monitor, you can paste the data on a PDF page.

Assume for a moment your IT department creates a PDF document enabled with Reader usage rights. The technical support people want you to report problems using the Adobe Reader program. Rather than sending an email describing the problem, you can capture the screen image and send your IT department a graphic image illustrating the problem along with a comment note. This can be accomplished using Adobe Reader and the Paste Clipboard Image as Stamp Tool command.

How you copy and paste data from screen captures works a little different depending on the operating system you use. However, regardless of your computing platform, you can copy clipboard image data and convert the data to a custom stamp.

If you don't have a file enabled with usage rights, use the eSupport.pdf file from www.peachpit.com/adobereader7.


Pasting Clipboard Data on Windows

If you copy dataeither text or imagesfrom other authoring programs, you can paste the data using the Paste Clipboard Image as Stamp Tool command. Similarly, you can take a screen capture in Windows and add the capture to the clipboard, where you can then convert it to a stamp comment.

To convert screen captures to stamp comments:

1.

Open a file enabled with Reader usage rights. In this example, I use the eSupport.pdf document.

2.

Take a screen capture from within Adobe Reader or any authoring program. To capture screens in Windows, press the Prt Scr key. Note on many keyboards you need to use Shift+Prt Scr. If you want to capture a dialog or a foreground object, press Alt+Prt Scr.

3.

Open the Stamp Tool pull-down menu and select Paste Clipboard Image as Stamp Tool.

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Select the Hand tool and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Command+V, and the clipboard data are pasted as a new stamp.

4.

Move the cursor to the document page and click. The clipboard image is pasted on the page.

5.

Click the image and drag any one of the four corner handles to resize it. To move the image, click on any area other than a handle and drag it to the desired location. Alternatively, you can draw a marquee to size, and then release the mouse button; the stamp is created at the size of the marquee.

6.

Click the image to open a note pop-up window, and type your message (Figure 12.5).

Figure 12.5. Select the Paste Clipboard Image as Stamp Tool command to add the image as a custom stamp. Click the image to open the note pop-up window, and type your message.


7.

Select File > Save As and save the file with a new filename. You can use the original file when reporting other problems and continue saving copies to preserve the original file as a template. You can email the file to the technical support people to clearly communicate your message.

Why won't my image data paste on the page?

Converting clipboard data is limited to a physical file size of 1296 x 1078 pixels. At 72 pixels per inch, the size measures approximately 18 inches by 14.972 inches. If your screen monitor resolution is higher than the maximum acceptable resolution, you can change your monitor's resolution in your Display Control Panel. In Figure 12.6, a screen capture was made of the Desktop showing the Display Control Panel. The capture was made using Shift+Prt Scr and then pasted into a document enabled with Adobe Reader usage rights using Paste Clipboard Image as Stamp Tool.

Figure 12.6. A full screen capture smaller than 1296 by 1078 pixels can be pasted as a stamp.



Pasting Clipboard Data on the Macintosh

As with Adobe Reader running under Windows, any data you copy to the clipboard in an authoring program can be converted to a stamp. But the Macintosh captures screen images to a file instead of the clipboard when you use keyboard shortcuts or the Grab utility.

When converting screen captures to stamps, Macintosh users must first take a screen shot, and then open the screen shot in a program before copying the data to the clipboard. However, the disadvantage of this two-step process compared with the one-step Windows process is more than compensated for on the Mac by the features available in the Preview utility. When you open files in Preview, you can copy selected portions of the image, and convert anything you open in Preview to a PDF document. As such, the Macintosh's standard operating system utilities offer you a wonderful PDF creation tool.

To convert clipboard data to a custom stamp on the Macintosh:

1.

Take a screen capture. Press Shift+Command+3 to capture the entire screen. If you want to capture a dialog, icon, or foreground image, press Shift+Command+4. Press the spacebar. The cursor changes to crosshairs. Place the cursor on the item you want to capture, and click the mouse button. The selected item is automatically saved as a PDF document on your Desktop and labeled Picture 1.pdf.

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You can also capture icons in the Dock using Shift+Command+4 and then press the spacebar and click the image.

2.

Open Preview. From within your Applications folder, double-click the Preview application icon. Open the Picture 1.pdf document (Figure 12.7). This figure shows a dialog captured using the Shift+Command+4 and spacebar keyboard shortcuts.

Figure 12.7. Open Picture 1.pdf in Preview.


3.

From the Preview application's Edit menu, select Copy. Notice that you do not need to select anything in the Preview window to select the data.

4.

Open a document enabled with Adobe Reader usage rights.

5.

Open the Stamp Tool pull-down menu, and select Paste Clipboard Image as Stamp Tool.

6.

Click the cursor in the document window to place the stamp. Size and position the stamp as described in the preceding Windows section.

7.

Click the stamp to open a note pop-up window, and type your message (Figure 12.8).

Figure 12.8. Open the note pop-up window and type your message.


It doesn't take much to realize the power of using Adobe Reader and custom stamps for tasks related to reporting technical problems in a company. As documents are returned to the technical support department, support personnel can make additional comments, noting how problems are resolved. The PDF documents can be maintained in a repository and searched with Adobe Reader's powerful search features. Future problems can be easily resolved by following steps in notes where technicians found solutions. This is but one example of how custom stamps can be used effectively in any enterprise. As stated earlier, you need to let your imagination go to think of creative ways to use Adobe Reader's commenting tools and the custom stamp features.



    Adobe Reader 7 Revealed. Working Effectively with Acrobat PDF Files
    Adobe Reader 7 Revealed: Working Effectively with Acrobat PDF Files
    ISBN: 0321305310
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 168
    Authors: Ted Padova

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