Date Stamp to PDF?

[C***@adobeforums.com]

I'm looking for ways to get a date stamp in InDesign (CS2) to port through to an exported PDF file.

Here's the setup. I create a great deal of layouts of unit labels for our manufactured products. These units require a date stamp on the label to indicate the date of manufacture for the unit. So, I maintain a library of layout files on the server containing each label layout. I also have a corresponding library of PDF production files used be the print shop. It is my job to make sure they are all up to date and will print correctly, etc. Our in-house print shop looks at the production schedule to see which units are scheduled to be built, opens the indicated label files and prints enough labels to be used on the production lines. So far, so great.

I can create the label layouts and export them to PDF for use by the print shop. However, I have to go in and modify those PDFs to include the date stamp, so that when the PDF is opened by the print shop personnel it automatically shows today's date.

I'm essentially looking to reduce these two steps (create in IDCS2 -> modify in Acrobat) to a single step. Is there anyway to setup a text box or graphic box directly in the InDesign layout so that when it is exported to the PDF it will become the automatically-updating date stamp? I'm open to looking at CS3 if need be.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

IDCS3 offers 3 variables (along with others): creation date,
modification date, output date. CS2 doesn't have variables.

[C***@adobeforums.com]

I've looked at text variables in IDCS3, and have wanted that functionality for years now. One question I have is:

When the PDF is generated, does the variable data 'lock' to the value at the time of the PDF creation? Or does it continue to be variable data even while embedded in the resulting PDF?

I'm viewing it sort of the way, for instance, a .PSD file is placed in an ID file. While in InDesign, I can see that the PSD file is updated and refresh the link. However, then the layout is converted to PDF, the link is gone and the PDF simply displays what was embedded, that is, the version of the PSD file at the time of PDF creation. It doesn't get updated anymore. I'm sort of asking for ways to make a PDF that retains the link to the original PSD file, to keep with the metaphor.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Date of creation is going to be the date the file was originated.

Date of modification is going to be the last date the file was saved.

Output date is going to be the date the file was printed or exported to PDF.

None of these variables, by definition, could remain variable after
leaving Indesign, since their content depends on actions that only
Indesign can perform. Acrobat can't originate, save, or output an
Indesign file. They are, to use your words, "locked" in the PDF. They
print or export to PDF as text.

The big difference between placing a PSD file in Indesign and exporting
or printing to PDF is that PDF doesn't support live links. Indesign can
link to a live file that can later change. Acrobat can only embed material.

To tell the truth, I don't understand how you could use a continuously
updating, live-linked variable in a PDF. Would it be like a digital
clock, the numbers changing before your eyes?

[C***@adobeforums.com]

I might be onto an alternative solution, though. Currently, I'm investigating if the date stamp is possible at the application level instead of the document level.

It makes sense to me that I ought to be able to put a plain text box on the page in InDesign that contains a unique string of text that I know will not be used anywhere in my label copy. Make a PDF as usual. So, my PDF library has a bunch of label layouts where instead of the production date - there is this unique string (something like DATECODE or similar).

Then, when the print shop is ready to print a file, they simply run a script (which I've set up in their copy of Acrobat) that will replace the 'DATECODE' string with the current date and then print the document for them. (to keep it a simple, one-step "print command")

Is that currently possible in Acrobat? I'll post this question over in the Acrobat forum as well.

That way, instead of embedding a script or form field into every PDF file, I've got the script resident in just one place - the operator's copy of Acrobat, and my Layout and PDF workflow is greatly simplified.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

I'm starting to understand. You want output date, but you want the date
the PDF is output, not the Indesign file.

I think you can get to where you want with Forms in Acrobat. Not sure,
I've never had to do it, but I think you can insert a Form Field in
Acrobat (probably in Form Designer) that inserts current date.

[C***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your input, Kenneth! Adding a form field in Acrobat after PDF creation is pretty much where I'm at now. It's an extra step or two that I'm hoping to eliminate, though.

It brings up other inconveniences, as well, when I need to update an existing label layout. I'd update the InDesign file, then generate a temporary PDF and do one of two things:

1. Open the original PDF and copy the form field into the new PDF, close the old PDF, then give the new PDF the old PDF filename.

-OR-

2. Open the old PDF and replace the page with the updated version from the new PDF, leaving the form field where it is, save the old PDF and delete the new PDF.

Either way, I'm multiplying files and versions, then deleting and/or renaming files. Not very efficient over a 1200 file library.

Essentially, I'm hoping to be able to set something up in the InDesign layout file that can enable Acrobat to produce the date itself. That way, I can just have one set of layout files and one set of production files with no temporary files in between. Maybe a JavaScript in Acrobat that can use the new Form Field Recognition Tool is an avenue to pursue..

Maybe by CS4? :) By then, Integration between InDesign and Acrobat might be to the point where ID can tell AA exactly what it wants in a way that AA can reliably understand.

[AlFerrari]

Clay,

Why can't the print shop output from an IDCS3 file instead of the pdf, since that's the available software with the Output Date variable you want?

If your concern is to not have the print shop dealing with all the linked files that make up the IDCS3 file, then export the pdf yourself without the date variable, and place that back into an IDCS3 file that has the date variable at the appropriate location for output by the print shop.

This just requires a small amount of training for the print shop staff to output from InDesign, instead of Acrobat.

Al

[L***@adobeforums.com]

Clay,

This answer is probably not much help to you but something like this could be easily achieved using PHP.
You would be able to upload the pdf to the server. Then whenever the printshop opened the pdf from the server the current date could be automatically put in where you wanted it.