How to Automate Printing PDF Sections from Bookmarks in Acrobat
Question details
The user wants to find a faster way to print individual sections of a PDF based on its bookmarks, ensuring each section starts on a new page and prints double-sided.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Printing a lengthy document containing multiple distinct bookmarked sections that need to be separated and printed out physically.
- Observed behavior
- Printing each bookmark section separately via the standard print dialog is a tedious and time-consuming manual process.
Ensure you have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC installed, as standard PDF readers do not support executing custom JavaScript. Verify that your default printer is powered on and set to double-sided (duplex) printing in your operating system's printer settings.
Use Acrobat JavaScript to Automate Bookmark Printing
Create and run a custom JavaScript snippet in the Acrobat Console to identify bookmark destinations and send each range to the printer automatically as a separate job.
Adobe Acrobat does not have a native 'Print by Bookmark' button, but it allows advanced users to utilize Acrobat JavaScript to manipulate the document structure. By writing a script, you can loop through the document's bookmarks, calculate the start and end pages for each section, and trigger the print dialog for those specific page ranges.
Keep in mind that while JavaScript can send the print jobs to the queue, it cannot always override hardware-specific printer settings like duplexing. You must configure your printer's default settings to double-sided before running the script.
Go to your computer's 'Printers & Scanners' settings, select your target printer, and set the default printing preference to 'Print on both sides' (Duplex).
Launch Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, open your PDF document, and press 'Ctrl + J' (Windows) or 'Cmd + J' (Mac) to open the JavaScript Debugger.
In the console, write a script that iterates through the `this.bookmarkRoot.children` array. For each bookmark, use its destination to calculate the `nStart` and `nEnd` page numbers.
Inside your script's loop, use the `this.print({bUI: false, nStart: startPage, nEnd: endPage});` method to silently send each section to your default printer as a discrete print job.
Split and Print PDF Sections by Bookmarks with WPS Office
If you are not familiar with writing custom JavaScript, WPS Office provides an easy workaround. You can use the 'Split PDF' feature to automatically separate your document into individual files based on top-level bookmarks, and then batch print them.
- 1. Open your PDF in WPS Office: Launch WPS Office, navigate to the PDF tab, and open your document containing the bookmarks.
- 2. Split by Bookmarks: Go to the 'Page' tab and select 'Split PDF'. In the dialog box, choose the 'Split by Bookmarks' option and select an output folder.
- 3. Batch Print the Sections: Once the document is split, navigate to your output folder, select all the newly created PDF files, right-click, and select 'Print' to batch print them using your system's double-sided settings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I control double-sided (duplex) printing directly through Acrobat JavaScript?
Acrobat JavaScript has very limited control over specific printer hardware properties like duplexing. The script relies on the default printer settings configured in your operating system, so you must set your printer to double-sided manually before running the script.
Why do my bookmarked sections print continuously instead of on new pages?
Standard printing treats the entire PDF as one continuous job, printing pages back-to-back. To force each section to start on a new piece of paper, each section must be sent to the printer as a completely separate print job.
Is there a built-in button in Acrobat to print by bookmark?
No, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC does not have a native, one-click feature to print document sections by bookmarks. Users typically have to rely on custom JavaScript workarounds, third-party plug-ins, or manual page range printing.
What if my PDF bookmarks are nested in hierarchies?
If you are writing a custom JavaScript automation, nested bookmarks require you to write a recursive function to accurately navigate the hierarchy and identify the correct start and end pages for each sub-section, which significantly increases the complexity of the script.
