Automatically Filling In A PDF Form

DEVONthink
1

Every semester I receive a spreadsheet with a list of all the students in my major. Each student has there own row with their name, student ID, and other information about them.

During the semester I usually need to standard submit forms for some of the students- course substitutions, overriding prerequisites, things like that.

I would like to set up a system within DEVONthink that will allow me to click on a row that contains a student’s information, and populate a form with the students information and the date and spit out a flattened pdf.

I want to be able to submit the form, but also have a searchable record within DEVONthink. Would like to avoid JavaScript if possible.

How can I get started? I have a full version of Acrobat DC if that helps. I have already created fillable forms in Acrobat. Just want to populate the fields.

2

just a hunch. skip DEVONthink. Continue with Excel and maybe automate with Keyboard Maestro and a PDF app. Or i would (‘cause i have years of experience using it) write a small Python program using Excel and PDF libraries to spit out a PDF.

if the forms were in Word it would probably be easier as it has Word Basic that could be used to read the spreadsheet into a table and drive generation of an output PDF.

i am not saying it won’t work with DEVONthink as someone can surely think of a way to bend it to your will, but doesn’t feel right compared with other things i would try first.

of course i could be wrong!

postscript : attempting DEVONthink it probably would be in Apple Script driving it alone or also another PDF app that has an Apple Script API.