Carl Tyler's Blog :: Notes 8.5 File, Import Adboe PDF for free!

Category Import PDF
Back in December Peter Presnell posted a blog entry about Importing PDF files into Rich Text Fields in Notes. It explained how you could now import PDF files into Notes, if you renamed them to .DOC. At the time I thought, that is totally coole, but had no time to test it. I honestly thought it was so cool that it would have had a lot more hits on PlanetLotus and others would have talked about it, but they didn't.

Today I decided to test it, and low and behold it worked. Then I decided I wanted it a little easier and would like a File Import Adobe PDF option right in the import dialog, versus renaming files .DOC. Remembering that the import and export filter settings were stored in Notes.ini I made a quick change and now I had File, Import, Adobe PDF there.

To add Adobe PDF as an import option to your Notes, find your Notes.ini file.

Look for the lines that start with EDITIMP follwed by a number, and find the last one. In my Notes.ini it was EDITIMP23=Microsoft Excel 2007,0,_IW4W,,.XLSX,,2,
Add a new line after this last EDITIMP line, and make it read EDITIMPnn=Adobe PDF,0,_IW4W,,.PDF,,2, where nn is the last EDITIMP number plus 1, so in my case the final line was:

EDITIMP24=Adobe PDF,0,_IW4W,,.PDF,,2,

This line basically tells notes to add a new import option shown as "Adobed PDF" that uses the PDF file extension, and to use the Word import filter to import it.

Once you've done that, start Notes, create a new mail, go to the rich text field and choose File Import, Adobe PDF.

Comments

1 - It was just a hack until you just showed me what that notes.ini line does. That is VERY cool. Thanks!

You wouldn't happen to know if there is any danger in 8.5.2 or 9.0 needing the next "nn" number (e.g. 24 in your case) and overwriting this?

Tripp

Posted by Tripp Black At 11:26:29 PM On 02/20/2010 | - Website - |

2 - @1 I have no idea Tripp, if IBM add more import filters then the number could change.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 10:47:16 AM On 02/21/2010 | - Website - |

3 - My understanding on the Notes.ini import/export filters is that they are only read from the registry into the Notes.ini file at initial set-up, and combined with some 'standard' recognisers. For example, even if Lotus 123 is not installed it's still in imp/exp options, same for me with Word/Excel - MS Office not installed, but I still get Word/Excel imp/exp filters.

That is: at set-up you have an empty ini file, then the notes configuration (when you first run Notes) populates the import/export at that point.

Therefore if you modify them manually, they shouldn't be overwritten in the current ini file.

I remember having to empty my notes.ini file on a few occasions over the years to add new filters at each Notes upgrade.

Posted by Mat Newman At 06:11:13 PM On 02/21/2010 | - Website - |

4 - cool, thanks Carl

Posted by Keith Brooks At 10:26:50 PM On 02/21/2010 | - Website - |

5 - That IS way cool. I'd much rather import the text than have attachments sitting around.

Now, can you put me ont he trail of a way to automate this, possibly on the server end? What I'd like to do is take a pdf that is sent to a mail-in-database and import the content into a document...

Posted by Maria Helm At 04:21:50 PM On 02/23/2010 | - Website - |