Adobe acrobat 7.0.5 sdk User Manual

Deciding Which Acrobat SDK Technology to Use

Using the IAC API, you can:

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Get annotations, text and form data from a PDF document 

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Search a PDF document

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Manipulate a PDF document, editing and adding content

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Control Acrobat remotely. You cannot remotely control Adobe Reader.

From the Acrobat Viewer layer, you can use the IAC API to display PDF files in your 
application’s windows. You can change the control you have over the application’s user 
interface and appearance of its window by either using a PD layer object, 

, or by 

using an AV layer object, 

. 

 gives you access to Acrobat’s rendering 

capabilities. For more control, you can create your application with 

 that can be used 

to display text annotations and active links in your application’s window.

From the PD layer, you can perform basic manipulations of PDF documents, such as 
deleting, moving or replacing pages, as well as changing annotation attributes. You can 
print PDF pages, select text, manipulate text, and create or delete thumbnails.

For more information on the IAC API, see 

 and the Acrobat Interapplication Communication Reference.

You can extend the functionality of the IAC interfaces by writing plug-ins that use core API 
objects not already part of the IAC support system. For more information, see 

 and the Acrobat Interapplication 

Communication Overview.

You can execute Acrobat JavaScript commands from the IAC API by using the IAC API 

 method of the 

 plug-in. On Windows, you can also use 

the 

 to access the JavaScript object model through the Acrobat automation 

interface. For more information, see 

 and 

Programming Acrobat JavaScript Using Visual Basic. On Mac OS X, you can execute JavaScript 
scripts using Do Script in AppleScript.

This section presents topics to consider as you decide whether to use plug-ins or JavaScript 
to implement a particular functionality. 

The section contains the following topics:

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