Introduction

By default, PDF files produced by Spindle Document Distribution and Spindle Professional are protected from having data extracted from them and having changes made to them. This ensures that the document cannot be modified by the recipient. 

However there are occasions when it is required that data be extracted from the PDF or for the recipient to make modifications to the document. 

To allow this, Spindle Document Distribution has options that can be set globally or per document operation.

Versions Applicable

• Spindle Professional
• Spindle Document Distribution

Solution

Spindle Document Distribution will allow you to create PDFs that can have their contents extracted (so that the PDF can be read by an external system) and/or have its contents edited. These settings can be set globally (per distribution type, eg email, archive) or at Document Operation level. 

Spindle Document Distribution will use an operation setting in preference to a global setting, so where you make the change depends on whether the protected document is the exception or the norm. 

Global Changes

To allow content extraction option and page extraction please ensure the options under default security are ticked in Spindle Document Distribution Tools, User settings>Email Settings:

This setting will apply to all documents sent via Spindle Document Distribution, unless the options are reverted in the operation settings.

Document Operation level

To specify that documents should be editable or selectable on an operation basis, there are options in 

Document Automation>Email Settings>Advanced tab (for PDFs sent via email):

NOTE: For these settings to take effect, you must select PDF from the 'Attachment Type' dropdown menu.

And in Archive Manager>[Archive Name]>PDF Settings (for Archived documents):

Opening the document in Adobe Acrobat (File>Document Properties) shows that the file is editable:

Example configurations

Case A: You want all documents (regardless of type) to be protected except for Despatch Notes

Case B: You want all documents of a given type to be protected except those for a single recipient

Here you would duplicate the document operation, then set the PDF security settings to allow editing/extraction on one operation and disallow it on the other. Then add operation-level criteria to exclude the recipient from the protected operation and to only allow it through the editbale operation:

Above: Assuming that the account reference is in ##VAR2...##, if it is for account ABC123 then do not send a protected PDF

Above: If the account ref is ABC123, then follow this operation and send an editable PDF.

Set up the PDF Security as follows:

 Above: Set the PDF options to prevent extraction\editing on the first operation

Above: Set the PDF options to allow extraction\editing

Case C: You want all documents of a given type to be protected except those for group of recipients.

This is very similar to case B above, however, instead of setting the operation criteria to check the account number, you would assign a value to a ##VARxx...## command, possibly built using an account analysis code / dimension to provide their preference.

Let's say that we have analysis code 1 holding a value of whether the document should be editable, and we passs this into VAR20 using an expression on the document layout such as 

"##VAR20 " + AnalysisCode2 + "##"

Which would result in either

##VAR20 YES## or 

##VAR20 NO## 

(as a response to a question such as "Send Editable PDF")

We then copy the document operation as in case B, but the Operation criteria would now look like this:

Above: Criteria to prevent accounts with VAR20 = YES from using the "Protected PDF" operation

Above: Criteria to only allow accounts with VAR20 = YES to use the "Editable PDF" operation

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