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Parameters for Opening PDF Files

Adobe® Acrobat® SDKApril 2007

Version 8.1

© 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Adobe® Acrobat® SDK 8.1 Parameters for Opening PDF Files for Microsoft® Windows®, Mac OS®, Linux®, and UNIX®
Edition 1.0, April 2007
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Contents
Preface .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Who should read this guide? ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Related documentation ............................................................................................................................................................... 4

Parameters for Opening PDF Files ............................................................................................. 5
Parameters........................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Specifying parameters in a URL ................................................................................................................................................ 7
URL examples ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8
URL limitations .......................................................................................................................................................................... 83

Preface
This document describes the parameters you can use when opening Adobe® PDF files. These parameters
allow you to open a PDF file using a URL or command that specifies both the file to be opened and theactions to be performed once the file is opened.

Who should read this guide?
This guide is for developers who want to customize the way PDF files open. It may be useful for thosedeveloping an online collaboration system.

Related documentation
For information about

See

Configuring and administering a system for online
collaboration using comment repositories, !
Adobe Acrobat®, and Adobe Reader®

Acrobat Online Collaboration: Setup andAdministration

A detailed description of the PDF file format

PDF Reference

Detailed descriptions of the APIs for Acrobat and !
Adobe Reader plug-ins, as well as for PDF Library !
applications

Acrobat and PDF Library API Reference4Parameters for Opening PDF Files
You can open a PDF document with a command or URL that specifies exactly what to display (a nameddestination or specific page), and how to display it (using such characteristics as a specific view, scrollbars,
bookmarks, annotations, or highlighting).
The parameters for URLs are supported by most browsers, and can be used when opening PDF documents
programmatically.
Many of these parameters can be passed to the following core API functions (see the Acrobat and PDF
Library API Reference for details):
AVDocOpenFromFileWithParamString
AVDocOpenFromASFileWithParamString
AVDocOpenFromPDDocWithParamString

When opening a PDF document from a command shell, you can pass the parameters to the open
command using the /A switch with the following syntax:<Acrobat path> /A "<parameter>=<value>" "<PDF path>"

For example:
Acrobat.exe /A "zoom=1000" "C:\example.pdf"In Mac OS, you can use the parameters when opening a PDF document with an Apple event.

Parameters
The following table describes the parameters. Italics indicate user-specified variables.
SyntaxDescription

nameddest=destination

Specifies a named destination in the PDF document.

page=pagenumSpecifies a numbered page in the document, using an integer
value. The document’s first page has a pagenum value of 1.

comment=commentID

Specifies a comment on a given page in the PDF document. Use
the page command before this command. For example:#page=1&comment=452fde0e-fd22-457c-84aa-!
2cf5bed5a349

5Adobe Acrobat SDKParameters for Opening PDF Files

Parameters for Opening PDF Files

Parameters

SyntaxDescription

collab=setting

Sets the comment repository to be used to supply and store
comments for the document. This overrides the default comment
server for the review or the default preference. The setting is of theform store_type@location, where valid values for store_type are:●

DAVFDF (WebDAV)●FSFDF (Network folder)●DB (ADBC)

For example:#collab=DAVFDF@http://review_server/Collab!
/user1

For more information on comment repositories, see Acrobat
Online Collaboration: Setup and Administration.
zoom=scale!
zoom=scale,left,top

Sets the zoom and scroll factors, using float or integer values. For
example, a scale value of 100 indicates a zoom value of 100%.
Scroll values left and top are in a coordinate system where 0,0
represents the top left corner of the visible page, regardless of
document rotation.

view=Fit!
view=FitH!
view=FitH,top!
view=FitV!
view=FitV,left!
view=FitB!
view=FitBH!
view=FitBH,top!
view=FitBV!
view=FitBV,left

Set the view of the displayed page, using the keyword values
defined in the PDF language specification. For more information,
see the PDF Reference.

viewrect=left,top,wd,ht

Sets the view rectangle using float or integer values in acoordinate system where 0,0 represents the top left corner of thevisible page, regardless of document rotation.

Scroll values left and top are floats or integers in a coordinate
system where 0,0 represents the top left corner of the visible
page, regardless of document rotation.
Use the page command before this command.
Note: This parameter is not supported on the command line.

Use the page command before this command.
Note: This parameter is not supported on the command line.
pagemode=bookmarks

Displays bookmarks or thumbnails.

pagemode=thumbs
pagemode=none (default)
scrollbar=1|0

Turns scrollbars on or off.

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Adobe Acrobat SDKParameters for Opening PDF Files

Parameters for Opening PDF Files

Specifying parameters in a URL

SyntaxDescription

search=wordList

Opens the Search panel and performs a search for any of thewords in the specified word list. The first matching word ishighlighted in the document.
The words must be enclosed in quotation marks and separated byspaces. For example:#search="word1 word2"

You can search only for single words. You cannot search for astring of words.
toolbar=1|0

Turns the toolbar on or off.

statusbar=1|0

Turns the status bar on or off.

messages=1|0

Turns the document message bar on or off.

navpanes=1|0

Turns the navigation panes and tabs on or off.

highlight=lt,rt,top,btm

Highlights a specified rectangle on the displayed page. Use thepage command before this command.
The rectangle values are integers in a coordinate system where0,0 represents the top left corner of the visible page, regardless ofdocument rotation.

fdf=URLSpecifies an FDF file to populate form fields in the PDF file being
opened. For example:#fdf=http://example.org/doc.fdf

Note: The fdf parameter should be specified last in a URL.

Specifying parameters in a URL
You can specify multiple parameters in a single URL. Separate each parameter with either an ampersand(&) or a pound (#) character. Actions are processed and executed from left to right as they appear in theURL.
Because all specified actions are executed, it is possible that later actions will override the effects ofprevious actions, so it is important to use the correct order. For example, page actions should appear
before zoom actions.
Commands are not case sensitive except for the value of a named destination. There can be no spaces inthe URL.

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Adobe Acrobat SDKParameters for Opening PDF Files

Parameters for Opening PDF Files
URL examples

8URL examples
http://example.org/doc.pdf#Chapter6
http://example.org/doc.pdf#page=3
http://example.org/doc.pdf#page=3&zoom=200,250,100
http://example.org/doc.pdf#zoom=50
http://example.org/doc.pdf#page=72&view=fitH,100
http://example.org/doc.pdf#pagemode=none
http://example.org/doc.pdf#pagemode=bookmarks&page=2
http://example.org/doc.pdf#page=3&pagemode=thumbs
http://example.org/doc.pdf#collab=DAVFDF@http://review_server/Collab/user1
http://example.org/doc.pdf#page=1&comment=452fde0e-fd22-457c-84aa-2cf5bed5a349
http://example.org/doc.pdf#fdf=http://example.org/doc.fdf

URL limitations
●
●

●
●

Only one digit following a decimal point is retained for float values.
Individual parameters, together with their values (separated by & or #), can be no greater then 32
characters in length.
You cannot use the reserved characters =, #, and &. There is no way to escape these special characters.
If you turn bookmarks off using a URL parameter when a document had previously been saved withbookmarks on, the bookmark scrollbars are displayed at first, and only disappear once Acrobat obtains
enough streamed information to render the full page.