Create PDF templates for documents you use frequently and save time. In this article, Smile Support specialist Jeff B. shows you how. Once you create a PDF template, you won't ever have to start another invoice, registration form, or business letter from scratch again.
by Jeff B.
Our customer support team often tests how PDFpen works with different types of documents and creates samples to share with our customers. For this reason, we like to collect documents that can be later used for demonstration purposes.
To optimize this process and guarantee we don't overwrite the originals, we created an AppleScript that copies selected documents and then opens them in PDFpen.
You can use the same script to create PDF templates for documents you frequently use.
Create a PDF Template Using AppleScript
To create your own PDF templates in PDFpen, do the following:
- Create a "Templates" folder in ~/Documents and put your templates inside. (You can add/remove documents at any time.)
- Launch PDFpen and choose the Scripts menu (far right in menu bar). Then, select "Open Scripts Folder."
- Download the Open Template script.
- After unzipping, move the downloaded script into the folder opened in Step 2.
- Close and then reopen PDFpen so it will pick up the new script.
To open a template, go to the Scripts menu and choose "Open Template." Next, select the template you'd like to open.
(Depending on your version of macOS, you may be prompted to allow PDFpen to control the Finder. This is necessary for choosing the document you want to open.)
The document will be copied to your Documents folder and the original will stay in the same location.
If you'd like to change the folder in which the documents are stored or to where they are copied, you can modify the script without too much trouble.
Find more built-in AppleScripts to automate tasks in PDFpen.