Question Program to sort individual PDF pages

[Frustratedandconfused]

Hi,
I’m brand new to this so please forgive me if it’s been asked before, but I’ve spent a lot of time looking into this and got nowhere.

I get sent PDFs with thousands of pages for my job. The pages usually have no order to them, but I need to sort them into sections and save them as separate files. I need a program that will allow me to either create multiple folders that I can drag and drop each page into and then save each folder as a separate file, or allow me to label each page and then extract all pages with a specific label to save as a separate file.

So far, all I’ve found is the organise tool on Acrobat Pro, where repeatedly scrolling through the same file to highlight pages is far too slow, or manually documenting page numbers and then identifying them to print, saving them and combining them. Both of these options take far too long, so any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

There are a number of ways to manage documents.

What criteria is used to sort the documents? What is that "specific label"? How are the target folders selected?

= = = =

However, your question appears to be a "homework" question and providing assistance with homework is prohibited by Forum rules.

There is no way on this end to know the truth of the matter.

Do some additional research, work out what you determine to be potential solutions to the problem(s).

Add details and explanations. Cite references. Provide examples.

Post accordingly.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi,
I’m brand new to this so please forgive me if it’s been asked before, but I’ve spent a lot of time looking into this and got nowhere.

I get sent PDFs with thousands of pages for my job. The pages usually have no order to them, but I need to sort them into sections and save them as separate files. I need a program that will allow me to either create multiple folders that I can drag and drop each page into and then save each folder as a separate file, or allow me to label each page and then extract all pages with a specific label to save as a separate file.

So far, all I’ve found is the organise tool on Acrobat Pro, where repeatedly scrolling through the same file to highlight pages is far too slow, or manually documenting page numbers and then identifying them to print, saving them and combining them. Both of these options take far too long, so any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

In the PDF files or pages you get, what might be a determining factor that shows "Page 1", "Page 2", etc....

 

[Frustratedandconfused]

Hi, thanks for your reply. It’s not school or university homework, it’s work that I do from home. I’m a nurse who reviews medical records, and so need a program that I can maintain confidentiality with.

I receive a client’s entire medical records as 1 large PDF file and I need to sort it into clinical paperwork, nursing paperwork, medications, results and correspondence. The only way I’ve found to do this is to manually document the page numbers that belong in each section and then use the print function to save them, but it takes much longer than the time I have for each client, so I need a program where I can create folders for clinical notes, nursing notes, medications etc and drag and drop each page into the relevant folder as I scroll through, as you would sort physical paper notes into piles, or to tag each page as a clinical note, a nursing note, a prescription etc, and then draw out and save each tag as a separate file. I’ve not found any program that has this function, so that’s what I’m looking for.

 

[USAFRet]

it’s work that I do from home. I’m a nurse who reviews medical records, and so need a program that I can maintain confidentiality with.

I receive a client’s entire medical records as 1 large PDF file and....

Sigh....

This NEEDS to go through whatever medical authority and regulations are relevant.

In the US, HIPAA.
UK, probably NHS.
Elsewhere, dunno.

What does your employer and IT dept say about this?

 

[Frustratedandconfused]

I’m not disclosing any medical information nor would I, this also has nothing to do with the actual subject matter of each individual file I have.

I’ll put it another way, someone has just sent me a PDF that has 2000 pages of comic book drawings, I now need to sort each page into specific folders, i.e. Marvel drawings into Marvel Folder, DC drawings into DC folder etc, I need to know if there is a way I can scroll through each page, marking each page I need that is relevant to a specific folder, then drag them all at once.

Ignore homework talk or medical talk, that has no relevance to my question, I just need to know how to do what I’ve asked?

 

[USAFRet]

I’m not disclosing any medical information nor would I, this also has nothing to do with the actual subject matter of each individual file I have.

I’ll put it another way, someone has just sent me a PDF that has 2000 pages of comic book drawings, I now need to sort each page into specific folders, i.e. Marvel drawings into Marvel Folder, DC drawings into DC folder etc, I need to know if there is a way I can scroll through each page, marking each page I need that is relevant to a specific folder, then drag them all at once.

Ignore homework talk or medical talk, that has no relevance to my question, I just need to know how to do what I’ve asked?

Unless there is a specific, extractable, identifier on each page, you can't.

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

OCR (which is a maybe), and extract that PDF out to some other format.


But sorry, the medical context can't be ignored.
Again, what does your employer say? You can't be the only person there with this issue.

 

[Frustratedandconfused]

There isn’t a specific identifier on each page, they’re scans of paper records that the hospital trust’s legal department has sent to me.

I am the only person with this issue, because I’m the only person with this role. I work for a small law firm and am the only nurse they have on staff. My IT department created a subscription to PDFArchitect, but it doesn’t have the function I need, so I was advised to sign up to free trials to try and find a program that does what I need and they will create a subscription for me, and in the mean time to locate the page numbers I need, use print to pdf and manually type the page numbers. Not only does this take a long time, but there’s also a lot of room for mistakes when I’m dealing with thousands of pages.
The contents of the files I have are not at all relevant to the question. They are legally obtained records, sent and stored confidentially. The question was about a program (I’m currently using Acrobat Pro, but it also doesn’t have the function) that I could open the file with and split into categories that I manually decide on, in a faster, more reliable way than I currently am. But as you’ve said it’s not possible, I’ll continue as I am. Thanks for your replies.

 

[USAFRet]

There isn’t a specific identifier on each page, they’re scans of paper records that the hospital trust’s legal department has sent to me.

If there is no identifier, there is no way to delineate individual pages that is faster than how you do it now.
No matter what the content.

Apart from some OCR, nothing automatic.

 

[Frustratedandconfused]

Strange, I just signed up to this site as I too was looking for something similar and was about to create a new thread until i saw this one, but mine was for different genres and sub genres for literature. Looks like I'll have to do it the old fashioned and slow way.

But sorry, the medical context can't be ignored.

I also had to quote this because i just thought it was hilarious. I just find it funny that this has been the focus of most replies, what exactly can't be ignored, no medical information of any kind has been divulged and if anything both of you MODs come across as pretty hostile from the get go.

This person might have no clue about software and how it works at all and this was the opening they received, could have been done in a more polite tone.

 

[Frustratedandconfused]

I have to say, I was quite confused about such focus on it too. If I had illegally obtained medical records, I can’t imagine I’d come to a forum to ask how to store them. I’ve been a qualified nurse for a decade, I could quote confidentiality laws in my sleep!
About the program, there’s a website that does exactly what I (and you, by the sound of it) need, but it would involve uploading the file to the website, which a definite no for me (splitpdf.com if confidentiality isn’t an issue for your situation though). Sounds like a gap in the market for someone with the knowledge to create it. Thank you for the friendly reply.

 

[Math Geek]

those types of sites tell me it is possible and not really hard to do.

someone out there must have made it into a standalone, offline program. just have to find it. acrobat will split a pdf into individual pages.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/how-to/split-pdf-file.html

once you have a bunch of single files of each page, then sort them into folders like you are thinking. finally merge each folder into a single file once they are all sorted.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/merging-files-single-pdf.html

 

[USAFRet]

And I think we're done here.