Using the Extract field action

Use the Extract field action to extract fields from a PDF and assign it to variables.

Important:

When you extract fields from a PDF that contains 20 form fields, processing time might be 30 to 40 % longer than PDFs without form fields.
When you use this action to extract a radio button from a PDF file, the value generated might be -1 when no radio button is selected. Previously, when you did not select any radio button, the output was 0.

Procedure

To extract fields from a PDF file, follow these steps:

In the Actions palette, double-click or drag the Extract field action from the PDF package.
In the PDF path, select one of the following options to specify the location of the PDF:
- Control Room file: Enables you to select a PDF file that is available in a folder in the Control Room.
- Desktop profile: Enables you to select a PDF file that is available on your device.
- Variable: Enables you to specify the file variable that contains the location of the PDF file.
From the File is protected field, select Yes if the file is encrypted and provide the User password or Owner password.
Click Open PDF viewer.
In the Select a PDF file window, select a PDF file from Control Room file or Desktop file.
Optional: Enter the password.
Click Load to open the PDF Viewer.
In the PDF Viewer window, the PDF is opened with all the structured fields highlighted in purple dotted rectangles.
Select the rectangular area of the field to be extracted and click Add field to add the field and its value under the Extract fields table.
Optional: You can add an unstructured field that are not highlighted in the PDF. Select the Draw a region option available at the top of the PDF viewer and draw a rectangle box around the required region.

A red colored dotted rectangle is highlighted with an option Add custom region
Click Add custom region to view the captured coordinates in the Custom region window. Enter the Key name that can be used in the output variable.

Note: While extracting PDF text with the Draw a region > Add custom region option, ensure the PDF data is in sequential order and has standard font encoding for correct data extraction. Data without encoding such as data from scanned files and images will not be extracted.
Click Close to add the field in the Extract fields table.
The list of extracted fields appear under the Extract fields table on the right panel of PDF viewer window.

The extracted fields change to blue dotted rectangles in the PDF viewer. You can edit the extracted fields by selecting the blue rectangle around the field.

Use the vertical ellipse button next to the extracted field in the Extract fields table to Edit, Move or Delete the field.
Click Close to close the PDF viewer .
From the Save the output to a variable field, choose either a dictionary variable or multiple variables to hold the field values.
Click Save.

Automation 360

Using the Extract field action