Reader ActiveX...what can we do other than "read"?

[Bob_Dover@adobeforums.com]

We have an application with which users review a PDF document, and add pre-written annotations. It would be nice to use the ActiveX control in the app, and respond to a user action - preferably a dragdrop or doubleclick event - and have the annotation added.

I know this is possible using Acrobat and a plug-in, but we don't want to embed Acrobat, since the annotating is the only action we want users to be able to accomplish.

I am not sure this is even possible, even with a plug-in. Hopefully someone here can give me a definitive answer.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

You can also contact Adobe about development of a custom plugin for Reader for annotating a Reader-enabled document.

[Bob_Dover@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the responses. But maybe I'm not entirely clear. I know that Reader can annotate files if they are set to allow it. What I wanted to know is: is it possible to programmatically add annotations using a plug-in in Reader. I am not looking for the user to add annotations ad-hoc, but rather to have them specify a location on the PDF (using a doubleclick or dragdrop) and then our application would create an annotation and place it on the form for them.

We currently have a solution in place using Acrobat and a plug-in to determine when a user double-clicks a PDF, and we respond to this event by placing a pre-written annotation on the PDF at that position. But this solution requires Acrobat, which of course allows the users to do all sorts of things with the PDFs, much more than we want to allow them to do. If we could use Reader instead, then we could limit them to adding annotations.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

IN order to develop a plugin for Reader, you need an IKLA contract/license with Adobe (which then provides you with a special key to enable your plugin in Reader).

If Adobe approves the license - then yes, you can do what you want. If they don't, you can't. So it's more about legal than technical.