Encrypt the PDF before emailing

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Alistair Nakhai

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Mar 13, 2021, 7:02:19 PM3/13/21
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Hi I need to encrypt the PDF before emailing it i.e. so it can be opened & printed but NOT edited & wondered if anyone else managed to do this?
I thought I found a workaround to set the Schedule every hour to give me enough time to intercept & protect the PDF but the process happens in one go any advice would be most appreciated.

Joseph Schmidt

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Mar 13, 2021, 7:05:57 PM3/13/21
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I would remove both the time and form trigger and run Autocrat manually.



On Sat, Mar 13, 2021 at 7:02 PM Alistair Nakhai <b2bco...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi I need to encrypt the PDF before emailing it i.e. so it can be opened & printed but NOT edited & wondered if anyone else managed to do this?
I thought I found a workaround to set the Schedule every hour to give me enough time to intercept & protect the PDF but the process happens in one go any advice would be most appreciated.

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Alistair Nakhai

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Mar 13, 2021, 7:36:43 PM3/13/21
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Thanks Joe for your quick response
I tried this but it still sends out the email - if I then select "not to share" the document then it creates it & leaves it in the folder which is fine
Then I manually encrypt it but then I have to send it out manually which kinda defeats the object - I was actually hoping that the PDF generation & emailing could be done in 2 steps somehow
of course, the ideal situation would be the add-on to prompt you for encryption but Im happy with the workaround if I could do it in 2 steps or any other ideas???

Joseph Schmidt

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Mar 13, 2021, 9:26:59 PM3/13/21
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Check again.  You must have a time or form trigger set in an autocrat job or it would not run.
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Alistair Nakhai

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Mar 13, 2021, 9:48:14 PM3/13/21
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Hi again 
You can see from the attached I dont have either triggers on & I also took out my trigger condition all together
Sorry Im new & not sure what you trying to say - I have created 2 jobs, the bottom job in the screenshot as I already mentioned I can run autocrat manually & I can get the pdf & can protect it but I still have to manually email it which I dont want to 

The top job in the screenshot I have also removed both triggers & it still generates the PDF & emails it
I would like to have 
Step 1 - generate PDF
Step 2 - email PDF

& in between I will protect the PDF manaully 
I hope I have explained it well & look forward to your advice
Thanks


 






Joseph Schmidt

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Mar 13, 2021, 10:10:50 PM3/13/21
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Do you have triggers on the other job?  They will both run when either merge job has a trigger..
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Alistair Nakhai

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Mar 14, 2021, 10:07:05 AM3/14/21
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Hi sorry I dont follow you & am confused
I have taken off all trigger on both jobs & ran the PDF job only & nothing happened 
Then I ran the 1st job then it generated the PDF & emailed it again
Usually with the triggers they both created the PDF of the same in the drive but I can’t get the 1st job take the other PDF that I protected - it keep getting the same one it generates & sends it out immediately

What is it exactly you like me to try - do you think I can some how do this with your method?



On 14 Mar 2021, at 03:10, Joseph Schmidt <glua...@gmail.com> wrote:

Do you have triggers on the other job?  They will both run when either merge job has a trigger..



On Sat, Mar 13, 2021 at 9:48 PM Alistair Nakhai <b2bco...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi again 
You can see from the attached I dont have either triggers on & I also took out my trigger condition all together
Sorry Im new & not sure what you trying to say - I have created 2 jobs, the bottom job in the screenshot as I already mentioned I can run autocrat manually & I can get the pdf & can protect it but I still have to manually email it which I dont want to 

The top job in the screenshot I have also removed both triggers & it still generates the PDF & emails it
I would like to have 
Step 1 - generate PDF
Step 2 - email PDF

& in between I will protect the PDF manaully 
I hope I have explained it well & look forward to your advice
Thanks


 

<Screenshot 2021-03-14 at 02.39.56.png>

<Screenshot 2021-03-14 at 02.31.12.png>

Joseph Schmidt

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Mar 14, 2021, 12:39:56 PM3/14/21
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You caught me in bad thinking.  Sorry about that.  Maybe not complete thinking.

I don't believe you complete what you want with one Autocrat job.  I think that you might want to use a combination with FormMule.

So think about these steps and see what you think.

Run Autocrat via any method with no sharing via email.  That should create an unprotected PDF.
Protect the PDF - How do you do this?
Run FormMule to share the link to the protected PDF.

If you add a column to the sheet that indicates that the PDF has been protected, then you can set that as a condition for FormMule to run.

Part of protecting the PDF is to set the sharing to only the correct person.

I'm curious as to what tool you are using to protect the PDF.
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Alistair Nakhai

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Mar 14, 2021, 3:32:03 PM3/14/21
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Hi Joe
Thanks for the tip I will try it with FormMule now will get back to you

To answer your question I unfortunately have to use Adobe Acrobat Pro to protect the document - which is not ideal
The PDF Toolbox Add-on below supposed to the exact thing & I have added it only from the link below but somehow doesn’t appear in my Add-ons list for some reason but I can see it in my Admin Console but dont know how to run it

https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/pdf_toolbox/46881712139

Same as Cloud PDF Tools below will do a rough job but not ideal & I can’t see it in my Add-on list after installation but there is web guides that kinda does the same

https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/cloud_pdf_tools_merge_extract_stamp/600571197199


Cheers
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Joseph Schmidt

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Mar 14, 2021, 5:48:00 PM3/14/21
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The PDF toolbox actually has a feature that allows you to send the file.  Does Adobe modify the existing PDF or create a new PDF.

FormMule requires a link to the protected PDF and until you get the link to the file in the spreadsheet, FormMule will not be much help.

I'm going to guess that you are really worried or someone has doctored up a PDF that you shared and now you want to protect yourself from that ever happening again.  I've been helping out with Autocrat questions for years and you are the first that wanted this level of protection.  

If you use either of these tools, I would add a column with the link to the encrypted PDF in the spreadsheet.  That way you as the owner can refer to both the encrypted and non-encripted versions.  

The problem I have with both of them is that the link to the file isn't stored in the spreadsheet.  The link that is in the spreadsheet points to the original and both tools create a new PDF.



OK - I found the first one and it will appear as an icon down the right-hand side of your Drive window when you are looking at your files.

image.png

The second one should be in your list of options when you right click.

image.png
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Alistair Nakhai

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Mar 14, 2021, 8:02:24 PM3/14/21
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Hi Joe

Thanks for pointing these out I was looking everywhere for them much appreciated

PDF Toolbox was useless didn’t do what it supposed to
Cloud PDF Tools somehow did the job but it was too tweeky & time consuming...

Adobe actually modifies the existing Doc so the same link can be used which is inserted by Autocrat in the Googlesheet, however I can’t share that link as no one can open it & needs to be unrestricted share link - so as you say once I Protect the PDF I can also get that share link from the Drive & insert it manually in the Googlesheet which then can act as a trigger for FormMule (which I haven’t figured out yet as the only triggers I saw was on form submit & time).

Im really surprised no one else had this issue, Im sending out PDF Certificates which can easily be edited by Acrobat Pro & put someone else’s name on it.
I dont need to send a password to the user as then can open it & print it but NOT edit it, that’s all - Im not Encrypting the PDF but just its properties where you can only View & Print it - I will show you how this is done tomorrow


Many thanks

Kind regards,

Alistair 



On 14 Mar 2021, at 21:47, Joseph Schmidt <glua...@gmail.com> wrote:

The PDF toolbox actually has a feature that allows you to send the file.  Does Adobe modify the existing PDF or create a new PDF.

FormMule requires a link to the protected PDF and until you get the link to the file in the spreadsheet, FormMule will not be much help.

I'm going to guess that you are really worried or someone has doctored up a PDF that you shared and now you want to protect yourself from that ever happening again.  I've been helping out with Autocrat questions for years and you are the first that wanted this level of protection.  

If you use either of these tools, I would add a column with the link to the encrypted PDF in the spreadsheet.  That way you as the owner can refer to both the encrypted and non-encripted versions.  

The problem I have with both of them is that the link to the file isn't stored in the spreadsheet.  The link that is in the spreadsheet points to the original and both tools create a new PDF.



OK - I found the first one and it will appear as an icon down the right-hand side of your Drive window when you are looking at your files.

<image.png>

The second one should be in your list of options when you right click.

Joseph Schmidt

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Mar 14, 2021, 10:30:57 PM3/14/21
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It has been a while since I did much thinking about PDF

If you allow them to print the PDF, they can save the print as a PDF which will not have the protection.  I might be missing something.

I have not tried to create exactly what you are doing but I think you can just concatenate the strings together. If you use the & connector you can use an arrayformula. 

We can talk tomorrow.
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