Read PDF

Location on ribbon: Tab DVD Addin → Group File and Print

Command ID: btnReadPdf

What it does

Opens a PDF in DVDAddin's own PDF viewer window alongside Excel: page through it, zoom, mark it up, print it, or hand it over to the page manager.

Use it when you are taking off quantities from a shop drawing, a design drawing or a scanned record while typing into Excel — no more jumping between Excel and Acrobat, and because the window has its own taskbar button, it does not disappear when Excel is minimised.

How to use

1. Go to tab DVD Addin → group File and Print → click Read PDF.
2. A file dialog opens (filtered to *.pdf) → pick the drawing or document → Open.
3. The View PDF - DVDAddin (filename) window opens with:
   • – / + buttons for zoom.
   • A page number box in the middle of the toolbar (type a number and press Enter to jump) with the total page count.
   • 💾 Save and 💾 Save As to write your markup back into the PDF.
   • ↶ Undo / ↷ Redo for markup actions.
   • 🖨 Print PDF to print directly.
   • ⚙ Manage Pages to hand the file to PDF Manager for merging, splitting, rotating and reordering.
4. To annotate the drawing, use the markup tools in the window and then click 💾 Save.
5. Close the window when done; if any markup is unsaved, the add-in asks before closing.

Example

While taking off slab reinforcement on level 3 you need to cross-check drawing ST-3F-01.pdf.

Click Read PDF, open the drawing, zoom into gridlines A–C, mark the zones you have already measured, type a page number to jump to the section view, and go back to Excel to enter the quantities — the PDF window stays visible beside the workbook.

Notes

• Requires the pdfium.dll library shipped with the installer; if it is missing the add-in reports an error when opening the PDF (reinstalling DVDAddin fixes it).
• The command does not dump PDF content into cells; it is a viewer and markup window. To turn PDF text into data, use OCR.
• Markup is only written into the PDF after you click Save or Save As; reopen the file afterwards to see the stored annotations.
• The window runs independently of Excel (its own taskbar button), so minimising Excel does not hide it.
• In a scanned PDF the text is an image — you cannot select it; use OCR for those.

Related

• PDF Manager — merge, split, rotate and reorder PDF pages.
• OCR — recognise text in a PDF or image and bring it into the sheet.
• Screen Clip OCR — grab a table displayed on the PDF drawing in one step.
• Word → PDF — produce the PDFs you then review here.