Microsoft Word - Adobe-for-Proposal-Preparation.doc

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 1 of 9

USING ADOBE ACROBAT PROFESSIONAL TO ASSIST

WITH HARD COPY PROPOSAL PREPARATION

Revised April 6, 2012

Note: All fund managers should have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional installed on their

computer. If you do not, an individual user license can be purchased through DOM IS office (x54398)

for approximately $58/ea. Please make sure to get approval from your MSO prior to purchase.

Why should I use Adobe Professional to help me with a hard copy grant submission?

1) You can easily add Headers and Footers to any document.

2) You can compile a PDF of the entire proposal packet in order to:

a. Print the agency required copies from the one file of the complete proposal.

b. Send to OCGA via an email attachment for administrative review.

c. Send to the PI via an email attachment for review/approval.

d. Keep an electronic copy for your records.

3) You can easily paginate the entire proposal packet in just a few simple steps.

4) You can easily insert or delete pages within a compiled document without worrying about

tables/figures/graphics shifting.

5) Converting to PDF ensures the formatting will not be altered, especially within the

Research Plan, and when sharing files between Macs and PCs.

6) Using Adobe Acrobat Professional will save you time!!!

A good example of a compiled PDF document using all of the steps below is the Fund Manager

Manual. Each chapter started out as a separate Word doc, that once finalized, was converted to PDF

using Cute PDF. The manual was then created by opening up the PDF version of the Title Page, and

adding the chapters one by one. Once the entire manual was compiled, it was paginated. The Table

of Contents (TOC) section was inserted initially as a place holder so that the correct page numbers

were generated. We then went back into the Word doc version of the TOC to edit the document by

adding the page numbers generated by the previous step. Once the TOC was finalized, it was then

converted to PDF once again, and the page number footers were added to the bottom of the TOC

pages. The place holder version of the TOC was deleted from the Fund Manager Manual, and the

finalized version of the TOC was reinserted.

The trick to using Adobe Acrobat Professional is to convert all Word, Excel, etc. documents to

PDF first. There are many different software programs that convert documents to PDF. Our PDF

converter of choice is CutePDF Writer. This software program is free and can be downloaded to your

computer with the assistance of DOM IS (x54398). Once installed, just choose File, Print, and then

select the CutePDF Writer printer from the drop down box to convert your files to PDF.

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 2 of 9

Reminder: Once you convert the document to PDF, the document becomes uneditable, so do not

convert until the document is complete.

ADDING HEADERS AND FOOTERS

When would I use this feature?

Examples:

1) Your PI sends you the Grants.gov version of his BioSketch with no headers or footers, but the

proposal needs to be submitted using hard copy PHS 398 forms which requires the use of NIH

PHS 398 headers and footers.

2) Your PI sends you a Letter of Support that she would like to include in the hard copy proposal,

but the Letter of Support contains no PHS 398 headers or footers.

Once you are done editing the form, convert the document to PDF. The example below is for an NIH

BioSketch, but the following steps can be used to insert any type of header/footer.

The first time you add NIH PHS 398 Headers and Footers, you will have to download the Word

version of the form from the NIH’s website in order to copy and paste the header/footer information

into the Adobe file so that it appears exactly as the NIH intended. The most current version of the NIH

PHS 398 forms can be downloaded from: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html

Open up the PDF file you would like to add headers and footers to. From the Adobe Acrobat

Professional menu, click on Document, Header & Footer, Add.

An Add Header and Footer window will pop up.

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 3 of 9

In the Add Header and Footer window, complete the following:

1) Copy and paste the header from the NIH Word doc version of the BioSketch form into the

Left Header Text section.

a. Note: Add the PI’s name into the Word doc header prior to Copying and Pasting.

2) Copy and paste the left footer (ex: PHS 398/250 (rev. 11/07)) from the NIH Word doc

version of the BioSketch form into the Left Footer Text section.

3) Copy and paste the right footer (ex: Biographical Sketch Format Page) from the NIH Word

doc version of the BioSketch form into the Right Footer Text section.

4) Change the Margin information to comply with the agencies guidelines. For NIH, change

all margins to 0.5.

5) To save this Header and Footer information as a template for future use, click on the Save

Settings button, and choose a name to Save Current Settings As.

6) Check the Preview section to make sure the Headers and Footers are in the correct

placement. If not, adjust the Margins accordingly (see #4).

Below is an example of a completed Add Header and Footer window for an NIH BioSketch:

6) Preview -

This area will

show you how

the Header &

Footer

information

will appear

within the

form

4) Adjust the

Margin

information as

necessary

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 4 of 9

7) Click OK, and the Biosketch form will now have the appropriate NIH PHS 398 Headers and

Footers. See below.

In the future, you can just click on Documents, Header & Footer, Add, then choose the previously

saved header and footer from the drop down menu under the Saved Settings section in order to

quickly add the header an footer to the document.

TIP: Follow the steps above to create a PHS 398 Continuation Page header and footer for each of

your PIs, so that you can quickly add headers and footers to all your documents.

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 5 of 9

COMPILE THE ENTIRE PROPOSAL INTO ONE PDF FILE

Once you have more than one form or section of the proposal completed and converted to PDF, you

can easily compile the entire proposal packet into one PDF file.

To do so, open up the PDF page you would like to start with in Adobe Acrobat Professional.

From the Adobe menu, click on Document, Insert Pages…

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 6 of 9

Find the file you would like to add, select it by clicking on it, and then hit the Select button.

Choose where you would like to insert the file, e.g. Before or After, First or Last, or Page x.

Your PDF file now contains the original page, and the added page/s.

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 7 of 9

Continue repeating these steps until all sections of the proposal have been added to the one file.

Reminder: Rename the file, so you still have the original starting page as a separate file.

You can also Delete pages easily, by clicking on Document, Delete Pages…, and then selecting the

page number/s you wish to delete.

Note: If you use the compiled PDF of the proposal to print the required agency copies for

submission, and the research section of the proposal contains color graphs and figures, please make

sure to print a test copy first for quality approval from the PI.

Note that now that the 2 page Abstract file

has been added to the Face Page file, the

document is now 3 pages.

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 8 of 9

PAGINATE THE ENTIRE PROPOSAL

Note: If you are going to use Adobe Acrobat Professional to paginate your grant proposal, you

MUST delete the page number information in the Word document PRIOR to converting the Word

document to PDF.

Paginating can be a little tricky, and you may need to play around with it before you get the hang of it.

Once you do get the hang of it, it is really easy and quick. Sometimes, though, it may be necessary

to paginate a page individually prior to inserting it into the final version of the compiled proposal.

Example: A Letter of Support (LOS) provided to you by the PI has its own footer. If you paginate it

with the rest of the proposal, the page number may appear on top of the LOS footer, thus making

both illegible. In this case, insert the LOS into the compiled proposal as a place holder, paginate the

entire document, delete the LOS page, paginate the LOS page individually so that the page number

does not interfere with the existing LOS footer, then re-insert it into the compiled proposal. This may

sound like a lot of effort, but again, once you get the hang of it, it really is quick and easy.

Or, it may be necessary to paginate sections of the proposal prior to inserting an individual page or

section. Example: The NIH Face Page should not be paginated, so you should paginate starting on

page 2 first, prior to inserting the Face Page into the compiled PDF file. Once the rest of the file has

been paginated, then insert the non-paginated Face Page into the compiled proposal.

To Paginate the PDF file:

1) From the Adobe Acrobat Professional menu, click on Document, Header & Footer, Add

2) In the Add Header and Footer window, click on the Page Number and Date Format… link

3) Click inside the Center Footer Text, and then click on the Insert Page Number button

Delete this page number

information from the Word doc

prior to converting to PDF.

Click on the drop down box to change

the Page Number F

ormat.

If you are not starting with Page 1, type

the correct starting Page Number, or

use the up and down arrows to

increase/decrease the page number.

Adobe Acrobat Professional DOM Fund Manager’s Manual

Page 9 of 9

4) Check the Preview section to make sure the Page Number appears where and how you would like

it. If not, you may need to adjust the Margin section to move the Page Number either up or down on

the page.

5) If everything looks okay, click on the OK button, and your document is now paginated!

2) Click

on this

link to

format

the Page

Number