Adobe® Acrobat® provides support for Interapplication Communication (IAC) through OLE and DDE on Windows® platforms and through Apple® events and AppleScript on Macintosh® platforms. This support allows programs to control Acrobat and Adobe Reader® in much the same way a user would.

You can also use the IAC support to render a PDF file into any specified window instead of the Acrobat or Reader window. The IAC support methods and events serve as wrappers for some of the core API calls in the Acrobat SDK. In this way, IAC supports enterprise workflows by making it possible to control Acrobat and Reader, display PDF documents in other applications, and manipulate PDF data from other applications.

Acrobat XI

AcrobatAccess.idl for Acrobat XI (ZIP, 473k)
That includes the new IPDDomDocPagination interface for clients to retrieve the document pagination information, such as number of pages, visible pages, and page textual labels.

Acrobat X

Developing Applications for Acrobat or Adobe Reader X Using Interapplication Communication
Understand the Interapplication Communication IAC support concepts for Acrobat or Adobe Reader X, such as objects and commands universally understood by applications. With IAC, you can write an external application that can control Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Interapplication Communication API Reference for Acrobat X
Get a detailed IAC reference, for Acrobat X, of all the calls needed for OLE automation, DDE interapplication interfaces, and Apple Events. Also understand the IAC support for the Acrobat Catalog plug-in that allows you to create a full-text index of a set of PDF documents; Acrobat Forms plug-in that allows you to use a PDF document as a form; and Acrobat Search plug-in that allows you to perform text searches in PDF documents.

Acrobat Acccessibility X (ZIP, 472k)

Files that can be used by Windows clients of the accessibility interfaces described in the Accessibility API Reference document.

Acrobat 9

Developing Applications for Acrobat or Adobe Reader 9 Using Interapplication Communication
Understand the Interapplication Communication (IAC) support concepts for Acrobat or Adobe Reader 9, such as objects and commands universally understood by applications. With IAC, you can write an external application that can control Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Interapplication Communication API Reference for Acrobat 9
Get a detailed IAC reference, for Acrobat 9, of all the calls needed for OLE automation, DDE interapplication interfaces, and Apple Events. Also understand the IAC support for the Acrobat Catalog plug-in that allows you to create a full-text index of a set of PDF documents; Acrobat Forms plug-in that allows you to use a PDF document as a form; and Acrobat Search plug-in that allows you to perform text searches in PDF documents.

PDF Accessibility API Reference (PDF, 435k)
Learn how, as a developer, you can use Acrobat and COM objects, the MSAA interface, or the UNIX Accessibility Toolkit to write applications like screen readers to provide better access to PDF files.
(Jun 2008)

Acrobat_Accessibility_9.1.zip (ZIP, 43k)
Files that can be used by Windows clients of the accessibility interfaces described in the Accessibility API Reference document.
(Feb 2010)

Acrobat 8

Developing Applications Using Interapplication Communication (PDF, 510k)
Understand the Interapplication Communication (IAC) support concepts for Acrobat or Adobe Reader 8, such as objects and commands universally understood by applications.
(Nov 2006)

Interapplication Communication API Reference (PDF, 2.3M)
Get a detailed IAC reference, for Acrobat 8, of all the calls needed for Apple Events, OLE automation, and DDE interapplication interfaces.
(Nov 2006)