Database Variables
What Does It Do?
The Metadata tool can quickly add annotations to any pdf based Case Report Form (CRF) by utilising the database configuration report and pairing ID names with raw dataset variable names in seconds.
What Do You Need?
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A Case Report Form (CRF) in PDF format.
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A List of database ID names and corresponding raw dataset variable names.
Guide
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Open Microsoft Excel.
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Navigate to the Metadata ribbon.
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Locate the Annotations section of the ribbon.
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Click the Database Variables button in the Annotations section.
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A file dialogue window will appear.
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Select the applicable Case Report Form and click Open.
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Next a range selection prompt will appear asking for the database ID values.
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Simply select the first cell of the column which contains the ID names for the database field for the case report form pages.
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For example, once the user selects the cell B2, the cell address would appear in the selection window. Note, the inclusion of "$" does not impact the selection.
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IMPORTANT: The cell selection should only use one column.
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Click OK to continue.
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A further cell selection prompt will appear, this time asking for the Output IDs, repeat the steps above selecting the appropriate cell.
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Once both selection windows have been populated and the user clicked OK, the process will continue.
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After a short amount of time, a completion prompt will appear indicating the process has finished.
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A newly annotated case report from file, using the suffix "_annotated", will be output to the same directory as the one selected at the beginning of the process.
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Opening the newly created annotated CRF will show that the database variables annotated on the original CRF.
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These annotations are embedded on the PDF and cannot be moved.
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Note, this process does NOT require any Adobe Pro licences.