Apr 22, 2016 There’s a little icon next to the search bar with a folder and magnifying glass on it. Click it to open the Search side panel. Click inside the second dropdown which will likely have the My Documents folder pre-selected. Browse for and select the folder of PDFs you want to search through. Enter a search phrase and click the ‘Search’ button. Another method for searching multiple pdf files is to use Adobe Reader’s advanced search option. Open Adobe Reader and press Ctrl + F, a search box will pop out in the top right corner. Either pick “Open Full Reader Search” from the drop down menu, or press Shift + Ctrl +F and the Advance search.
PDF has been everyone’s favorite file format for sharing documents. It’s mostly because it retains all the text formatting and graphics inside it, and also the end-user doesn’t really need anything to open it except for a free PDF reader software. The only downside of the PDF format is that you can’t search for text inside these files as easily as you can with other files.
However, there are a few methods that let you perform the PDF search operation so you can search for a specific word in multiple PDF files at once on your machine. The following guide teaches you how to do just that.
How To Search Multiple PDF Files Using Acrobat Reader
The most popular way to search a PDF or multiple PDF files is to use the Acrobat Reader software on your computer. Here’s how you perform the task in the software.
- Open the Acrobat Reader on your computer.
- Click on the Edit menu and select Advanced Search.
- Select All PDF Documents in and then choose your PDF folder.
- Enter your search term in the input box.
- Click on the Search button.
- Hit Allow in the prompt on your screen.
The software will search for your given term in all the PDF files in your specified folder. You’ll see the results right in the search pane.
Searching For A Specific Search Term In Multiple PDF Files
Most PDF readers let you search for any text you want in your PDF files. It’s because PDFs are scannable documents, and like Microsoft Word files, their characters are also recognizable by your system.
What you can’t do easily with your PDF files, though, is that you can’t search for a specific term in multiple files at once. Pressing the Control + F key only searches the current document that’s open in the software but it doesn’t search any other PDF files.
If you have a lot of PDF files lying around and you’re looking for something specific in them, your best option is to use the advanced search feature of Acrobat Reader. It lets you look for your specific search terms in all the PDF files available in a single location on your computer.
Here’s the entire procedure to do so with Acrobat Reader:
Download and install Acrobat Reader if you don’t already have it on your computer.
Launch the software and you’ll see your recent files list. The option you’re looking for is located in the Edit menu. Click on the Edit menu at the top and select the option that says Advanced Search. Alternatively, you can press Shift + Ctrl + F.
On the following screen, set the options as the following:
Where would you like to search? – select All PDF Documents in and then use the dropdown menu to select the folder where your multiple PDFs are saved.
What word or phrase would you like to search for? – enter the word you want to search for in your PDF files.
You can use the additional options to customize how your word is searched, such as tick-marking the Case-Sensitive checkbox so your search query is case-sensitive, and so on.
Finally, click on the Search button to begin searching.
Where would you like to search? – select All PDF Documents in and then use the dropdown menu to select the folder where your multiple PDFs are saved.
What word or phrase would you like to search for? – enter the word you want to search for in your PDF files.
You can use the additional options to customize how your word is searched, such as tick-marking the Case-Sensitive checkbox so your search query is case-sensitive, and so on.
Finally, click on the Search button to begin searching.
You can then review the results when they appear on your screen.
Using Windows Search To Search Inside PDF Files
PDF files can also be searched using the default Windows search option on your Windows machine. You need to first enable an option though as shown below.
Head to Control Panel > Indexing Options and click on Advanced.
Select the File Types tab on the following screen and look for pdf in the list. Tick-mark the box for pdf. Then enable the Index Properties and File Contents option and click on OK.
It’s time to add the PDF folders into the index list. To do so, open the same Indexing Options dialog box and click on Modify. Then choose the folder where your PDFs are and click on OK to get the folders added for PDF indexing.
Once Windows has finished indexing your PDFs and their contents, you’ll be able to search for text inside multiple PDF files at once.
Use SeekFast To Search PDF Files
SeekFast also lets you easily search for your terms in various file types including PDF. Here’s how it works.
- Download and install the software on your computer.
- Launch the software, enter in your search term into the search box at the top, click on the Browse button to select your PDF folder, and finally hit Search.
It’ll search for terms in all the PDF files located in your chosen directory.
Performing A PDF Search Using Foxit Reader
Foxit Reader also comes equipped with advanced search capabilities and you can use it to find whatever it is you want in your multiple PDF files.
Get the software installed on your computer and then launch it.
Click on the search icon next to the search box at the top-right menu. It opens advanced search options.
On the following screen, select your PDF folder from the first dropdown menu, enter in your search term in the search box, checkmark other filters if you want to apply them, and finally hit that Search button.
Your search results should now be on your screen.
How To Use UltraFinder To Search PDF Files
UltraFinder is an advanced search tool for Windows machines and it can be used to search for text inside your PDF files as well.
Install and launch the tool on your Windows computer.
Set the options as the following so it searches the contents of your PDF files. Then hit the green play button to start searching.
Find matches by – File contents
Find what – enter your search term here
Find where – add the directory where your PDFs are located
In files/types – *.pdf
Find matches by – File contents
Find what – enter your search term here
Find where – add the directory where your PDFs are located
In files/types – *.pdf
It’ll list out all the PDF files that it found your search word in.
Find Text In Files Recursively
Back to Articles ListQuestion
How do I search the text in a PDF document?
Answer
There are two options that can be used to search the text in PDF documents: they are the Find and Search functions.
Find
1. Click Find on the far rght of the ribbon (or press Crtl+F) to enable the Find function. The Find function box will open.
2. Enter search terms in the text box and press enter to search the active document. Text that matches the search terms will be highlighted:
Additional options are available in the Find function:
- Click the red 'x' icon to reset the search.
- Use the dropdown arrow inside the search field to browse/select previous search terms.
- Use the dropdown arrow on the right to enable/disable additional search parameters:
- Use the left and right arrows to move between search results in the active document.
- Click the grey 'x' icon to close the Find function.
Search
1. Click Search on the far rght of the ribbon (or press Ctrl+Shift+F) to enable the Search function. The Search pane will open:
- Enter the search terms in the upper text box or select Advanced Criterion (detailed below).
- Use the lower text box to select where the search will take place:
Add Text To Pdf Online
- In active document searches only the active document.
- In all opened documents searches all documents currently open in PDF-XChange Editor.
- Browse for Folder launches the Select Folder dialog box, from where it is possible to select a folder to search.
Find Text In Files Grep
- Click the Options button to determine further search variables. These are explained below.
2. Click the Search button to execute the search. The results will be shown in the lower pane.
When the Advanced Criterion option is selected, the following pane is displayed:
- Use the arrow on the right side of the Custom text box to select a predefined search. If no searches have been predefined then the Custom option is not available.
- Use the three Find text with: text boxes to determine the search parameters:
Find Text In Pdf File
- If search terms are entered in the all of these words text box, then the results will include only text strings that contain all the entered search terms.
- If search terms are entered in the any of these words text box, then the results will include text strings that contain any of the entered search terms.
- If search terms are entered in the none of these words text box, then the results will exclude text strings that contain any of the entered search terms.
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Click the Options button to view/select further search variables:
- Select Case Sensitive to include the case of search terms in the search.
- Select Whole Words to return only whole words.
- Select Ignore Diacritics to ignore accents, cedillas and other similar symbols in the search.
- Select Include Page Text to include text on pages of the document in the search.
- Select Include Bookmarks to include bookmark names in the search.
- Select Include Comments to include comment text in the search.
- Select Form Fields to include form field text in the search.
- Select Include External Links to include links to external locations/files in the search.
- Select Include Attachments to include embedded documents in the search.
- Select Include DocumentInfo to include document metadata/information in the search.
- Select Pre-Estimate Search in Folder to have PDF-XChange Editor perform a folder count prior to the search. This facilitates the correct search progress in the progress bar when searches take place.
- Select Look in Sub-Folders to include all directory subfolders in the search.
- Select Proximity to determine the proximity of returned results. The options are:
- Only Adjacent Words.
- Words from the Same Paragraph.
- Words from the Same Page.
- Words from the Same Document.
- Select Colored Search Results to highlight matching terms after the search has taken place.
- Select Annotate Search Results for annotation options after the search has taken place. The options are:
- Highlight Search Results.
- Underline Search Results.
- Strikeout Search Results.
- Redaction Search Results.
- Additionally, click Comment Styles Palette to launch the Comment Styles Palette for further annotation options. Further information on this feature is available here.
- Select Clear Results to the clear the search results list.
Please note that the Find and Search functions can be used to search only text-based content of documents. These functions will not identify image-based text, such as scanned content. Optical character recognition (OCR) should be used to create a searchable text layer in those cases. Further information on OCR, and how to perform it in PDF-XChange Editor, is available here.
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