The use of PDF documents is widely generalized at all levels. The key to the success of this format is that it can be viewed from any device without losing an iota of visibility. In addition, it offers many practical features, such as search for a word in PDF, or a specific phrase. We explain how it is done.
PDF stands for Portable Document Format (portable document format), a storage format for digital documents created by Adobe Systems in the year 2008. Since then until today, it has become a universally accepted standard format, widely praised and adopted for its many functionalities. What we will talk about today is to search and find specific terms in this type of document.
Many times, finding a certain word in a PDF document, especially if it is of a certain length, is a complicated task if it is done without help. If we need to locate an important fact or information, there is a practical method to find it.
The search is a quick and simple operation, especially if we use the official Adobe application. After all, this brand is the one that invented the PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, which is a totally free program, is available in Spanish and offers us a powerful search engine, as we show you below:
Search Options
Obviously, the first thing we need to do is download the program from the official website and install it on our computer. This download includes by default the McAfee Antivirus, although you can uncheck that option if you are not interested.
Once the software is installed, we can now open any PDF document with Acrobat Reader. Next you have to open search window with the combination of Ctrl + F keys (or cmd + F, if we use a Mac). As shown in the image above, this window will open in the top right corner of the document.
Basic Search
To find a specific word, symbol, or phrase in the document, just type it into the search box and press enter. By doing this, all the matches will be shown marked with a differentiated color on all pages of the document.
If the document is not too long, for example one or two pages, it will suffice to view it and stop at the highlighted words. On the other hand, if it is a particularly long document, such as one with hundreds of pages, we will need a little more help. That's what they're for "Previous" and "Next" buttons, which will allow us to navigate through the entire document by jumping forward or backward between all the matching words.
Advanced search
So that searching for a word in PDF gives us more precise and adjusted results, we have the possibility of using the advanced search option. So, to open the advanced search engine, we have to press the keys CTRL + Shift + F on Windows (for Mac, cmd + Shift + F).
The new box that opens is larger than the simple search box. In addition, the advanced search function allows us to search for words in multiple PDF documents at the same time. And it contains many more options. For example:
- Exact word or phrase match. This option performs a search for the entire string of characters, including spaces, in exactly the same order as they appear in the text box.
- Match any of the words. To find all the individual results for all the words typed in the box.
By clicking the button «Show more options», which is located at the bottom of the search window panel, we can further refine our searches with new criteria:
- Complete words.
- Matching upper and lower case.
- Include bookmarks.
- Include comments.
When selecting "More search options", we will have the possibility to access an even more detailed configuration of the elements and in this way achieve even more precise results.
Search word in PDF using a browser
Although we are not going to get results as detailed as with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, it can also be done searches for specific words or phrases in a PDF document using any browser: Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox... This is how to do it:
- First of all the PDF document is opened by clicking the right mouse button with the option "To open with".
- Then we press the keys CTRL + F (Windows) or CMD + F (Sword).
- Next, in the search bar, enter the word to search for.
When they appear results, you just have to navigate between the results using the arrows that appear next to the search box.
In summary, we will say that searching for words in a PDF is a relatively easy task that allows us to work comfortably with this type of document and also saves a lot of time.