PDF to Word?

[lostsoul62]

I have PDF files that I can't do a word search so if I turn them to Word then I can do a word search. But does anyone know how I can do a word search on a PDF file?

[Ulodesk]

In what application are you opening your pdf files?

[lostsoul62]

Adobe Reader

[Ulodesk]

In Adobe Reader (I have Reader X, but I don't believe this feature has changed much in the past several versions), Edit/Find (or Alt+E,F on the keyboard) will do the trick. A small box into which to type your search term opens; perhaps you didn't see it.

Best,
Ulodesk

[lostsoul62]

See image - Don't work

[JimP]

Did you:

1) Click on "Edit"
2) Click on "Find" from the Edit drop-down menu
3) Type in your term you are wanting to find in the "Fine Menu" (Upper right-hand corner)
4) Click on "Next" to find your term?

If you did those steps you should have found your term and NOT the image that you posted. If you did not find your term (when it did exist) then you may have other issues.

[lostsoul62]

Yes and it still don't work however if I write up a word document and save it as a PDF then I can do a word search so maybe these PDF files that I scanned has some problem?

[JimP]

Whoa! Scanned? That is another issue. When you scan a file and create a .pdf from it, it is really a .jpeg (or other type file) that was converted to .pdf. If that is the case, you will not be able to do a word search on a that .pdf because it is not "really" a word document converted to .pdf. It has become a "picture" converted into a .pdf.

So, NO, you will not be able to search the .pdf for anything.

One quick edit that I did not think of: I assumed that when you scanned your file that you saved the scan as a .jpeg, .png or some other type. However, if you were able to save the scan as some type of textual file, you should be able to search for term(s).

[lostsoul62]

Thank you for the info. Something I didn't know. Next time I'll make 2 scans, one in Word and the other in PDF. I have a brother scanner and they are sending me an email for the problem which I'm sure won't work but now I know. Thanks.

[macropod]

FWIW, Adobe Acrobat Pro (available as a free download from http://www.techspot.com/downloads/46...at-8-free.html - note the serial# mentioned there) has OCR capabilities built in. This can be used to make the PDF searchable and/or enable the text to be extracted.

[Ulodesk]

I had taken it for granted that, since you said that you could convert the document to Word and search, the pdf was not a scan.

[Mihail]

Another very powerful tool: http://finereader.abbyy.com/

[lostsoul62]

Thanks everyone, I'll download the programs and give them a try. I did learn a lot from this post. Thanks again.

[philip12]

You can try these steps as well
http://www.wikihow.com/Search-for-a-...a-PDF-Document