Working with PDFs is an important part of many people’s jobs since they are such a widely used type of file and with good reason. For people who work in an office, it is often the case that documents, ledgers, and even contracts are in PDF form. The reason for this is that they are a highly versatile type of document that can be used in many ways. So being able to use them is important. One of the best parts of PDFs is that you can leave comments for yourself or other people who are using the PDF file. When you are working on longer documents, you might want to be able to search for a specific comment or a specific part of the PDF file. Fortunately, there is a way to search a PDF file for certain types of content.
What is a Searchable PDF?
Some PDFs are searchable in that they have scanned text in the file which makes it possible to search for specific words or terms within the file. This is a great asset since you might not need or want to search for a certain word throughout an entire long PDF. One example of this would be trying to search for a particular person’s name within a huge file. If you need to find this person’s name in a searchable PDF, then it is easy to do so. In addition to being able to find specific terms and words in the PDF, you can also search within a searchable PDF for comments that might be useful.
Why Are Some PDFs Not Searchable?
While PDFs are very useful and an essential part of the documentation, there are some very important things to understand about them. The first and most important fact about PDFs is that they are by nature not text files. PDFs are image files which is what makes them so useful since it means they can be changed and altered in ways that some traditional text files can’t. If the PDF is not set up to be searched, it will just be a series of images, and this includes the text that you can see. Luckily, there are ways to make a PDF searchable using a PDF editor to change it into one. Once you transition your PDF into a searchable PDF, you will be able to search for words and comments.
The 3 Different Types of PDF Files
There are 3 different types of PDFs, there is the standard PDF which is what most people use in their day to day lives. These PDFs can be changed and commented on, but they are not searchable. Secondly, there is a scanned PDF which is a document that has been put through a scanner such as a book. These are not searchable but can be converted into a searchable PDF. Lastly, there is the searchable PDF which is a type of PDF that you can search on. But how can you know which one you are working with?
How to Find Out if Your PDF is Searchable
The quickest way to find out if your PDF is searchable is to attempt to search for something. The process for doing this is largely the same for different PDF editors. For example, if you are using Lumin PDF as a PDF editor, then you can simply hit ctrl-f and it will open a box that you can type into. If this box does not appear in your PDF editor, then it is likely that your PDF is not searchable.
How to Make a PDF Searchable (Without Adobe)
While many PDF editors offer the ability, sometimes the process can be a bit different; however, there is a general idea on how to convert a PDF to a searchable document. The better PDF editors have an OCR which gives them the ability to read text from an image and convert it into a readable text on the PDF. This OCR or optical character recognition can generally be used from your tools tab in your PDF editor. Some PDF editors might even suggest this option upon opening your PDF.
How to Convert a Scanned Paper Document or Image into a Searchable PDF
Method 1: The first method as detailed above is to use an OCR to convert an image file that has text into a PDF that has editable text. This is easy but not all PDF editors have this feature.
Method 2: In addition to the OCR method, some PDF editors have a recognize text tool. For this you can go to your tools, then depending on which PDF editor you have there will be an enhance option. From here there will be an option to recognize characters. This will also accomplish the same thing.
How to Convert a Word Document into a Searchable PDF
Different PDF editors offer different tools, some offer a merge PDF tool that allows you to merge PDFs, some allow you to split PDFs into separate PDFs and another tool that some PDF editors offer (most actually) is the ability to convert PDFs. With this tool, you can convert a Word document into a PDF. From there it is the same process as mentioned above when it comes to making it a searchable document. Many PDF editors now are smart and will even suggest this option.
How to Make a PDF Searchable in Adobe Acrobat
One of the most popular PDF editors and probably the most well-known is Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat offers many tools and one of the better tools it offers is its OCR feature. Once you open your document in Adobe Acrobat, you should then look for an option to edit the PDF. It will then automatically begin searching for text in your document. While Adobe Acrobat is expensive, it offers some great tools and is one of the better ways to search a PDF for text or convert a PDF into a searchable document.