How to Search for Words in a PDF with Offline Software
This section will explain how to do a word search on macOS and Windows 11/10/8/7/XP with a few steps.
How to Search for Words in a PDF on Windows
SwifDoo PDF
If you have something to search for in a PDF document, SwifDoo PDF is an easy-to-use solution you can resort to. This is a multipurpose PDF program on Windows, which enables users to perform PDF conversion, compression, annotation, and editing. Furthermore, SwifDoo PDF is a PDF searcher, with which users can search for any content within a given PDF document, including keywords in the annotations and bookmarks.
Here’s how to search for words or phrases in a PDF file with SwifDoo PDF:
Step 1: Download and install SwifDoo PDF from the official website or Microsoft AppSource;
Step 2: Upload a PDF document to SwifDoo PDF’s workplace;
Step 3: Go to the menu bar and click on the View tab. Below the tab, select Search; alternatively, just press the shortcut key Ctrl + F on your keyboard to activate the Advanced Search;
Step 4: When the Advanced Search column shows up, enter the words or content you need to search.
With the “Advanced Search” provided by SwifDoo PDF, users can specify the page range to search. This Windows-based PDF toolkit will markup all the matched items so that users can see all the search results as you usually do with Microsoft Word.
Of course, the least ideal method we recommend is to convert this PDF into an editable Microsoft Word document and then use the “Find & Replace” feature to search for the words or phrases. When finished, you must save this Word document as a PDF again. The truth is, however, many PDF tools endow you the ability to directly find a word.
Sejda PDF
Similarly, to SwifDoo PDF, Sejda PDF is a good PDF word searcher on Windows, but Sejda PDF is available online resulting in reaching a wider audience. When it comes to how to do a word search in a PDF, Sejda PDF allows its users to find and replace all the matched items within the document. Let’s get down to the details:
Step 1: Download and install Sejda PDF Desktop on your PC;
Step 2: Open a PDF document with this PDF program and navigate to the PDF Editor;
Step 3: When your PDF document is presented, click More on the menu bar to choose Find & Replace;
Step 4: Within the Find & Replace box, just enter the text you need to search for.
Sejda PDF can replace all items that are unnecessary, which is beneficial for content producers. However, if you require searching for text in the comments or notes, Sejda PDF will fail you. Overall, these two PDF products have their own strengths. For users who need to search for something in a PDF, you’d best think about your real-world needs.
How to Search for Words in a PDF on macOS
If you are a macOS user, however, and desire a trustworthy recommendation, Preview remains the top choice. You don’t need to look for any third-party PDF program to search for anything within a PDF. The default PDF reader, Preview, is an easy-to-use application on your Mac device.
Step 1: Open a PDF document in Preview;
Step 2: When opened, enter the text you need to search in the search bar on top right corner. Or users can press the Ctrl + F to activate the search bar;
Step 3: If you have typed in the content you need to search for, click on the Enter button and all the matching items will be shown in the left sidebar.
What may disappoint macOS users is Preview’s inability to replace content. Therefore, external applications may be put to good use once you need to access the “Find & Replace” feature, such as PDF Expert, PDF Reader Pro, or PDFelement.
How to Search for Words in a PDF with Online Tools
We have reviewed and tested some mainstream browsers and ten popular online PDF editors to see how to search for a word in a PDF online. Here’s what we find: internet browsers can serve as qualified word searchers for PDF documents, while Smallpdf, pdfFiller, and PDFdu can search for something within a PDF file. Among these mentioned web-based PDF tools, PDFdu has a good performance.
Firefox
Firefox is a common web browser developed by the Mozilla. It is also a PDF searcher, which is able to find all matching items and can highlight all or individual items. Aside from this, it supports matching case, whole word match, and match diacritics. Users can take Firefox as a simplified PDF viewer as it enables PDF printing, rotating, and scrolling. OK, the following paragraphs are about how to search for words or phrases in a PDF for free:
Step 1: If you have Firefox installed on your PC, just open a PDF document in this web browser;
Step 2: Press the Ctrl + F shortcut keys on the keyboard to activate the search bar at the bottom left;
Step 3: Enter the keyword or text you need to look for within this PDF into the search bar. When Firefox finds all the needed results, it will highlight all the items by default.
Firefox is a good tool to search for text in a PDF, however, it cannot Find & Replace as it is a PDF viewer at most. If you have such demand for a PDF editor, the next online tool may be helpful.
PDFdu
This is an all-round internet-based PDF converter which can easily convert, merge, split, and remove PDF documents. Regarding how to find and replace text in a PDF file, PDFdu can quickly and easily replace the content of the specified PDF file to create a new PDF. Here’s how-to:
Step 1: Type the URL on the search bar;
Step 2: Upload your PDF document to the workstation and enter the text you need to search for in the Find Text box, then type in the content you need to replace the selected text in the box Replace With;
Step 3: Hit the Replace Text and then download the modified PDF.
PDFdu allows users to exactly find the specified or conducts fuzzy query and this online platform is free of cost, which leads to many ad banners on the website. The only drawback of this tool is it doesn’t provide preview of the PDF document so that users fail to locate where the keywords are.
Wrapping Up
Most desktop PDF programs are able to perform the Find & Replace feature whereas online tools can often only help search for words in a PDF document but are unable to replace the found items. If you require the Find & Replace function, you’re best off downloading and installing an offline PDF toolkit.
SwifDoo PDF
