Skip to main content
T
tiffany10526004
Participant
October 5, 2016
Question

Searching portfolio and attachments in Acrobat Pro XI doesn't find file types .docx or .xlsx

  • October 5, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 380 views

I'm using Acrobat Pro XI. When searching in both portfolios and attached documents, the search doesn't find results I know are there.

One of the issues seems to be the file type. I have a Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx) file, but get no results when I search for terms in them. However, if I save the same files as a previous Office version (.doc or .xls), then they show up in the search results. This happened in both a PDF portfolio and a regular PDF to which I attached the files.

I've searched online and through the forums, but no luck. I've also looked through and can't find any preference that would affect this part of search. Can anyone point me in the right direction for some help? I posted a similar question just about the portfolios last week and got no response, but decided to try again since it's also happening when searching the attachments.

Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

T
tiffany10526004Author
Participant
October 6, 2016

I just found this in the Adobe reference guide:

"When searching for specific words or phrases, you can include attached PDFs as well as several other file types in the search. Windows users can search Microsoft Office documents (such as .doc, .xls, and .ppt), AutoCAD drawing file formats (.dwg and .dwf), HTML files, and Rich Text Format (.rtf) files. Mac OS users can search Microsoft Word (.doc), HTML, and .rtf files. Search results from attachments appear in the Results list beneath the attachment filename and icon. Attachments in other formats are ignored by the search engine."

The paragraph doesn't list .docx and .xlsx as searchable formats, and the last sentence specifically says other formats are ignored by the search engine.

Could it be possible that this is the way the software is supposed to function? We've been using .docx files since Office 2007, almost 10 years ago. What's the point of excluding these files from the results, if that's what's happening?

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices