Participant

Answered

Find and Replace all Pdf file

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 30, 2021
4 replies
4207 views

I find it very weak that the user does not have the ability to replace one text (Replace all) from all pages at once,
Since 2017 I use Acrobat professionally and for 2 years now Acrobat Pro DC with monthly syndrome.
I work in the field of construction and in large projects we receive PDFs with works that reach 1500 pages and it is impossible to delete a text, a word of 1500 pages every time (next).
I find it unthinkable to be able to do this for free online on various pages and not on Acrobat Pro DC!
So you lose customers without knowing it!

Correct answer Thom Parker

I have never seen this.

I have to agree with Bernd. I've never seen a search and replace feature for PDF page content. And I've used every version of Acrobat since versino 4. Such a feature would require reflowing text, which is not reliable in a PDF. It's possible that you saw a 3rd party tool? Or I supposed it possible that Adobe breifly added something like this, until they realized it was problematic.

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Fullstack

Participant

I work in architecture, and this has always been a headache - we often have to edit the same word or phrase across multiple pages of a document. Every year I’d find myself back on forums looking for a solution, plugin, or tool that could make it easier. I tried a few, but none of them worked the way I needed.

Earlier this year, after getting frustrated one too many times changing a single word page by page, we decided to build out own in-house tool. It replaces all chosen words in one click - and can batch replace multiple words across multiple PDF files. I’ve been using it for over six months now in my day-to-day work, and it’s been a game changer. We've decided to make it public and will provide version upgrades.

You can download a copy here: PDF Text Replacer

Thom Parker

Community Expert

How do you deal with reflowing text? And breaking across pages?

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

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David Abramsky

Participant

Good point Thom. I wonder if the app can provide the user with a list of such problem replacements, after the replacement operation attempts to do all instances. User could jump to those places and fix manually?

I confess not knowing anything about the difficulties behind the scenes. Just a suggestion that may not be realistic.

Thanks,

David

D

David Abramsky

Participant

I too wish there was a "Replace All". Certainly the editor was originally never meant to do big edits like that. But this is 2025 and virtually all editors of any kind have a "replace all". I'm sure if the developers can do code to do a single replace, and can do code to do "Find next", they can combine those two into a "Replace all" button. Would be so helpful. Thanks.

Thom Parker

Community Expert

If you have an error in the page content, then that content needs to be changed in the original document, and then reconverted to PDF

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

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Sotirios5FB1Author

Participant

If you work alone on a small list this can be done if you work in an architectural and construction group throughout Germany, the texts are sent via PDF if there is a mistake in the text each partner should change it himself.
We are not trying to find what we could do better with the tools we have but we are just trying to find a perfect modern tool to meet the needs and simplify our work.
This is definitely not Adobe, it used to be, but not for the time we live in.
So the purchase and installation of modern competitive programs is inevitable.

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Nina21778525vflq

Participating Frequently

This is so true. The older version had the possibility to change all in one document. For example I have documents that have made via Indesign in other country or word, those are then in pdf sent to me. I need to translate them to my language. If I try to put them on word, the boxes and texts move too bad, cannot do it. In older version I was able to do that. Now I have to click in 46 page document about 1000 time to make the translation. Please put the replace all back to the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. I need it, that is why I pay to use this!!!

Dave__M

Community Expert

Acrobat and PDFs in general were never intended to be a text editing environment. In years past, the editing tool was named "Touchup Text Tool", and that was a very appropriate name. The text editing capabilities have gotten stronger over the versions and years, but the notion that full word processing capabilities should be there just isn't realistic. If the source documents are available, that's where this type of edit should be done. Text edits in PDFs are an emergency scenario, when the source doc isn't available, but a change is needed.

My best,

Dave

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Sotirios5FB1Author

Participant

We live in the 21st century, a century of technology and digital development and the ideology with your thought belongs to 1990. It is unthinkable that If we make a mistake in a list and want to delete a word, or just a simple letter that is found on 2500 pages, there is no automatic group deletion (Delete All or Change All), except by pressing Clear and Next and doing this for 2500 times.
If we are processing 10 such lists per day, we will need three people to delete a word from each list. It's unthinkable since competing company programs do it in 2 minutes.

In the entire group of companies that we have, with 1200 employees and around 400 cooperation clients, we are leaving Adobe with great pleasure and we are ungrateful for it

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