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1

Highlighting all instances of a term [2018]

New Here ,
Sep 04, 2018 Sep 04, 2018

In old versions of Adobe Acrobat reader if you did a search for a term or a word, all instances of that term/word were highlighted at the same time.  IN the version that I unfortunately upgraded to, if you search for a term you only see one instance of it until you move forward.  I want to be able to see all instances of a word at the same time - how do I do this?

I seem to be using Acrobat Reader DC, if that is relevant

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Community Expert ,
Sep 04, 2018 Sep 04, 2018

No version of Reader, or even Acrobat, has such a feature built-in. You must have been using some kind of third-party tool...


I've developed a (paid-for) script for Acrobat (and Reader) which allows you to do that, if you're interested.

You can find it here: Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Highlight All Instances of a Word or Phrase in a PDF

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New Here ,
Nov 29, 2020 Nov 29, 2020

Mattijs5EBE_0-1606668204364.png

He means like this. I managed to get it to work for this document but not for another. I have no idea why or how to turn it off and on but if someone knows, please inform me!

 

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New Here ,
Nov 17, 2022 Nov 17, 2022

I found one tricky way to open that. First ctrl+F, type in "/", don't do any thing and straight delete the "/" you typed in, and then type in the word you want to search, and then press ENTER. This method will highlight all the words you want to search in the pdf. It works for me.

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New Here ,
Nov 18, 2022 Nov 18, 2022

Thanks! That works!

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Community Expert ,
Sep 06, 2018 Sep 06, 2018

Kate, one other thing that might help is to use Edit > Advanced Search instead. It will list all the instances and you can click each to navigate through.

Untitled-1.jpg

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New Here ,
Jan 21, 2025 Jan 21, 2025

and Then what? how t highlight all of the word "Conferences"  by yellow colour or any colour

 

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 22, 2025 Jan 22, 2025

See my post below from May 10, 2023. The highlight color is whatever is chosen in preferences. If it stops working, close Acrobat and reopen the document and try again. That usually works.

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2025 Jun 11, 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79rY3GGpZEI
This will help 5 min - 7 min

HIGHLIGHT ALL ACCURANCE OF WORD IN ADOBE ACROBAT DC Highlight all instances of a given word in a PDF. How to highlight all the same word in a PDF.
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New Here ,
Nov 18, 2020 Nov 18, 2020

I can confirm that I'm looking at a page where all the matched results to the search are highlighted, and they continue to other pages. This is definitely functionality of Reader but it seems no one knows how to reporduce consistently.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 18, 2020 Nov 18, 2020

How do you know it was done in Reader? How do you know it was done autmatically and not by hand?

By the way, the script I linked to above will also work in Reader DC...

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New Here ,
Oct 25, 2021 Oct 25, 2021

Is there currently a way to highlight all isntances of a term in a large PDF?

 

I need to creat a colour code of key words in the document. Any help would be most appreciated!

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2025 Jun 11, 2025
LATEST
HIGHLIGHT ALL ACCURANCE OF WORD IN ADOBE ACROBAT DC Highlight all instances of a given word in a PDF. How to highlight all the same word in a PDF.
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Community Beginner ,
May 10, 2023 May 10, 2023

I know this was a while back, but I know the foolproof method for making this work. Open the find window, and start typing something. Then backspace and retype, just invent any kind of edit to the word  you are typing, and every instance of that search word or phrase will magically appear on each page. This is an extremely valuable tool!

 

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New Here ,
Aug 18, 2023 Aug 18, 2023

Thank you so much for this! My experience with Adobe Acrobat Reader has always been that upon entering a term to Find, all instances of that term will be highlighted. That recently stopped working. Maybe it has something to do with the upgrade to 2023.003.20269? At any rate, it stopped working and I couldn't get it back, but this hack works like a charm.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 18, 2023 Aug 18, 2023

I'm just sooooo happy I figured it out. If it stops working, which it does sometimes. Just close acrobat and start again! Yahoo!!!!!

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New Here ,
Dec 27, 2023 Dec 27, 2023

I have been wondering why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't - it must be because sometimes I misspell something and have to go back! Thank you so much, this makes me very happy.

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2025 Jun 11, 2025
HIGHLIGHT ALL ACCURANCE OF WORD IN ADOBE ACROBAT DC Highlight all instances of a given word in a PDF. How to highlight all the same word in a PDF.
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