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MClareS
New Participant
June 16, 2011
Question

Search not highlighting results consistently

  • June 16, 2011
  • 39 replies
  • 89357 views

I have noticed the last couple of times I have used the search function that, although the word I am searching for is being found, it is not necessarily being highlighted, so that I can see where it is on the page.  Sometimes I get a vertical line (like this | ) next to the word, as if the cursor is there, but that is really hard to see on a page full of text.  Once today I got one out of three occurrences of the same word on a page highlighted in blue (great!) but the other two were not highlighted at all when searching forward.  Having got the third one highlighted, I then used search backwards and one of the other two (but not both) got highlighted in blue.

Surely this has something to do with Adobe Reader, rather than my laptop settings.  I did install the latest update this morning (I think there was also one either yesterday or the day before) and am now on version 9.4.5

MClareS

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      Michael Allsopp1
      New Participant
      June 24, 2011

      Just discovered something interesting.

      Under "Preferences -> Search" there is an option called "Enable Search Highlights From External Highlight Server". It was disabled when I first opened these settings, so I tried enabling it and now highlighting of search terms seems to be workinga little more consistently for me (well actually working at all versus not working at all), although it is still skipping some terms when I click the arrow to go to the next match. I've also noticed that when it does skip highlighting a match, if I then click to go to the next match and then click to go back to the previous match, it then hightlights the previously unhighlighted match.

      Obviously not a solution to the problem as this is defnitely a bug, however, maybe it will help out in some instances.

      Also, does anyone know what "Enable Search Highlights From External Highlight Server" this setting is for? It is kind of self explanatory, but what is an "External Highlight Server" in relation to Adobe PDF applications?

      S
      Scriptpreneur
      Participating Frequently
      June 25, 2011

      I'm no expert, but I BELIEVE that the external highlighting is from your computer's system. If you're on Mac, then your highlighting is set up a certain way in your system prefs "appearance"

      I could be wrong.

      I too found that little preference in Acrobat last week, but it's still not a solution. So frustrating!

      M
      Michael Allsopp1
      New Participant
      June 24, 2011

      Just adding my voice to register my frustration with this problem as well.

      Highlighting of search terms was working fine until we ugraded from Adobe Standard 9.4.4 to version 9.4.5. It is not only annoying to not have this working, it is very time consuming as well. I have actually had to install FoxIt reader on my system so that I can get functional again.

      I have submitted a bug report as suggested by another poster. Hope they are getting the message that this is a HUGE problem fo rmany users.

      N
      nickmomcilovic
      New Participant
      June 22, 2011

      Same issue after the last update.  I have the full version of Adobe Acrobat Standard (9.4.5) and not just the reader.  Not sure if this works in the reader but a workaround I found is to use the Full Acrobat Search and then double click on each of the results in the search results window.  Not a  very efficient method but at least it works until this bug is fixed.

      L
      LHTman
      Participating Frequently
      June 22, 2011

      Thanks for the suggestion on using the Full Search panel and double clicking on the results to get the highlight.  This does help me with what has become a big problem.

      U
      uandme72
      Known Participant
      June 22, 2011

      I am having problem with text search in Adobe reader latest version 9.4.

      One pdf file generated through a pdf printer inside a word processing program and has around 100 pages. So there is no issue of having a scanned document which is not searchable.

      In this document, when I try to search the text inside the pdf file using Adobe Reader 9.0, it is working alright and it is recognising the text searched for.

      However, When the same pdf file is searched using Adobe Reader 9.3 and 9.4 etc it is not searching the text which is present at more than five places in the document.

      Please advise.

      L
      LHTman
      Participating Frequently
      June 22, 2011

      I am having the exact same problem after a recent UPDATE.  It is a very BAD problem for me.  Is there a fix?

      T
      theostheos
      New Participant
      June 18, 2011

      Have the same problem when it will be solved

      A
      Anonymous
      June 20, 2011

      Has anyone found an earlier version where highlighted search WORKS & is easily available?

      F
      foreigncarguy
      New Participant
      June 22, 2011

      Why look for an older version? As mentioned, Reader version 10 is available and works. It is available for Mac and

      PC. Just upgrade for free.

      F
      foreigncarguy
      New Participant
      June 18, 2011

      Had the same problem. Reader version 10 (for mac anyway) is available. Just upgrade to that one and it works fine.

      J
      JHenry234166
      New Participant
      June 24, 2011

      I'm having the same problem as many others with the search highlighting problem in Acrobat Standard (not Reader) version 9.4.5.   I also just confirmed that the same problem exists in Reader version 9.4.5. Your suggestion to upgrade to Reader version 10 might fix the problem with Reader 9.4.5, but it appears that those of us posting the problem aren't using Acrobat Reader, we're using Acrobat Standard.

      With the range of software products currently available, it's easy enough to confuse one for another, especially wth the popularity of Acrobat Reader. I think it's safe to say that Acrobat Reader is the 'standard reader' for PDF documents. The idea that Acrobat Reader is the standard for PDF documents is a point of confusion, because now we have to decide if the standard reader is Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Reader. Maybe Adobe could have chosen a better name for Acrobat Standard, something like Acrobat Writer, or Acrobat Creator. Anyway...

      I'm not criticizing your suggestion, or flaming you for contributing an idea that may be helpful for some, but not necessarily for others. I use Acrobat Standard because Acrobat Reader is not capable of doing what I need to do. My particular situation requires the ability to search a document (not necessarily a PDF document) for a word or words, highlight them, comment the document, and save the commented document in PDF format. I may also need to combine several documents into a single PDF document for ease of Emailing them to someone. It may be a poor comparison on my part, but Acrobat Standard is like a TV boradcast station in that it creates content to be viewed elsewhere, and Acrobat Reader is like the TV set, in that it is intended to view the content created at the TV broadcast station.

      S
      Scriptpreneur
      Participating Frequently
      June 24, 2011

      Funny about the standard reader & Acrobat Standard. HOWEVER, my version clearly calls it: Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

      Good TV analogy.

      I'm an editor. I must have the Pro version. Can't function with just a reader.

      I posted in the right spot for Pro users, but this thread has more hits.

      A
      annoyed_user
      New Participant
      June 17, 2011

      AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! This is driving me NUTS! I use the function constantly on long documents and Adobe not highlighting the search results is costing me tons of time and $$$. I am really disgusted that this basic function is broken. In fact, I am furious. Fix it already, damn it.

      S
      Scriptpreneur
      Participating Frequently
      June 17, 2011

      I just talked to support. They promise a fix in about a week (translation - July).

      The only workaround they offer is to uninstall & install to the last version you have on disc. Helpful, huh?

      Inundate them please: 800-642-3623 (press 2, then press 2 again for Acrobat tech support)

      MichaelKazlow
      MichaelKazlow
      Brainiac
      June 17, 2011

      It is unusual to get bugs fixed that quickly. If they tell you about a week, then be happy that is as long as it takes. Flooding tech support with phone calls will not help it go faster. The update must go through quality insurance. While the bug did get through Adobe's bug checking process, it may have been rushed to avoid security issues. Relax, it will get done. If you want to express its importance, then it is much easier and more helpful to use the Adobe Bug Reporting form:

      https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

      D
      Debrza
      New Participant
      June 17, 2011

      Exactly the same trouble: the error was generated after upgrade to 9.4.5.

      S
      ShanetheMortgageMan
      New Participant
      June 17, 2011

      I have the same exact issue, I use the search feature about 300-350 times a day.  It only started after the last update, a day or a few ago.

      For me the issue is primarily when there is only 1 search result on a page, if there are multiple search results on the same page it will highlight the 2nd one, and then I can hit the reverse search button and it'll find the previous search result on that page and highlight it as well.

      It is very annoying, I hope there is a fix/patch/update soon.

      M
      MClareSAuthor
      New Participant
      June 17, 2011

      Thanks Shane.  I'm glad to know I'm not alone.  I have reported this to Adobe as a bug needing fixing.  Hopefully one of their future updates will deal with it.

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