Word Search in PDF not working as expected

[jackc18297270]

I have a brand new computer using Windows 10 & Office 2016. I just edited an old PowerPoint file and saved it to PDF. I then did a word search in the newly created PDF which did not work as large blue boxes appeared. I tried this using both Adobe Reader DC & Adobe Acrobat X with similar results. I sent the document to a colleague and she cannot do a word search either. I then did a similar word search using older PDFs and it worked as expected. Any help would be appreciated.  

[AnandSri · Accepted solution]

Hello Jackc,

Sorry for the delayed response and inconvenience caused. As per the description above, I can understand that you are not able to search a Word in a PDF which was converted from a powerpoint document, is that correct?

Are you getting any error message while searching any word? Are you using the Find function CTRL + F or the Advanced Search Feature Shift+Ctrl+F?

Have you tried searching any word in another PDF file? If not, please try. Make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Reader DC installed, check for any pending updates of Adobe Reader DC from help>check for updates, reboot the machine after updating the Adobe Reader.

Navigate to Adobe Reader's Preferences once and disable the "Enable Fast Find" and Click on "Purge cache Contents", Click OK, close Adobe Reader and try again.

If it is specific to one PDF file, Is it possible to share the PDF file with us so that we can test it at our end? To share the file, please use Adobe Send feature, upload the file, share the link to files via private message only, How Do I Send Private Message

What is the dot version of Adobe Reader DC installed? To identify, please refer to Adobe article Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

Let us know how it goes and share your findings.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

[tmclaughlin]

I'm having a similar issue. No matter what I put in the search, it tell sme nothing is found even when i put something obvious that i can see in the document. 

I seem to recall that in other versions of adboe, a box would auto pop up asking to edit the document so that text was searchable but it is not giving that option anymore.

I tried to Purge Cache and removed fast find option. Still no results found. 

[try67]

The fact you can see something doesn't mean it's really there... Can you select that word with the mouse? If so, can you copy and paste it to another application (like Notepad)? If so, how does it look like when you paste it?

[tmclaughlin]

It isn't text yet. In prior verions, Adobe would convert the image to text so that words were searchable but I can't figure out how to do that in DC Pro. And thus my PDF file is not searchable and it's driving me batty. 

[try67]

Are you using Acrobat DC or Reader DC? This is only possible in the former. And if it doesn't happen by itself you can trigger it manually by running the Recognize Text command via the Tools panel.

[tmclaughlin]

DC, not Reader. 

I am in the Tools panel but don't see anything that says Recognize Text - which subcategory is it under? 

I feel like a total nitwit but this is seriosuly driving me nuts because I know I have Writeable access to Adobe adn have searched documents for Text before (but not in this version). 

[tmclaughlin]

G I think i found it - in SCAN/OCR - it is running now. Fingers crossed!!!

[KMG2022]

This was the solution! thanks for sharing!

[scotsamurai]

I have the same problem with the newest version of Adobe Reader. My colleague in Silicon Valley who is a senior manager at Oracle says that Adobe is intentionally restricting the functions in the free Adobe Reader to force people to buy the subscription. I believe this is the case.

[try67]

Utter nonsense. Adobe has nothing to gain by doing that. People will just move to another free PDF viewer if they purposely crippled their application. One would hope a serious company such as Oracle would hire better people than that...

[Wes227412571gsu]

I don't know @try67 , it doesn't seem too far fetchedc to me. Throughout my entire Master's and PhD research I read hundreds, maybe thousands, of papers. I was able to easily search for key words and highlight text. Now I can't do either. Sounds like it is a very recent, pervasive problem. Either Adobe is trying to make a $ or they need to hire better people who can make software that works.

[dainova]

It's Feb 2023, it's not working on Acrobat Reader on v2023.008.20470.    I can do same seach on advanced search, thanks adobE. Moving out of it. Tested on every browser, copy/pasted.

[dainova]

horrible product.

[Edgar26155024t38d]

Thank you, I just

installed another Reader and it is working now.

[Edgar26155024t38d]

Yes, the problem was the Adobe Reader. I just

installed another PDF Reader and it is working now.

[Gustaaf5CD6]

I am using Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Nederlands [AAR DC NL] (version 20.012.20048, with all updates installed) on Windows 10 (with latest automatic updates installed) with MS Office Home 365 (all updates installed).
During the last weeks I am unable to search in all my PDF files. Always same message: " .. has searched document ... no corresponding word were found ..." even for words that appear in the title of the pdf and that appear 50 times in the whole pdf document. CTRL+F and Shift+CTRL+F do not work. 
In preferences I have disabled  "Enable Fast Find, purged cache, clicked OK". does not help.
In preferences I have increased max cache size from 100 MB to 20000 MB: same message (after searching in more pages of large document) that nothing was found. Is max cache size thereason? Do I have to increase max cache size to 100000 MB or more? 
There seem to be several issues with this version (Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Nederlands, version 20.012.20048). E.g. Copying a few marked sentences of the pdf into a Word document in order not to have to retype them does no longer work either. 

[try67]

So when you select that text on the page, copy it and then paste it in Word it comes out correctly or not?

If not, there's your problem... The font encoding of the file is incorrect, making it impossible to search it, even though it appears correct on the screen. You need to report this issue to the authors of the file so they could fix it.

[Anton5C3F]

This is the issue

I see in the pdf file: "V54W1235" but when i past it to notepad I see:  "4/A,(+4."

The problem is that the author of the document is a machine supplier they are not willing to change the document for me :(. Is there another way for me to solve this issue?

[try67]

Not with the free Reader, no.

[Anton5C3F]

I don't know if the software was for free. I have the following software on my PC.

[try67]

Using Acrobat X Standard you can do it, I think. Export all the pages as images, then create a new PDF from those images and run Text Recognition on it.

[AnthonyTheis]

I am having this issue now, upon saving as PDF from Adobe FrameMaker.
How can I change the font encoding? 

[ZSC3120]

No that is not my issue. I'm using WordPerfect I am needing to combine a total of 5 documents into 1 searchable pdf and cannot.  I'm sorry I could not understand you...as I told you your call was breaking up and crackling - I have a deadline and could not wait any longer for you to get back on the line. I'll find another way.

Cari Duda

Zollie C. Steakley PLLC

[osaydmq]

I had the same problem where I try to search a certain word in the pdf file ,but it always crashes when i press ctrl+f .So what I did is that I pressed help then repair installation,and it is working perfectly fine now .

Hope that's what your looking for.