Searching within pdfs in document cloud

[treno6792]

Hi

Im using Acrobat Pro and Document Cloud through the Adobe CC for students package.  I'm in trial now but will update if I can configure the systems as I need them to work.

I have built a repository of files in document cloud. They are organised by folder and each folder represents a structure of

> Degree Module > Essay 1 > Textbooks

> Degree Module > Essay 1 > Research Papers

> Degree Module > Essay 1 > Scans

So when I'm adding markup, annotation etc I can come back to through the folder structure to systematically review the notes and then compile the essay.

The problem I have is how to add purposeful meta to use after the essay is finished ready for when I need to access it later.

Example: Whilst reading and annotating a Research Paper (> Degree Module > Essay 1 > Research Papers>phenomenology of DBS patients.pdf) I annotate something I know I will want to reference at a later point in time with a comment tag #personhood

This will be useful because I know that I need to find references to 'personhood' in future.

The Adobe Acrobat Advanced search allows for you to search in multiple PDFs for text, so I tried it and it works but only if I download all of the PDFs to a folder on the Mac and then run the search.  There doesn't appear to be a way to tell advanced search to look at text within all the PDFs held in the document cloud as I can with a folder locally.

Creative Cloud has a sync option and includes Acrobat but I can't see how to configure Acrobat to sync to a folder on the Mac in the same way.  I also can't find a way to tell Acrobat to keep all the PDFs in Creative Cloud storage as an alternative and even if I could I'm not sure whether then the mobile devices I use to link through to that either.  I considered Bridge but the same I can't see any configuration options.

I kind of see this as a deal breaker for me and its a fairly standard requirement of a good configuration management strategy for holding data.  I need the central sync so I can access all the PDFs from the Mac, the tablet and the phone but I also need to be able to search within PDFs for meta references I leave and or just boolean searches across multiple files too.

Any help appreciated.

[AnandSri · Accepted solution]

Hello treno6792

As per the description above, you want to use the Advanced Search feature on the PDF file saved in the document cloud without saving them locally on the machine, Is that correct?

You can use the Advanced Search feature on a PDF saved locally, but this feature will not work on a PDF file saved on Document Cloud, as there is no such option to enable this feature on files saved on Document Cloud.

However, you can file a feature request using the URL Feature Request/Bug Report Form

To know more about the Advanced Search feature, you may refer to the following KB doc Searching PDFs, Adobe Acrobat

Search and Index | Acrobat for Legal Professionals

Feel free to update this discussion in case you need further assistance.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

[treno6792]

Hi

Thanks for clarifying.

To me it would make sense to automatically index the PDFs in the document cloud (including comments), even to combine document cloud with creative cloud allowing for local folder sync as with the other products. 

Based on your response I guess the only way to achieve what I want to do is to periodically download the entire cloud contents to the computer and use spotlight to search within in the documents. Its a shame because it kind of undermines the flexibility of the cloud, chances are I'll probably be out and about on my mobile phone when I want to recall whatever useful little note I want to reference but it will be lost within the hundreds of files.

There you go - A two dimensional information management system, for projects, and for general meta...

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Wonder if they've figured out how to index files on the cloud in the past 5 years?