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While searching across multiple PDF files can easily be done in a variety of eDiscovery platforms, implementing such a tool is not always practical. Yet the need to search across many files still exists.
Several PDF editing tools offer a hidden gem, an efficient and cost-effective way to search and compile results across numerous searchable PDF files.
Advanced search functionality
Both Adobe Acrobat, including the free Reader version, and Tungsten Power PDF, formerly known as Kofax PDF, have a built-in advanced search functionality.
This option allows you to craft more complex searches or to search across multiple searchable PDFs at once. If your PDFs have not been made searchable, this can be done by utilizing an OCR tool within either of these programs.
From each of these programs, the keyboard shortcut to initiate advanced search is Ctrl + Shift + F.
The menu location varies a bit between the programs as well as versions. Power PDF is located on the Home tab under “Search” and “Search Multiple,” while the option for Acrobat is on the “Menu” tab under “Search” and “Advanced Search”.
The search menu that appears for both Acrobat and Power PDF are very similar in layout. Power PDF is labeled in a slightly more intuitive way, so the following instructions will be specific to Adobe Acrobat although they should easily be transferable to Power PDF.
Select location
If searching across multiple PDFs is your goal, from the top of the advanced search menu in Adobe Acrobat click “All PDF Documents In” and “Browse for location.” Once you have navigated to location, click “Select Folder.” Every PDF that is saved in a searchable format within the selected folder will now be subject to the search terms.
Craft search terms
Simply enter a word or phrase to search. Although this may seem like a basic search, it can be taken up a notch by utilizing “Return results containing” dropdown or checkboxes. These options are described a bit more below and can be accessed by clicking “Show More Options” on the search menu.
Options for return results containing
The following shows the implications of each option when searching for “Kenneth Lay.”
Match exact word or phrase, meaning the exact string including spaces in the same order. Only the exact phrase “Kenneth Lay” will return as a result for this option.
Match any of the words, meaning any portion of the string in any order. All instances where either Kenneth or Lay are present will appear even if it is only one and not the other; “Kenneth Smith was present” or “lay down the law” would both return.
Match all of the words, meaning all of the words must be present in any order. This would not find just Kenneth or Lay but would find “Lay, Kenneth” which is a different order than search box. Using proximity search with this option will locate words within a specified distance from one another.
Set the distance under Menu, Preferences, Search and “Range of words for proximity searching”. If 10 is entered as the range, then anything where Kenneth is within 10 words of Lay will result such as “Mr. Lay also known to some as Kenneth” .
Boolean query enables operators like “and,” “or,” “not,” ^, exclusive or () set desired order
Checkbox options
Whole words only, meaning not part of another word. “Lay” will not return “laying.”
Case-sensitive, meaning it will only return same case. “Lay” will not return “lay”
Proximity, meaning within a specified number of words.
Stemming: “smiling” would return results for smile, smiled, and smiles
Include bookmarks: searches the document’s bookmarks
Include comments: searches the document’s comments
Include attachments: searches the document’s attachments
Navigating results
Search results will appear within the search window, including the number of documents with a “hit” and how many times a “hit” occurred within the documents. A list of resulting filenames will display. Uupon expanding the arrow, the search result will display in context. When the search result is clicked, the corresponding document will open directly to the highlighted instance.
Saving report
When using Power PDF, Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro, the results of this search can be saved for future reference either in PDF or CSV format. Both formats will display the document name, page number, and search hit for all results. The CSV, which can be opened in Excel, is often preferred for its ease of seeing a full list of all results across the documents.
By exploring this built-in functionality, complex results can still be achieved even without the cost of additional tools.•
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Deanna Marquez ([email protected]) is a co-owner of the Indianapolis based legal technology company, Modern Information Solutions, LLC. Modern Information Solutions provides traditional IT services, software training, and litigation support specifically within the legal industry.
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