IUPUI Office of the Registrar

Searching for words in a PDF document

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You can use either the Find toolbar or the Search PDF window to locate a word, series of words, or partial word in the active Adobe PDF document. The Find toolbar provides a basic set of options for searching for text in only the current PDF document; the Search PDF window searches more PDF areas than the Find toolbar, provides more advanced options.

To search for words in a document using the Find dialog box:

1. Open the document.
2. To display the Find toolbar, right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac OS) in the toolbar area and select Find.
3. In the Find box, type the word, words, or partial word that you want to search for.
4. From the Find Options menu select options as desired.
5. To view each search result, click the Find Previous button or the Find Next button to go backward or forward through the document.

To search for words in a PDF document using the Search PDF window:

1. Open the document.
2. Click the Search button on the File toolbar.
3. Type the word, words, or part of a word that you want to search for.
4. Click Search. The results appear in page order and, if applicable, show a few words of context.
5. To display the page that contains a search result, click an item in the Results list.