Quick Guide to Find Word in PDF in a Few Seconds

Let's say you are sifting through a lengthy research paper, a comprehensive user manual, or any other hundreds of pages PDF document, and you need to find a specific text or word in that file. Looks challenging, isn't it? Searching for a specific word in a lengthy PDF document is like searching for a needle in a haystack. But what if we tell you that you can quickly find the word in a PDF document in seconds? Yes, and that's exactly what we will learn in this article. Here we will explore all the easy ways to search text in PDF, including the best solution offered by UPDF. So, let's head right to it!

Part 1. 3 Easy Ways to Find Word in PDF for Windows and Mac

Windows and Mac users can view PDF files in many ways, and most of such tools offer built-in features to find specific words or phrases within the PDF document. So, let's explore three easy and recommended ways to find words in PDF for Windows and Mac:

Method 1. Find Word in PDF with UPDF

The first and super-fast tool to explore lengthy PDF files and find relevant texts or phrases in seconds is UPDF. It is a powerful PDF management and editing tool that integrates all the core functionalities to manage PDF files effectively.

Talking specifically about its search feature, UPDF offers an intelligent and swift built-in search feature to find a specific word in the PDF document within seconds. No matter how long the PDF file is, UPDF can go through the whole document in milliseconds and present all the matches. Moreover, it also allows you to search more specifically with two filters, i.e., Case Sensitive and Whole Words Only.

Follow the below-listed steps to find text in PDF with UPDF:

• Download and launch UPDF for Win/Mac. Click the "Open File" button to open the PDF file.

• Once the PDF file is opened, click the "magnifying glass" icon from the top right corner or press "Ctrl + F" (for Windows) or "Cmd + F" (for Mac).
• In the search bar, type the word or phrase you want to search. UPDF will highlight all the relevant matches in the document. Moreover, the search bar will also show a quick reference to where those words/phrases are used.
• UPDF even helps you search more precisely. Click the small icon located beside the search bar. There you will see two checkboxes, i.e., Case Sensitive and Whole Words Only. You can tick or untick those checkboxes to customize your search accordingly.

That's it! This way, you can instantly search text in PDF with UPDF. Besides that, UPDF also offers plenty of other features to manage your PDF documents effectively. Some of the other key features include:

• Editing: It allows you to edit the images, text, and links, change the background, add watermarks, and do other editing to the PDFs easily.
• Add Bookmarks: It enables you to add bookmarks while reading PDFs.
• Organizing: It makes it easy to organize PDF pages, such as add, rotate, delete, split, crop, replace, extract, or rearrange.
• Annotating: It allows annotating PDFs with ease, such as adding comments, highlighting texts, adding text boxes, inserting stickers, etc.
• Converting: It can convert PDF into other formats such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, text, CSV, image, etc.
• OCR: Its OCR technology intelligently recognizes the text in scanned PDFs and converts them into editable files.

All the capabilities of UPDF are accessible through its click-based user-friendly interface. This makes UPDF an ultimate PDF management tool.

Video Tutorial on How to Search for Text in PDF on Windows

Method 2. Find Word in PDF with Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader is a well-known tool for viewing and managing PDF documents. It also offers a built-in search feature that allows users to find words or phrases within PDF documents. So, if you have Adobe Reader pre-installed in your Windows or Mac system, then follow the below steps to find the word in PDF with Adobe Reader:

• Open the PDF file in Adobe Reader and click the "magnifying glass" icon from the top toolbar to open the search bar.
• Type the word or phrase you want to search for and hit Enter. The tool will take you to the first match on the PDF document.

• To go to the next match, click the "Next" button located in the search bar.

This way, you can search for text in PDF using Adobe Reader.

Method 3. Find Word in PDF Online

Other than the above two desktop tools, you can also find specific phrases in the PDF document online through your browser. Most popular web browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, have built-in PDF readers that allow users to open PDF files directly within browser windows.

Once you open the PDF document in the browser, you can use its search function to search for a word in the PDF. Follow the below steps to find the specific word in PDF through the browser:

• Right-click the PDF file and then click "Open with". Choose the browser of your choice.
• Once the PDF file loads in the browser window, click "Ctrl + F" (for Windows) or "Cmd + F" (for Mac) to open the search bar.
• Type the word you want to search in the search bar. The browser will highlight all instances of the word within the PDF document.

• To navigate through the results, use the arrow buttons in the search bar.

This way, you can find texts in a PDF directly from the web browser of your choice.

Also Read: Top 5 PDF Search Engines to Efficiently Find PDF eBooks

Part 2. Best Way to Find Word in PDF for iOS

If you want to find words in a PDF on your iOS device, you can do it easily with the help of the UPDF iOS app. UPDF offers a dedicated "Search and Locate Text" feature to input and search for specific words or phrases on the PDF document. Follow the below steps to find a word in PDF for iOS devices with UPDF:

• Download the UPDF for iOS. After installation, launch the app and open the PDF file.

• Click the "magnifying glass" icon from the top toolbar.
• Type the text or phrase you want to search and hit Enter. You will see all the matches of your searched word. You can use the arrows to navigate to the next matches.

So, quick, click-based steps with UPDF can make you quickly explore and find words in a PDF for iOS devices.

Part 3. Best Way to Find Word in PDF for Android

For Android users, plenty of PDF reader apps provide a seamless way of viewing PDFs and searching for specific phrases. Among these apps, UPDF for Android stands out as a popular choice for Android users. So, below are the steps on how to find the word in PDF for Android using it:

• Download and launch the UPDF Android app on your phone, and then open a PDF with it.

• Tap on the search icon from the top-right corner.
• Enter the word you want to search and UPDF will find and locate it automatically.
• Tap on the search result to locate the word.

This way, you can use UPDF for Android to effortlessly search specific text in PDF on your Android device.

Part 4. Bonus Tip: How to Search Text from Scanned PDF

If you want to search for text from a scanned PDF that contains images-based text instead of selectable text, then you can still do the search with the help of UPDF OCR technology.

UPDF supports over 38 OCR languages, making it the most powerful and versatile tool to convert scanned PDF into an accurate editable format and then search specific phrases. Follow the below steps to search text from scanned PDF using the UPDF OCR feature:

• Open the PDF file in UPDF. Click the "OCR" button from the right toolbar.
• Under "Document Type", choose "Searchable PDF". Afterward, customize the other settings, such as layout, language, page range, etc. Once done, click the "Perform OCR" button.
• Provide the location on your PC where you want to store the PDF. Once done, you now have the editable version of the PDF.
• Open the recently created PDF file on UPDF and click its "Search" icon from the top right corner to find specific words in the PDF.

This way, you can use UPDF to seamlessly convert scanned PDF into editable PDF and search specific text in it.

Wrapping Up

It is often challenging to look for specific phrases or words in a PDF when there are dozens of pages to explore. Above, we have explored multiple ways to quickly find words in PDF. You can use any of the above methods depending on your preference. However, if you are looking for a wholesome experience, UPDF seems the best choice, especially for Windows, Mac, and iOS users. Its intuitive interface, instant search results, OCR technology, and other PDF editing features make it an all-in-one solution for all PDF-related matters.