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I'd like to use Windows Search for searching through multiple PDFs in one go, but I see that in the Indexing Options' Advanced Options screen, PDF files don't have a registered IFilter:
What is an IFilter, and where can I get the appropriate one?
Louis
Posted 2012-03-20T05:02:19.807
Reputation: 18 859
43
IFilters allow Windows Search to search within file contents.
Here are three popular PDF IFilters†:
After installing one, you should be able to search within PDF files in the same way that you can for other types of files.
†:This article from 2009 has performance numbers, but they may not apply to current versions of the filters.
Louis
Posted 2012-03-20T05:02:19.807
Reputation: 18 859
Works with single words but doesn't work for sentence apparently. (I tried with and without quotes) Any advice? – JinSnow – 2016-11-20T13:39:00.813
1
@Guillaume Not sure. I'm now on Windows 10 which is using a filter named "Reader Search Handler" which does well with sentences for me. I'm not sure where it came from. http://i.imgur.com/rVj1EhD.png
– Louis – 2016-11-22T03:59:31.790@Guillaume I think it's from Edge. – Louis – 2016-11-22T04:06:14.057
1@Louis Thanks for the feedback. Good to know. Problem solved on windows7, we just need to wait (much) longer for the pdf results (I did close the search window before it appears). – JinSnow – 2016-11-22T05:27:00.863
Am I missing something? I'd think that File Explorer would use iFilter to show the results itself, but from what I see, you have to see them through Foxit, as follows: . . . Open up Foxit Phantom, and click the yellow folder to the left of the "Find" cell. This will show the Search pane on the right side of the screen . . . Where would you like to search? "All PDF document in" . . . Select the location: Local Disk (C:) . . . What word or phrase would you like to search for? "your word" – sludge705x – 2019-12-17T21:24:07.203
I tried this but it did not work for me. I'm on Windows 7 Professional (64-bit), with Adobe Reader X. I installed the iFilter, added it to my PATH environment variable, restarted my computer, and waiting until Windows was indexing, but I still couldn't search within my PDFs. I did have to install under my PC's administrator account, which is a different user, I wonder if that affected it. – M. Dudley – 2012-07-02T17:03:29.087
Did Windows finish indexing? – Louis – 2012-07-02T19:52:45.853
@emddudley, if you want the PDF contents to be indexed, you should ensure that in the above screenshot, "Index Properties and File Contents" is selected for PDF files. Also, if you're searching non-indexed files, you may have to prefix your search query with content:. – Sam – 2013-01-17T23:41:22.803
The above referenced MSDN article that @Louis refers to is actually talking about the speed of the content indexing. This is the speed at which the Windows Search (or Search Server) crawls through the content and adds it to its data. The speed of the search is not affected at all and is the same regardless of IFilter used. So unless you are needing to index a large number of new files quickly, the speed of the indexing probably does not matter for most people. – dmarietta – 2013-12-30T20:43:00.070
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An alternative way to search through PDFs is to use the search function of PDF-XChange Viewer. It does not need indexing neither. This is my choice.
You can install the portable version. Hit Ctrl Shift F to get the search dialog:
Michael S.
Posted 2012-03-20T05:02:19.807
Reputation: 3 128
1+1! Didn't know this. PDF-XChange Viewer is just awesome. Surprises me all the time. – Bloke – 2014-08-30T21:04:00.610
Best answer in my opinion. Portable and very fast, even with preview and word location when clicked on a search result entry. Thanks for pointing out this gem. – Kai Noack – 2019-07-18T05:24:32.173
1Thanks, I didn't know this feature existed in the standard Reader. Sure is dang slow though. – I. J. Kennedy – 2013-12-26T18:20:39.130
3
You can use Mendeley; it's free.
First, add your PDF files and index them. After that, you can search them with auto-complete search.
BARIS KURT
Posted 2012-03-20T05:02:19.807
Reputation: 56
1
Maybe little free tool Pasco from Microsoft Store?
Pasco is a software whose main task is to search for pages in a text (pdf) containing a specified phrase. As the software indexes ebooks, the search result is displayed immediately. Pasco is not only a search engine but also a convenient ebook reader.
Maciej Tokarz
Posted 2012-03-20T05:02:19.807
Reputation: 11
1
PDF XChange Viewer, which has a free version available, comes with a built-in iFilter.
Sam
Posted 2012-03-20T05:02:19.807
Reputation: 1 171
0
You can sort, filter pdf files based on title, pages etc using this shell extenion Debenu
Additionally, this portable application extracts all data from pdf files and produces a tabluar output which you can use in your workflow pdfinfogui
Rahul
Posted 2012-03-20T05:02:19.807
Reputation: 505
Are you affiliated with Debenu? – slhck – 2013-12-31T08:25:25.900
2No. I was facing a similar issue and had tried both the softwares. So, thought I will share the info. – Rahul – 2013-12-31T12:10:46.297
Not answering this old question, but I found DocFetcher useful.
– Orion – 2016-07-26T17:04:21.813Could you drop by in Ask Different chat about bounty on your question, please?
– ankii – 2019-12-22T16:07:36.373