PDF documents have been used for a long time because they are compatible with many programs, because of their weight and quality, as well as that, in theory, they cannot be edited. By "not being editable", many users think that it is not possible either search for a word or phrase in a PDF. This is not true, or it is not, unless what is in the PDF is a photo, something that we can see, for example, in comics. In this post we will show you the simple process.
Searching for a word or phrase in a PDF is a question that many users have. Many are interested in carrying out this type of search from the web browser and this can be for two reasons: that the PDFs are linked to the browser or because PDF files are usually found on the internet in which they want to find something. Be that as it may, in this article we will explain how to perform these searches in Firefox, as well as in two text viewers: Okular (Kubuntu) and the Ubuntu viewer.
Find text in a PDF with Firefox
At this point I am writing to all those users who already know how to do it, which will not be few. Yes, the process is simple, but the doubt exists. This post is aimed at all those who have these doubts, although it is true that it is very simple. And is that to find text in a PDF open in Firefox you just have to use shortcut Ctrl + F and add the text in the text box that appears at the bottom left.
Ctrl + F is a shortcut that works in many different programs. The F is for "find", but in some programs is also like Ctrl + B, from "to search" in Spanish. When pressing the shortcut, the text box appears in the lower left part and on the right the options to highlight everything, we can ask that uppercase and lowercase letters match, complete words and further to the right we will see the total number of matches. To go from one to the other, all you have to do is touch the arrows to the right of the text box. By pressing Enter we will also go from one to the other, but always forward.
If it turns out that your PC has linked the PDF to browser and it is something that you do not want like that, you can change the preferences from the operating system settings. To do this, it will be enough to do the search for "Default applications" and select the program with which we want them to open. Another option is to right click on a PDF, enter its properties and indicate it from there.
How to find text in a PDF with the Ubuntu viewer
El Ubuntu document viewer allows us to search a PDF in two ways: with the shortcut Ctrl + F or by clicking on the magnifying glass. The magnifying glass is more intuitive, since it is not necessary to know or remember any shortcut. As in Firefox and Okular, which I will comment on below, the text box is not always there, but it appears when clicking on the magnifying glass or using the shortcut. As a matter of fact, depending on the resolution of the screen, it will be worth zooming in order to see the document well. This is done from the drop-down menu next to the magnifying glass. In the previous image it is 150% and I still had room to spare on the sides.
How to search with Okular, the Kubuntu viewer
As you already know from this post, I have left Ubuntu to enjoy the user experience of Kubuntu, the official KDE version of Canonical. The Kubuntu document viewer is Okular and it seems to me a more polished and complete option than the one that Ubuntu brings by default. The shortcut would be the same and it would only change where we have to click if we don't want to use the keyboard shortcut: the option is in Edit / Search, where we can see that it is also possible with Ctrl + F.
Okular also allows us to search for text that matches upper and lower case. On the other hand, by default it has an option activated that can make us miss something, and that is that if we do not deactivate it we will search from current page. This means that if we are on page 2 we will lose everything on page 1 unless we deactivate the function from the options that we will find at the far right of the search box.
Knowing the Linux world, I have not tested this in other versions, but I am totally convinced that you can search for text in a PDF with the shortcut Ctrl + F, Ctrl + B, by clicking on an icon (like the magnifying glass in Ubuntu) or from the menu, like Edit in Okular. And if the problem is that the PDFs are linked to Firefox or Chrome and you don't want this to be the case, you just have to change the default program from the preferences or from the options that appear when you right-click on it.
Do you already know how to search for a word or phrase in a PDF document?
