How do I use Catalog to make searching faster in Adobe Acrobat?

Open Acrobat Pro and find the Catalog function. Select the folder with all your PDFs. Start the indexing process and wait for it to finish. Use the Search window to search the indexed PDFs quickly.

How does Catalog indexing compare to the normal search in Acrobat?

Catalog Indexing Normal Search. Searches all indexed PDFs at once Searches only one file or open files Much faster for large sets Slower for many files Covers text, comments, bookmarks, attachments Usually only body text Needs setup (indexing) No setup needed

Enable Fast Retrieval in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

2 ways to ask · copy any one

AExecute — “help me do it”Scan incoming paper records into searchable PDFs, run text recognition, and save them in the…+

Scan incoming paper records into searchable PDFs, run text recognition, and save them in the shared Incoming folder with the original intake date so coworkers can pull copies without waiting for originals.

when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed.

BImprove — “do it better”Prepare incoming paper records so colleagues can use them immediately: scan each file to PDF,…+

Prepare incoming paper records so colleagues can use them immediately: scan each file to PDF, run OCR, name the file with intake date and client last name, set searchable text, and add a short comment listing key identifiers (account number, document type) so retrieval doesn't require the paper.

when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed.

How to do it

the tool · the steps · what to avoid

1
Place all PDFs you want to include in the search index into a single folder on your computer.
2
Open Adobe Acrobat Pro.
3
Go to the Tools view and select Catalog.
4
In the Catalog panel, click New Index.
5
In the Index Definition dialog, click Add Folder and select the folder containing your PDFs.
6
Optionally, adjust the advanced options for the index (such as custom stop words or include/exclude subfolders) as needed.
7
Click Build to start creating the index.
8
Choose a location and filename for your .pdx index file and click Save.
9
Wait for the indexing process to complete, then click Close when finished.
Best practiceFor best performance, keep your PDF collection and the .pdx index file together in the same folder so users can easily search across all documents.

In the appWith the API

After building the index, use the Advanced Search feature and select 'Use Index' to search across all indexed PDFs at once.

This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.

Glossary

words on this page

Full-Text IndexA file that helps Acrobat search all the words in many PDFs very fast.

.pdx FileA special file made by Acrobat's Catalog that stores the index for searching.

CatalogThe Acrobat tool that builds an index for searching many PDFs quickly.ExampleThe Catalog tool quickly indexed all project PDFs, allowing instant keyword searches across them.

The real tasks

the one, listed here

Make a searchable copy of incoming paper records so coworkers can pull what they need without waiting for the originals.

FAQ

about this task

Open Acrobat Pro and find the Catalog function.
Select the folder with all your PDFs.
Start the indexing process and wait for it to finish.
Use the Search window to search the indexed PDFs quickly.

A full-text index in Acrobat is a special file that lists all the words in a group of PDFs. This index makes searching much faster because Acrobat can look up words in the index instead of opening each file. It is useful when you have many PDFs and need to find information quickly.

If your PDF is a blurry scan and does not have selectable text (like from OCR), the Catalog index will not find words in the image. Catalog only searches text it can read, including body text, comments, bookmarks, and metadata. To search scanned images, you need to run OCR in Acrobat first to turn the image into searchable text before indexing.

Searching with Catalog is faster because Acrobat uses the index file to find words. It does not need to open and read every PDF each time you search. This saves time, especially with large collections.

Catalog Indexing	Normal Search
Searches all indexed PDFs at once	Searches only one file or open files
Much faster for large sets	Slower for many files
Covers text, comments, bookmarks, attachments	Usually only body text
Needs setup (indexing)	No setup needed

Enable Fast Retrieval

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help