How do I use Catalog to find every mention of 'KPI' in my PDF collection?

Open Acrobat Pro and go to the Catalog feature. Choose the folder with your PDFs. Create the index files (.pdx and .idx). Use the Search window to type 'KPI' and see all results.

If my PDF scan is blurry or does not have selectable text, will Catalog find 'KPI' mentions?

No, Catalog only indexes actual text, not images of text. If your PDF is a scan, you must use OCR to convert images to real text before indexing. Without OCR, mentions of 'KPI' in scanned images will not be found.

How does searching with an index compare to searching without one in Acrobat?

With Index Without Index. Searches all PDFs instantly Searches each PDF slowly, one at a time Finds words in comments, bookmarks, metadata May miss mentions outside main text Needs index built once No setup, but slow every time

Index KPI Mentions in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

2 ways to ask · copy any one

AExecute — “help me do it”Run OCR on the scanned operations report to create a searchable PDF, confirm key KPI terms are…+

Run OCR on the scanned operations report to create a searchable PDF, confirm key KPI terms are searchable, and save a copy for my fast lookup of metric mentions.

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

BImprove — “do it better”Make the scanned operations report useful for KPI queries: run full OCR, correct any…+

Make the scanned operations report useful for KPI queries: run full OCR, correct any misrecognized numeric fields, add metadata with the report date and KPIs, and test searches for the three KPIs my analyst will query so they won't be misled by OCR errors.

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
Open your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat.
2
Go to the Tools pane and select Document Processing.
3
Click Full Text Index with Catalog.
4
In the Catalog dialog, click New Index.
5
Click Add and select your PDF file, then click OK.
6
Click Build to start creating the index.
7
Choose a location and filename for the .pdx index file and click Save.
8
Wait for the indexing process to complete, then click Close.
Best practiceIf your PDF contains scanned images, use Acrobat’s OCR feature before indexing to ensure all text is searchable.

In the appWith the API

After building the index, you can use the Advanced Search feature to quickly search the full text of your indexed PDF.

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

Glossary

words on this page

IndexA special file that helps you search for words very quickly in many PDFs at once.ExampleThe index allowed me to find every mention of 'project budget' across hundreds of documents instantly.

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.

.pdx fileThe main file created by Catalog that stores information for fast searching.ExampleSearching a folder of documents uses the .pdx file to instantly locate keywords.

The real tasks

the one, listed here

Make a searchable copy of a scanned operations report so I can quickly find mentions of a specific KPI.

FAQ

about this task

Open Acrobat Pro and go to the Catalog feature.
Choose the folder with your PDFs.
Create the index files (.pdx and .idx).
Use the Search window to type 'KPI' and see all results.

A full-text index in Acrobat is a special file that lists every word in a group of PDFs and where it appears. This makes searching much faster because Acrobat can look up the word in the index instead of reading every file each time. It also covers more than just the main text, including comments, bookmarks, and metadata, so you do not miss any mention of your search term.

No, Catalog only indexes actual text, not images of text.
If your PDF is a scan, you must use OCR to convert images to real text before indexing.
Without OCR, mentions of 'KPI' in scanned images will not be found.

Using Catalog is faster because it creates a file that tells Acrobat exactly where each word is in all your PDFs. This means Acrobat does not need to open and read every document every time you search. Instead, it checks the index file, which is much quicker.

With Index	Without Index
Searches all PDFs instantly	Searches each PDF slowly, one at a time
Finds words in comments, bookmarks, metadata	May miss mentions outside main text
Needs index built once	No setup, but slow every time

Index KPI Mentions

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help