Search the drawing set for every instance of 'plywood' and produce a list: run a full-text search across the combined …
Open the PDF file that has an associated search index in Acrobat Reader.
Best practiceIndexed PDFs usually have a companion .pdx or .idx file in the same folder; make sure both are present for best performance.
Press Ctrl+Shift+F (Windows) or Command+Shift+F (Mac) to open the advanced search window.
In the search window, select All PDF Documents in and choose the folder containing the indexed PDFs.
NoteSelecting the folder ensures Acrobat uses the index for faster searching across multiple PDFs.
Enter your search term in the search box.
Click Search to begin searching the indexed PDFs.
CautionIf the index file is missing or not recognized, Acrobat will perform a slower full-text search instead.
Review the search results and click any result to jump to that location in the PDF.
When searching indexed PDFs, results appear much faster than with standard searches, especially across large document sets.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
A PDF index is like a map for your PDF documents. It lists every word in your files and exactly where it is located. When you search, Acrobat uses this map instead of reading every page of every document. This saves a lot of time, especially when you have many large PDFs, because the computer already knows where to look.
If you frequently search a large collection of PDFs, the best approach is to create a full-text index using the 'Catalog' feature in Acrobat Pro. This process builds a .pdx file that acts as a central index for all your documents. Once the index is built, all future searches across this collection will be dramatically faster and more thorough, covering not just body text but also comments, bookmarks, and metadata.
| Feature | Regular Search | Indexed Search (Catalog) |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Slower, searches each file in real-time. | Much faster, uses a pre-built map of words. |
| Scope | Searches body text, layers, form fields, signatures. | Covers body text, comments, bookmarks, tags, metadata, attachments. |
| Setup | No special setup needed. | Requires building an index (.pdx file) once in Acrobat Pro. |
| Best for | Searching one or a few PDFs. | Searching many PDFs or a large collection often. |
You should use 'Catalog' to create an index because it makes searching across many PDFs much more efficient. When you search individually, Acrobat has to open and scan each document every time. With an index, Acrobat already has a complete list of all words and their locations. This means searches are almost instant, saving you a lot of time and effort, especially for large document sets or frequent searches.