How do I create a PDF index using Catalog in Acrobat Pro?

Open Adobe Acrobat Pro. Go to the 'Catalog' feature (usually found under advanced tools or preferences, depending on your version). Follow the prompts to select the folder containing your PDFs. Acrobat Pro will then build the .pdx index file and related .idx files. Once done, you can use this index to search your entire collection quickly.

What types of content does a PDF index cover that a normal search might miss?

Body text within the PDF. Comments and annotations. Bookmarks and tags. Metadata (information about the file). Attachments within the PDF.

Document Search Burden in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

1 way to ask · copy any one

DBecome — “help me grow”Over the last 40 tickets I closed, which document combinations caused the most back-and-forth…+

Over the last 40 tickets I closed, which document combinations caused the most back-and-forth with clients or audits? Show the pattern and recommend one consolidated filing order and naming convention that prevents retrieval errors. Give a checklist my crew can use to bundle inspection notes, specs, and photos every time.

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
Install Adobe Acrobat Pro and ensure the Acrobat Catalog feature is available.
CautionThe Catalog feature is only available in Acrobat Pro, not in Acrobat Reader.
2
Prepare a folder containing all PDFs to be indexed.
3
Create a .pdx project file using the Catalog feature in Acrobat Pro for your PDF folder.
Best practiceYou can create a template .pdx file and reuse it for batch operations by updating the file paths.
4
Open a command prompt or terminal window.
5
Run the Acrobat Catalog command-line tool (catalog.exe on Windows) with the appropriate arguments to generate or update the index, specifying your .pdx file.
NoteThe typical syntax is: catalog.exe -p <path_to_pdx_file>.
6
Automate this process by creating a batch script or shell script that calls the catalog.exe command for each folder or set of PDFs as needed.
Best practiceFor large document sets, schedule your script to run during off-peak hours to minimize system load.
7
Verify the .idx and .pdx files are updated in the target directory after the script completes.

In the appWith the API

You can use the Catalog feature in Acrobat Pro to manually create a .pdx index, which can then be updated automatically with scripts.

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

Glossary

words on this page

Full-text indexA special file that lists every word in a collection of documents to make searching very fast.ExampleThe full-text index made searching for keywords across all archived emails almost instantaneous.

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

I'm tired of hunting for documents across drives when a ticket gets audited.

FAQ

about this task

A PDF index is like a book's index for your PDF files. It lists all the words and where they are. This makes searching faster because Acrobat checks the index first, not every single page of every PDF. It's especially useful for large collections of documents.

Open Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Go to the 'Catalog' feature (usually found under advanced tools or preferences, depending on your version).
Follow the prompts to select the folder containing your PDFs.
Acrobat Pro will then build the .pdx index file and related .idx files.
Once done, you can use this index to search your entire collection quickly.

No, if you only have one PDF, you do not need to make a PDF index. The regular search function in Adobe Acrobat is fast enough for a single document. The index is for when you have many PDF files.

Body text within the PDF.
Comments and annotations.
Bookmarks and tags.
Metadata (information about the file).
Attachments within the PDF.

Indexing a collection once saves a lot of time. When you search each file individually, Acrobat has to read every page of every document each time. With an index, Acrobat only reads the small index file, which is much faster. This also ensures you search all parts of the documents, like comments and attachments, not just the main text.

Document Search Burden

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help