How do I build a full-text index for my PDF collection using Acrobat Pro's Catalog feature?

Open Acrobat Pro on your computer. Go to the 'Catalog' feature. This is usually found in a menu related to advanced processing or tools. Select the folder or specific PDF files you want to include in your index. Acrobat Pro will then process these files and create a .pdx index file, along with supporting .idx files. Once built, you can use this index to perform very fast searches across all the indexed documents.

What is the difference between searching a PDF normally and searching with an index created by Catalog?

Feature Normal PDF Search Catalog Index Search. Speed Slower, searches each file individually. Much faster, searches a pre-built index file. Scope Body text, layers, form fields, signatures (within one or a few open PDFs). Body text, comments, bookmarks, tags, metadata, attachments (across many PDFs in a collection). Setup No special setup, just open PDF and search. Requires building a .pdx index file for the collection first.

Index Approved Versions in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

2 ways to ask · copy any one

AExecute — “help me do it”Combine inspected submittals and approved shop drawings into one PDF and upload it to the…+

Combine inspected submittals and approved shop drawings into one PDF and upload it to the project SharePoint folder so crews can find the approved versions fast on site.

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

BImprove — “do it better”Create one consolidated PDF with a linked table of contents, stamp each file Approved with…+

Create one consolidated PDF with a linked table of contents, stamp each file Approved with inspector name and date, and save the file to the project SharePoint Approved Drawings folder so site staff always pull the right revision.

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.

Who does this

3 roles

Records ManagerLegal AssistantLibrarian

FAQ

about this task

A PDF index is a special file that lists all the words and where they are found in a collection of PDFs. It matters because it makes searching across many documents much faster. Instead of Acrobat looking inside each PDF, it just looks in the index, which is like a shortcut to all the information. This saves a lot of time for large document sets.

Open Acrobat Pro on your computer.
Go to the 'Catalog' feature. This is usually found in a menu related to advanced processing or tools.
Select the folder or specific PDF files you want to include in your index.
Acrobat Pro will then process these files and create a .pdx index file, along with supporting .idx files.
Once built, you can use this index to perform very fast searches across all the indexed documents.

Yes, creating a PDF index will still help you search scanned PDF documents quickly, as long as the scanned PDFs have undergone Optical Character Recognition (OCR). OCR converts images of text into actual searchable text. If your scanned PDFs are not OCR'd, the index will not be able to 'read' the text, and therefore, searching will not be effective. Ensure your scanned documents are searchable before indexing.

Feature	Normal PDF Search	Catalog Index Search
Speed	Slower, searches each file individually.	Much faster, searches a pre-built index file.
Scope	Body text, layers, form fields, signatures (within one or a few open PDFs).	Body text, comments, bookmarks, tags, metadata, attachments (across many PDFs in a collection).
Setup	No special setup, just open PDF and search.	Requires building a .pdx index file for the collection first.

You should use Catalog to index your PDF collection because it dramatically speeds up searching across many documents. The regular search function checks each file one by one, which is very slow for large collections. Catalog builds a single, fast index that covers not only the body text but also comments, bookmarks, tags, metadata, and attachments. This means more comprehensive and much faster results for your entire document set.

Index Approved Versions

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help