How do I make a Catalog index in Acrobat Pro for my PDF files?

Open Acrobat Pro and go to the 'Catalog' feature, often in the 'Tools' menu. Select the folders containing the PDFs you want to include in the index. Acrobat Pro will then create a .pdx index file, which speeds up future searches across these documents.

What is the difference between a normal PDF search and a search using a Catalog index?

Feature Normal PDF Search Search with Catalog Index. Speed Searches one PDF at a time, can be slow for many files. Very fast across many PDFs because it uses a pre-built index. Coverage Mainly body text, layers, form fields, and signatures. Covers body text, comments, bookmarks, tags, metadata, and attachments. Setup No special setup needed, just open and search. Requires building the Catalog index first (one-time process).

Searchable Secure Discovery Archive in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

1 way to ask · copy any one

DBecome — “help me grow”We’ve had three engagements where legal later needed reports and we scrambled to produce a…+

We’ve had three engagements where legal later needed reports and we scrambled to produce a clean, bates‑numbered archive. Describe the recurring mistakes that made discovery painful, recommend a single archive pattern (naming, locking, bates sequence) to implement going forward, and one small check I should do after each close to ensure discoverability.

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
Ensure all PDFs to be distributed are finalized and located in a single folder.
Best practiceOrganizing your PDFs in a single folder before indexing helps maintain index integrity and simplifies distribution.
2
Open Adobe Acrobat and use the Advanced Search or Catalog feature to create a full-text index (PDX file) for the folder containing your PDFs.
NoteThe index (PDX) file must be created using Acrobat Pro, not the free Reader.
3
Verify that the index (PDX file) and all referenced PDFs are present in the same folder or relative subfolders.
CautionMoving files after indexing can break index links; always distribute the folder structure as indexed.
4
Compress the entire folder (including the PDX file and all PDFs) into a ZIP or other archive format.
Best practiceUsing a ZIP file preserves folder structure and ensures all users receive the complete indexed collection.
5
Share the archive with end users via your chosen distribution method (e.g., network share, email, cloud storage).
6
Instruct end users to extract the archive, open any PDF in Acrobat, and use Advanced Search to select and search the distributed index.
NoteEnd users must use Acrobat or Reader with indexing support to search the distributed index efficiently.

In the appWith the API

After extracting the archive, users can select the index file in the Advanced Search dialog to quickly search across all distributed PDFs.

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.

PDFA common file type used to share documents that look the same everywhere.ExampleShe saved the brochure as a PDF so everyone would see the exact same layout and fonts.

The real tasks

the one, listed here

Creating a searchable, secure archive for discovery

FAQ

about this task

Open Acrobat Pro and go to the 'Catalog' feature, often in the 'Tools' menu.
Select the folders containing the PDFs you want to include in the index.
Acrobat Pro will then create a .pdx index file, which speeds up future searches across these documents.

A PDF index is a special file that lists all the words and where they appear in a group of PDFs. It matters because it allows you to search across many documents almost instantly, instead of waiting for each file to be searched one by one. This saves a lot of time for large collections.

Yes, a Catalog index is very thorough. It will find words not only in the main text of your PDFs but also within comments, bookmarks, tags, metadata, and any attached files. This means you get a complete search result across all parts of your documents.

You should use Catalog because it dramatically speeds up searching across a large collection of PDFs. Searching each file individually is very slow and inefficient. Catalog creates one central index that allows for instant results, covering more than just body text, like comments and attachments, which individual searches might miss.

Feature	Normal PDF Search	Search with Catalog Index
Speed	Searches one PDF at a time, can be slow for many files.	Very fast across many PDFs because it uses a pre-built index.
Coverage	Mainly body text, layers, form fields, and signatures.	Covers body text, comments, bookmarks, tags, metadata, and attachments.
Setup	No special setup needed, just open and search.	Requires building the Catalog index first (one-time process).

Searchable Secure Discovery Archive

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help