PDF stands for Portable document format, which is used to carry important document files and which can also be password protected. There are many ways to create a PDF file, it’s easy to send the PDF file via email instead of locally. However, there are some PDF files that have a massive number of pages, I have seen people carry their college notes and even a novel in the form of PDF. In that case, it is totally uneasy to find some items or text which is not automatically searchable.

This makes PDF users frustrate because the PDF file is not searchable to get that important highlight point. But don’t you worry as we got you all covered up. In this article we will show you how you can make a PDF searchable, just follow the simple steps mentioned further in the article.

Steps to Make PDF Searchable using Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat will make your PDF searchable at your fingertips. Here’s to do that:

Step 1: Download and install Adobe Acrobat if you aren’t already.

Step 2: Open Adobe Acrobat, on the upper menu bar, click on File.

Step 3: Under File, select Open and select the PDF file that you want to make it searchable.

Step 4: Now, select Tools located on the menu below the tab menu.

Step 5: Click on Recognize Text, and select PDF Output Style Searchable Image, and press OK.

Step 5: Press the Save button to save the document after the process is completed.

This method will convert your original non-searchable PDF into searchable. You can save the {DF by different names.

Things to know about:

• OCR tool will render the PDF and make it searchable, if this tool says “OCR could not performed because the page contains renderable text“, assume thar the PDF is already searchable and the process won’t work further.
• Adobe Acrobat Professional, version 7.0 is the requirement for OCR conversion.

Steps to Make PDF Searchable using PDFelement

PDFelemet is another tool that will make your PDF searchable.

Step 1: Download and install PDFelement on your system.

Step 2: Open PDFelement, go to the bottom left of the window and click on Open PDF.

Step 3: Select the PDF file that you want to make searchable.

Step 4: When the PDF file is imported in PDFelement, it needs OCR Component. For that, click on Perform OCR link located at the notification icon at the top of the page. A prompt will appear asking you to download the OCR Component, press Download.

Step 5: Once done, open the Convert tab and click on OCR from the drop-down, and click on Perform OCR to get yourself in the OCR window.

Step 6: In the OCR PDF window, select Searchable Text image > Appy > OK.

This will run the OCR process, once it gets complete your PDF file will become a searchable PDF file. When, it encounters a message saying that “OCR could not be performed because the page contains the renderable text”, assume that the PDF is already searchable and the process won’t work further.

That’s it for now, hope this helps! Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Till then stay tuned for more info.