How to search text in a PDF
Hunting for one clause in a fifty-page contract is miserable. Search jumps you straight to every occurrence.
Step by step
- Open the PDFDrop your document into the editor.
- Press Cmd+F or Ctrl+FThe find bar opens at the top right.
- Type what you are looking forEvery match is highlighted across all pages, with a running count.
- Jump between matchesPress Enter for the next match, Shift+Enter for the previous, Escape to close.
Your file stays on your device. PDFree runs entirely in your
browser - the PDF is never uploaded to a server, so private documents stay private.
Common questions
Is the search case sensitive?
No. Searching for 'invoice' also finds 'Invoice' and 'INVOICE'.
Does it search every page?
Yes, the whole document at once.
Why does my scanned PDF find nothing?
A scan is an image of text, so there is no text to search. It needs OCR first.
Related guides
- How to edit a PDF for free
- How to redact a PDF properly
- How to sign a PDF online
- How to fill out a PDF form
- How to compress a PDF
- How to edit existing text in a PDF
- How to add text to a PDF
- How to delete pages from a PDF
- How to rotate a PDF
- How to reorder pages in a PDF
- How to highlight text in a PDF
- How to add an image to a PDF
- How to flatten a PDF
- How to add a link to a PDF