How to use Advanced Search option in Reader 9 on a package created in Acrobat 8?

Reader 9 supports PDFs created in AA8, which also contain an embedded index created in AA8

an embedded index is applied to and works with one PDF document, not with multiple PDFs.
check each PDF to see that each has a valid embedded index.
the 'drop down' menu on the FIND tool does not give access to 'advanced search options'
ctrl+shift+f launchs the SEARCH panel where 'advanced search options' selection is found at foot of the search panel
do you see the SEARCH panel?
if not, do you see a toolbar button labeled 'search'?
if so, click the toolbar button (you may also need to click 'arrange windows' on the search panel)

fn1: if you need to search multiple pdfs simultaneously, you need to create a catalog index for all the target pdfs
fn2: if you need 'proximity' and 'stemming' searches (on one or more PDFs), you need to create a catalog index

I'm not sure what AA8 is, but I'll look that up. I do see all the tools to do advanced search in Reader 9 until I open the package with the embedded index created in Adobe 8. Then all of a sudden the advanced search tools become inaccessible. I can search the package just fine in Reader 8 using advanced search.

I read in Acrobat 8 where I could combine many pdf files into a "package." Then the help at adobe.com said to speed up searching the "package", I should embed an index in the package by going to the cover sheet in the package, selecting "Advanced/Document Processing/Manage Embedded Index." Searching seemed to work in Acrobat 8 -- it appeared to be searching many files in the package extremely quickly (at least the search hits popped up quickly, but it was still extremely slow pulling up the individual pdf files which had the hits.)

Do you mean I have to create a separate embedded index for every single pdf in the entire package in order to be able to use advanced search in Reader 9? I have several thousand pdfs in these packages.

I do see where I can create a catalog index for all these documents, but when I tried that method, it appeared to pull the individual pdf files out of the pile of all pdf docs in my folders out of context so I couldn't move back and forth in my set of bates numbered documents seeing documents which might be attached to or the parent of the document with the search term. That's why I decided to package all the docs bates numbers so I can not only search, but I can move back and forth to see the docs before and after the doc which have the search term. That probably doesn't make sense. All my files are named by bates numbers -- "01-000001-000010.pdf", "01-000011-000020", etc -- so I can see all the docs in order. The first doc might be a letter and the second document might be the attachment to the letter. I want to be able to page through to the next doc to see what's attached (and it might not have had the search term I was looking for.)

Do embedded indexes on "packages" of pdf files not actually work? Do I now need to go to every pdf file in the package and create a separate embedded index for every doc? Maybe I should keep playing with the catalog index feature to see if I can actually figure out how to see the docs before and after the hit. I'm new to this as you can probably tell.

Maybe I can package all the docs and just run a catalog index of the package? That way i can see my entire set of bates numbered files in order, and page back and forth through the docs to see what's attached to the docs around my search hits? Would I need to remove the embedded index on the package first? Will that embedded index confuse the catalog index?

Well, it seems to work. I created a catalog index of many packages of combined pdf files, and I was able to do advanced searches using only Reader 9 as well as step back and forth to the pdf files sorted in bates number order within the package to see what's around the file which was a hit. That way I can show the letter which has the hit along with all it's attachments if I keep my files sorted by filename (bates numbers.) I have Acrobat 9 at home though, and that's how I created the catalog so it wasn't really a good test. I'll try it at work on Monday using the Acrobat 8 version we have there.

Is there a way to speed up the viewing of the actual pdf files when I click on the search hits within a package of many documents? The catalog search is very quick. Sometimes clicking the little plus sign takes forever to show the context of the hits, but it's the viewing of the actual pdf files that is mindnumbingly slow (sometimes I get a "not responding" message and the "Search" screen temporarily goes completely white.) The packages with the scanned and ocr'd docs is the slowest -- I keep breaking them down into smaller and smaller packages to try to make it faster. Any other suggestions?

many questions beg many answers. you seem close to something workable. steep learning curve, for sure.

tips: put all your documents (all searchable PDFs) in one or more folders. create a catalog on the folders. structure the catalog so that the PDX and related folders/files are housed in a distinct folder (any name). Create a shortcut to the PDX (named like, CLICK HERE TO SEARCH ALL FILES) and put the shortcut with the documents. The shortcut launches the PDX (the search panel). [plz explain what YOU mean by "packages.") to step thru search results use F3. AA9 and AA8 will work in the same way; no difference when you use a folder structure, like that described above.

regarding "speed up viewing" my top question is: what is the KB weight of the average page of a scanned and OCR'd document?

if you want an example of the functionality that you are striving to achieve, i will send you a link where you may download an appellate court package encompassing all briefs and supporting appendices and authorities and trial transcript, which incorporates three search catalogs, one each for briefs, appendices and authorities, respectively. The trial transcript stands alone with an embedded index. i will not put the link on the forum.

Thanks for all your help -- you can probably tell I'm a bit frantic or I wouldn't be asking for help at midnight on a Saturday.

In Acrobat 8, when I select "Combine Files", it gives me two options: (1) "Merge files into a single pdf" or (2) "Assemble files into PDF Package." Maybe it was Acrobat 8's attempt at creating what's now called a portfolio? It looks sort of like a portfolio -- I can see all the filenames of all docs produced on the left of the screen, and I can select "Option" on the far right and "Sort by filename." Since my filename is my bates number, I can see all my docs in order -- and I can see what documents are attached to what because they were bate stamped in order. So when I search for "Bob Smith", I can click a file that mentions "Bob Smith" and I can also page back and forth to see what's attached to that document. I can see the e-mail to Bob Smith as well as the attachment to that e-mail which is a separate pdf file which doesn't mention his name so it didn't pull up in the search.

Adobe.com said once I created this "package" of multiple pdf files, that I could speed up the very slow searching by going to the cover page of the package and creating an embedded index within the package. Everything seemed to work perfectly (but viewing the pdf files was slow) until the attorney tried to search it using Reader 9.

It sounds like I need to totally abandon the "package" idea, and do the catalog index as you suggested. I haven't been able to figure out how searching a catalog index will also let me page back and forth through the other pdf files in bates order, but I'll work on that today. It would be great to see your appellate court package so I can see how it works.

So you don't think I'm a total goof -- I'd never used Acrobat until a few weeks ago when I was hired to help prepare for depositions & trial. They handed me about 20 DVDs of documents that had been produced over the past year or so -- about 35,000 pages total (but I'm still finding lots of paper docs which were produced which I'm having to scan and OCR.)My task was to "search all the DVDs for all docs mentioning each of about 40 witness names and print out sets of docs for each deponent so they could prepare witnesses for depositions next week." I was told it shouldn't take more than about an hour to search for and print sets for each deponent from these 20 DVD's and paper documents (which I'm still finding stuck in pleadings binders.) They have no litigation support software, but I was pleasantly surprised to find Acrobat 8 Pro installed on my PC.

About 15,000 pages were scanned by the client (they say their scanner OCR'd them.) Acrobat keeps giving me an error message when I try to optimize them -- some are huge files. She says she thinks the scanner encripts the files in some way so they can't be tampered with. For example, there is a 680 page color manual which was scanned as 4 separate files -- each is about 100 megabytes. I'm not sure how to figure out the "KB average weight of the average page of a scanned and OCR'd document", but they are defintely not small files. I'd love suggestions on making them smaller. As I said, I tried to optimize them and kept getting an error message. Many are in color because they all seemed to like to highlight their docs in yellow, and used lots of red text to show draft changes. So the scanned documents are definitely not small files.

I've also found about 500 files so far which appear to have been redacted by the other side and the UNredacted text is not searchable. I get that "unrenderable text" error when I try to OCR them, but am able to save as individual tifs, combine to pdf, then OCR. The trick is finding all docs which aren't OCR'd yet. I also have found several hundred files which aren't yet OCR'd and they're not redacted. I try to OCR and I also get the "unrenderable text" error (I guess because of the bates number on each page.) Is there an easier way to get these docs OCR'd without having to individually find them, save as tifs, combine as PDF, then OCR?

The other 20,000 pages are very small pdf files directly output from Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. Those are easy to search and a piece of cake. It's the scanned OCR'd large docs, redacted docs, and scanned/not OCR'd yet docs that are the problem.

The other paralegal told me she stopped trying to use Acrobat for searching because it took hours to find one search term. Since that appeared to be my only option, I did some researching about "indexing" and decided to try to speed up searching -- either that or get busy manually paging through all 35,000 pages looking for 40 witness names.

Many of the docs were scanned as piles of individual docs -- all docs responsive to a specific request for production were dumped into the hopper and scanned as one pdf -- so I might have a 200 page pdf file that consists of e-mails, handwritten notes, manuals highlighted in yellow, etc. -- every document obtained from Smith which were responsive to request #1. I was thinking about trying to either bookmark all these piles of documents -- or trying to split up the large files of multiple docs into smaller individual files which would probably speed up searching a lot.

I've also been trying to add something searchable to all the hundreds and hundreds of pages of handwritten notes scattered throughout these docs -- I've been playing with using bookmarks and comments so I'll be able to find "2010-03-01 Bob Smith's handwritten meeting notes."

To be honest, my gut keeps telling me to guit -- but it was hard enough finding a job in this market. So I guess my best option is to quickly learn how to use Acrobat to search these 35,000 pages or get busy coding the docs using Excel or Access. To further complicate matters, they told me that the trial laptop which they've ordered can only have Acrobat 10 installed on it, but we can't upgrade my PC from Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 10.

If you haven't given up on me, I'd love the link to see the appellate court package as well as any other ideas to try to speed up searching. I'll start playing w/ catalog indexing today to see how that works. Maybe I'll also look again at optimizing the scanned docs ... I just kept getting so many error messages trying to optimize and OCR these docs that I got a little overwhelmed & frustrated.Thanks again for all your help.

Susan

Hi Susan,

I'm developing a web-tool to search and highlight PDF files that might be exactly what you're looking for (I had the legal community in mind while developing it).
If you wish to try it out and give me some feedback, please contact me at try6767 [at] gmail [dot] com