1. Within a document or across multiple documents, can I search for a term within a specified number of words or characters of another term within a document?
2. Can I construct a Boolean search such as FIND BOZO WITHIN 5 WORDS OF (GUMMINT OR CONGRESS)?
You can do both proximity and Boolean searches across multiple documents, but they won't work on a single document.
For proximity searches, choose Edit > Preferences > Search, and type a value in the Range of Words for Proximity Searches field. The default value is 900 words.Here's what you need to design a Boolean Query:
1. To display the window, press Shift+Ctrl+F to open the Search window. Click Use Advanced Search Features at the bottom of the dialog box to open the advanced settings.
2. Click Look In and choose a location. To run advanced searches, you can only select multiple PDF files or a PDF index.
3. Type your operators with the search words in the Search field. You can use common operators such as AND NOT OR ^ [exclusive or] and () to specify the order of term application. If you intend to search indexes, you can't use wildcard searches.
4. Click the Return Results Containing dropdown arrow and choose Match All of the Words in order to invoke proximity searching.
5. Click Search.
If you want to do a Boolean search without proximity searching, you can choose Boolean query from the Return Results Containing dropdown list, and then click Search.
If you want to search in one document, simply pick another one as well so you have a multiple to activate the advanced search features.
donna.
A prolific author and writer of many Acrobat books, as well as books on graphic and Web design software.
Donna lives on a lakeshore in central Canada, where all manner of wildlife from muskrats to coyotes come to call.