These forums are now Read Only. If you have an Acrobat question, ask questions and get help from one of our experts.

Enable Word Search for version 5 unsing Verson 8

Forum Index > PDF Creation > Enable Word Search for version 5 unsing Verson 8
2007-03-08 10:19:14
fastfix
Registered: Mar 8 2007
Posts: 4

I have a document that was recorded in Acrobat 5 PDF and I would like to convert the document to Acrobat 8 PDF file so I can search the document for key words.
 
I have tried several tings, here are two and the word search still failed to work:
 
Find the Advance button on the menu bar, click it and select PDF optimizer. In the Settings, select Customize. From the Make Compatible with, select Acrobat 8.0
 
Converted the file to a picture format and then re-imported it using Acrobat 8
 
Thanks

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8, Windows
Top
2007-03-08 11:12:24
#1
tedpadova
ExpertTeam
Registered: Dec 31 2005
Posts: 848
Something went awry with the PDF creation. Even those legacy PDFs that were created with the awful PDFWriter in version 5 are searchable using both Find and Acrobat Search in version 8.

You can change the PDF version by doing exactly what you have done using the PDF Optimizer, but you shouldn't have to convert the PDF format just to search the file.

Have you tried selecting text to be certain that actual text does exist in the document and it's not an image file? If so, then perhaps the PDF has been corrupted.

ted

The author of numerous books on Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator and the Adobe Creative Suite, and an international speaker on Adobe Acrobat, Ted Padova is a well-known PDF guru.

Top
2007-03-08 14:15:03
#2
fastfix
Registered: Mar 8 2007
Posts: 4
Hello Ted

Thanks for the quick reply. You may have a point about the whole PDA being a picture. I just tried the “Select Text and Images” tool and it will not select a single word. Even if that is so, is there a way to recopy the document into an Acrobat 8 format that word search will work on. You’re going to be laughing at me now but, I did find a way several days ago by printing 238 single sided pages and then rescanning them into an Acrobat 8 PDF document but that takes a lot of paper, ink and time. :) :) Not a real good solution and I have some more I would like to convert.

Thanks again
Top