Searching multiple PDF files

[cowboy]

Hello,
I don't have/use Acrobat, but I have lots of pdf files that I have collected.
Many of them are books, History etc, that I would like to search.
Rather than searching individualy, I'm wondering if there is a Search tool (shareware or something) that will search all of the files at once ?

I'm sure there is; so my questions are these;
1) what is a good one, (good = simple yet robust, easy to set up maintain....)
2) are there any that will do text and text as image, OCR
3) needs to work across many vintages of pdf files

I'm on Vista, and use Reader v10

 

[RubeSmench]

I believe Adobe Reader has an Advanced Search function (Ctrl+Shift+F) which allows you to indicate the directory you would like to search within. If this option is not available in Reader X, Foxit Reader does include this option, as does PDF-XChange Viewer, both free. For searching text within an image, I believe Adobe Acrobat Pro has a feature to convert regular PDF's into a 'searchable image' format, I would suggest seeing if Reader has this ability first off. There are some online free alternatives that will do the OCR work on PDFs. I have not tested any of these services, just rounded up a few links from the web.

• - CvisionTech
• - Convert Scanned PDF Documents to Text with Google OCR (Google trick)
• - Google Adds OCR for PDF Files and Images (Google Docs)

 

[cowboy]

Thanks,
as I mentioned I don't have acrobat, as it cost $, I only have Reader (free) since so many docs online are in PDF format, I've collected a bunch of them.

As far as Google goes, I'd just as soon stay away from that process.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Acrobat costs money. Adobe Reader does not, for the basic version.

 

[KSoD]

Thanks,
as I mentioned I don't have acrobat, as it cost $, I only have Reader (free) since so many docs online are in PDF format, I've collected a bunch of them.

As far as Google goes, I'd just as soon stay away from that process.

The response given is in direct correlation to your program in use. Adobe Reader X is Reader 10. That same thing that you said you have. It is not Acrobat, nor it is a pay per use software. So the suggestions given can work, I suggest you try them before you say that you dont have Acrobat and you dont want to try anything else.

 

[cowboy]

I tested the "cvision" took a while to upload a 1/2 page .jpg and more time to convert...
As for the Google methods, I'd rather have a local tool, software on my PC, than go the up/download route.

As for Reader 10, yes I have it, and it works for many/most things, I do have some older text docs that are part of a library, that it seems to have trouble with.
And R. 10 doesn't search Image/text files, at least I haven't had any luck trying it.
Tried searching within an open file and it wouldn't find a word....