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Main question

Im trying to find historic dates(1974,1963 etc) in a pdf file which are located randomly in the pdf file,using Adobe Acrobat DC or Foxit pdf veiwer

Attempts to solve

currently adobe website states that it doesnt support wildcard search, and also i tried using

19**

it didnt match to anything and when i tried searching just

19

well it gave results that are non date numbers along with the required results (almost 500 results popped up)

tried searching it on SE, and got these results, none of them are helpful as answers contain to find pdf file rather than search inside it

Howto search in PDFs using regular expressions?

Is there any pdf reader that supports word searching with regular expression?

Note:Im not trying to search a pdf file , but instead search inside pdf file.

Ideas

  • Maybe convert it to word doc and then use the search feature?,but then the file is very huge, it would be difficult for my pc to open a 400 mb Docx file.
Chemist
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  • Related https://superuser.com/questions/416244/is-there-any-pdf-reader-that-supports-word-searching-with-regular-expression – Reddy Lutonadio Aug 25 '20 at 18:54
  • @ReddyLutonadio thanks for your intrest, the in question mentioned by you contains answers about how to find a pdf file rather than searching a word in it, and i agree with you that question is related to mine but its not answered there and morevoer its closed so i decided to ask a new one, about using the known software to achieve the goal. – Chemist Aug 25 '20 at 18:58
  • The related link is itself related to this [one](https://superuser.com/questions/110357/is-there-software-to-allow-me-to-search-a-pdf-file-with-regex) that's why it is/was closed. I linked to that question as Acrobat and Foxit reader might not allow yet the use of wildcards for searches, other software might be helpful to you. – Reddy Lutonadio Aug 25 '20 at 19:03
  • Define what is the difference with what you are looking for and the other questions, as according to me, they are giving suggestions on software that can accomplish what you want. – Reddy Lutonadio Aug 26 '20 at 16:43
  • the suggestion given in those questions, are to find pdf file,whereas im trying to search inside pdf – Chemist Aug 26 '20 at 16:46
  • That's where our understanding of those questions differ. The intro of1st linked question "Usually I use Notepad++ to search in file(s) using regular expressions", of the 2nd: "I sometimes would like to search some particular words in a PDF file". These people were looking for apps that would have allowed them to search words **in** a pdf file. – Reddy Lutonadio Aug 26 '20 at 16:52
  • yeah people were looking for searching words in pdf , but answers to those questions contains searching pdf file – Chemist Aug 27 '20 at 15:25
  • @Chemist this answer https://superuser.com/a/509304/673426 in the second link. It does have some PDF readers that support better search terms. (though half of them are command-line tools) – Cpt.Whale Oct 14 '22 at 17:44

1 Answers1

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Get yourself world's best PDF Reader: PDF-Xchange Editor.

Open Advanced search (SHIFT+CTRL+F), click on "Advanced Criteria" then put

" 196" " 197"

in the search box at "any of these words".

This way you should find most year dates in the 60s and 70s.

When you want to make sure to find all occurrences, put all years in that search box, separated by a space, and using the "Whole Words" option:

1960 1961 1962 1963 ...

When you're happy with the search results, use "Annotate Search Results" to highlight the results permanently: Annotate Search Results

David.P
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