How to search PDF for words on Mac?

Whether you are trying to find a specific word mentioned in any PDF document or you want to skim through the entire document and find all occurrences of a phrase, you need to look for the right approach.

macOS comes with a few built-in PDF search options, but they are limited to basic text searches To conduct advanced searches on a macOS machine, you need to use a separate program. If you have a large PDF file, searching it for a specific word can be a time-consuming process. Fortunately, using a Mac application can make the search faster and more accurate.

Try using the free programs below to find a specific word within a PDF.

How to search PDF to find text?

If you want to search for a keyword inside your pdf file, you can make use of the Text Selection tool. This allows you to highlight the text on your screen, then press Cmd+C to copy it to the clipboard. Go to the menu bar and click Edit > Find.

In the search field, paste the copied text. Now press Go to locate the matching text inside your PDF document. You can also search your PDF file by typing search keywords in the search box. If you want to search within a single PDF file for a specific word or phrase, you need to use the Find Text feature in the app.

To quickly locate the specific text in a document, press Cmd+F and type in the search term. The search results will appear once you hit enter. You can narrow down your search results by changing the search settings.

How to search PDF on Mac?

The Adobe Reader program offers a good search tool for finding text inside a PDF file. In the menu, select ‘Find’, then ‘Search the Document’. You’ll find a large search box in the upper left corner of the program window, where you can type in a word or phrase you are looking for.

To refine your search results, use the drop-down menu underneath the search box to choose which search options you want to use. You can search for the content of a PDF file on Mac by using the search box, which opens when you press Cmd+F or press Ctrl+F. You can also use the search box to search for specific text by typing it in the box.

This will show you the results that contain the text. The results will be shown as thumbnails. To view the text on the page, right click on the result and click the “Show in Finder” option.

How to find text in PDF on Mac?

In macOS, you can use the Preview app to open any PDF file and search it for text. The Preview app provides basic search features and it does not allow you to search through all the pages of the PDF or search the text inside images. You can also use the Firefox or Chrome web browsers to view and search the text in any PDF file.

However, these applications do not allow you to search through the entire document. The best software solution for searching PDF on Mac is the free trial version of If you are looking for some text inside a PDF document, then you don’t need to download anything.

Using a free tool called Preview, you can search your PDF for any text and highlight it. You can also copy the text from the highlight option. If you want to save the copied text or copy the entire file as a new file on your device, you can do this as well.

How to search PDF and find text on Mac?

One of the ways to search PDF is to use the default macOS search. Searching works on macOS for most of the file types, but not on open PDFs. However, you can use the Preview app to search within a PDF. You can also install the free PDF Search extension. It adds a search box to the PDF toolbar and allows you to search the file for specific text.

Are you looking for a way to find a word or phrase in a PDF file on Mac? If so, then there is an easy way to find all occurrences of that term in your PDF file. The built-in macOS finder has an option to search for text inside a PDF file.

If you go to the Finder menu and click Go to Folder, you will be able to see all the locations where that particular file is stored.

Now select the folder where you have stored your current PDF file