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PDF Search

PDF Search is a software program that allows users to easily search for text inside PDF documents. It scans PDFs and indexes the text, making it fully searchable. Useful for finding information quickly across a large number of PDFs.

What is PDF Search?

PDF Search is a desktop software application designed specifically for searching text within PDF documents. It provides an easy way to index and search through even a large collection of PDFs to quickly find what you need.

The software works by scanning all your PDF files, extracting the textual content using optical character recognition (OCR), and indexing the text for fast searching. It builds a searchable database from your PDF collection. You can then search for words or phrases across some or all PDF documents to instantly see matching pages.

Key features of PDF Search include:

  • Indexes all text from PDF files for quick full-text searching
  • Supports wild card searches and boolean operators for advanced queries
  • Displays a list of matching PDFs with highlighted search hits
  • Lets you search many PDFs at once or limit search to select documents
  • Adds new PDFs seamlessly to update the search index
  • Save frequently used searches for one-click reuse
  • Works with PDFs created in any application

If you regularly need to search information contained in PDF files, PDF Search can save you substantial time compared to manually skimming through documents. It's designed to search text in PDFs as fast as finding text on webpages. The software works on Windows and Mac computers.

The Best PDF Search Alternatives

Top Apps like PDF Search

EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, Qiqqa, JabRef, Paperpile, ReadCube Papers, Mayan EDMS, wizdom.ai, EasyBib, Peerlibrary, BibSonomy, PubChase, Ambar, KBibTeX, bibus, Utopia Documents are some alternatives to PDF Search.

EndNote

EndNote is reference management software produced by Clarivate Analytics. It allows users to:Search hundreds of online resources to collect references and PDFsOrganize references, images, PDFs and other filesRead and annotate PDFsCreate rules to automatically organize references as you workSync your references and files to your EndNote online libraryAccess your...

Zotero

Zotero is a free, open-source reference management software that helps you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It was created by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.Some of the key features of Zotero include:Capturing references from web pages with one clickOrganizing...

Mendeley

Mendeley is a popular free reference management software used by millions of researchers worldwide. It helps you build your own searchable library, organize and annotate your PDFs, generate citations and bibliographies, collaborate and network with other researchers online, and discover the latest research.Some key features of Mendeley:Cloud sync...

Qiqqa

Qiqqa is a free, cross-platform reference management software designed to help researchers and academics organize, manage, and cite their references. Developed by Cambridge-based company Digital Science, Qiqqa aims to provide an alternative to paid reference managers like EndNote or Mendeley.Some key features of Qiqqa include:Web browser integration to...

JabRef

JabRef is a free, open-source reference management software that helps researchers organize, manage, and cite bibliographic references like research papers, articles, books, etc. Developed in Java, it works on all major operating systems like Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.Key features of JabRef include:Intuitive graphical user interface for...

Paperpile

Paperpile is a cloud-based reference and citation management software designed for researchers and academics. It allows users to organize, search, read, annotate and cite research papers in a personalized digital library.Key features of Paperpile include:Integration with Google Docs for easy citing and formatting bibliographies as you writeOne-click imports...

ReadCube Papers

ReadCube Papers is a free reference manager and enhanced PDF reader designed specifically for researchers, clinicians, and scientists who need to access, read, manage and annotate peer reviewed literature. It combines an easy-to-use interface with powerful tools to help you organize, read, highlight, and annotate PDF articles across multiple devices...

Mayan EDMS

Mayan EDMS is an open source document management system written in Python and based on the Django framework. It is designed to be robust, fast, and scalable while also focusing on automatic categorization and indexing of documents.Some key features of Mayan EDMS include:Flexible metadata and tagging - Documents...

Wizdom.ai

wizdom.ai is an AI-driven platform that combines knowledge management and collaboration capabilities to unlock the collective intelligence across teams and organizations.At its core, wizdom.ai allows employees to collaboratively build a living knowledge base - capturing knowledge and insights as they work, for the benefit of the whole...

EasyBib

EasyBib is a free online bibliography and citation tool designed to help students create properly formatted bibliographies and cite sources accurately when writing research papers. It is very user-friendly and easy to use, making it ideal for high school or college-level writing assignments.Users simply enter the details of their...

Peerlibrary

Peerlibrary is an open-source digital library platform designed to help organizations create custom digital repositories for managing digital assets. It offers robust media ingestion, storage, search, and access capabilities to power digital archives and information networks.Some key features of Peerlibrary include:Flexible metadata schema - Customize descriptive fields and...

BibSonomy

BibSonomy is a free social bookmarking and publication management system designed for academics and researchers. It allows users to store, organize, tag, and share bookmarks and publication references.Some key features of BibSonomy include:Storing bookmarks of web pages and managing publication referencesOrganizing content with tags and hierarchical foldersSharing bookmarks...

PubChase

PubChase is a free web-based recommendation engine that helps researchers discover relevant scientific publications. It was developed by researchers at Microsoft and launched in 2020.Here's how PubChase works: Users sign up with a Microsoft, Google, or Facebook account and import their publication history. PubChase analyzes a researcher's publications, journals they...

Ambar

Ambar is an open-source and self-hosted project management tool similar to Asana. It allows teams to plan, organize, track, and manage work in one visual, collaborative space.Some of the key features of Ambar include:Flexible boards to organize tasks and projectsCustom workflows to map team processesTasks with descriptions, assignees...

KBibTeX

KBibTeX is a cross-platform and open source reference management software designed specifically for BibTeX files. It provides an easy-to-use interface for editing and managing BibTeX bibliography databases without having to directly edit .bib files.Some of the key features of KBibTeX include:Graphical user interface to view, search, add, edit...

Bibus

Bibus is a free, open-source reference management software designed for researchers, scholars, and students. It allows users to manually enter or import references from online databases, organize them into customized groups and categories, and create formatted bibliographies. Key features of Bibus include:Support for standard reference types like books, articles...

Utopia Documents

Utopia Documents is a free and open-source word processor and text editor application. It offers basic yet powerful word processing capabilities for creating a variety of documents including letters, reports, articles, essays, and more.As an open-source application, Utopia Documents is completely free to download and use. It runs on...