Find doesn't work in v2.3b3309

[BrianG]

I just installed (using .zip download) v2.3b3309 and found that the find text function does not work. The find text function works fine with v2.2b2129 which I still have installed in it's own folder. Is this a known problem with v2.3?

[Erik_Bryant]

Can you please specify what you mean by does not work? Do you get an error message?

[BrianG]

The find function reports not finding words that exist. In working with it further I have found that it works on some documents but not on others. I haven't yet been able to identify a specific difference between the ones it works on vs. the ones it doesn't (ie: scanned documents vs. Adobe created documents vs. non-Adobe created documents, etc.).

[Erik_Bryant]

You can send us files that you have problems searching and we can take a look: support@foxitsoftware.com It could be because they are scanned.

[Boz]

The Find function will NEVER work on a scanned document. A scanned document is an image, and therefore, there is no text to search. Are you trying to search a SCANNED document (image)? Foxit Reader's Find function seems to work very well for me on 4 computers at the moment.

[Erik_Bryant]

Actually scanned documents can be searched if they are scanned using OCR. Not all scanned documents are images.

[BrianG]

I believe the files on which the find was not working were probably created with a pdf creating printer driver like PDF995. I assume these types of pdf files are similar to scans which makes it understandable why Foxit's find function wouldn't work.

[Boz]

I believe the files on which the find was not working were probably created with a pdf creating printer driver like PDF995. I assume these types of pdf files are similar to scans which makes it understandable why Foxit's find function wouldn't work. I use both PDFill and PDFCreator and .pdf documents created with those CAN be searched with Foxit Reader. It has been a long time since I used PDF995, so I don't know if for some reason it doesn't work like PDFill and PDFCreator do.

Maybe you could try creating a document in Excel, then printing it to PDF995, and then see if you can use Foxit Reader's search. If not, I would suggest trying the PDFill and/or PDFCreator .pdf printer drivers.

[Boz]

Actually scanned documents can be searched if they are scanned using OCR. Not all scanned documents are images.I'm sorry. I didn't know that there were scanners that can scan, OCR, and save to .pdf all in one step. What is an example of a scanner that can do this?

[christina]

The precondition is you must install OCR software. After install it , you can scan your document with your scanner, recognize it with OCR software, and then automatically send it to Foxit Reader. Readiris Pro is one of the examples.

[Boz]

The precondition is you must install OCR software. After install it , you can scan your document with your scanner, recognize it with OCR software, and then automatically send it to Foxit Reader. Readiris Pro is one of the examples.Thanks, christina. That is what I suspected. The scanned .pdf file would need to be manipulated before it could be searched for text. Based on what you said, a scanned document opened (immediately) in Foxit Reader would not be able to be searched for text. Which is what I said initially.

[Erik_Bryant]

Thanks, christina. That is what I suspected. The scanned .pdf file would need to be manipulated before it could be searched for text. Based on what you said, a scanned document opened (immediately) in Foxit Reader would not be able to be searched for text. Which is what I said initially.

I think it is dependent on the software and not the scanner. I'm not an expert, but I use SmartThru and it will scan a document into PDF and OCR it at the same time. Most scanning software has the ability to use OCR on the scanned PDF.