Finding all PDF's and making them searchable?

[JoshFink]

Hello, I would like to see if anyone can help me out with how to do this. I would like to be able to find all my PDF files on my system and basically make them searchable. I can do this one at a time inside of Adobe Acrobat by opening a document and then Document -> OCR Text Recognition -> Recognize Text using OCR

The reason I need this is that I'm scanning in documents using my ScanSnap scanner and it scans them in basically as a picture into a PDF.

Is there any kind of way to automate this?

I guess what I really need is an Automator Action that will allow me to Convert to OCR from within Adobe Acrobat 8.

Thanks

Josh

 

[xUKHCx]

Do you have Tiger because Spotlight can natively search through .pdf documents and find them.

 

[JoshFink]

Do you have Tiger because Spotlight can natively search through .pdf documents and find them.

I do have Tiger but I guess I should have explained more (I'll update the main post after this). I'm scanning in documents with my ScanSnap and it scans them in as more of a picture then a document.

Josh

 

[MisterMe]

... I'm scanning in documents with my ScanSnap and it scans them in as more of a picture then a document.

Josh

You can't search a scanned image for content. You will have a run your scans through an OCR utility. You probably received one with your scanner. Then, you will be able to search the resulting text.

 

[JoshFink]

You can't search a scanned image for content. You will have a run your scans through an OCR utility. You probably received one with your scanner. Then, you will be able to search the resulting text.

That's what I'm trying to figure out. I have Adobe Acrobat 8. Within there I can open up a file and do : Document -> OCR Text Recognition -> Recognize Text using OCR

What I want to do is figure out how to automate this. I don't need to do it at the time of scan but I do want to do all PDF's at the same time so I don't have to do them one at a time.

Thanks

Josh

 

[live4ever]

You should be able to scan into Acrobat directly and OCR while doing the initial scanning.

File>Create PDF>From Scanner ...

Make sure to check the "Make Searchable (Run OCR)" box.

For the files that were already scanned in you could do a batch OCR on the folder that contains them.

 

[JoshFink]

You should be able to scan into Acrobat directly and OCR while doing the initial scanning.

File>Create PDF>From Scanner ...

Make sure to check the "Make Searchable (Run OCR)" box.

For the files that were already scanned in you could do a batch OCR on the folder that contains them.

Thanks... That's almost what I want to do. The only other thing I need is a way to pull in all PDF's to one folder or one view. I'm trying to use a Smart Folder but when I do the batch processing from Adobe it won't let me choose a smart folder as the target..

Josh

I guess what I really need is an Automator Action that will allow me to Convert to OCR from within Adobe Acrobat 8.

 

[JoshFink]

Ok.. I figured this out.. (not so much me but here is a summary).

I used live4ever's technique

here. The one thing I personally needed to do was create a Smart Folder and attach it to the Link Bar (I think that's what it's called) and then select that as my target.

It seemed to work.

Thanks for all the help

Josh

 

[John F]

Hello, I would like to see if anyone can help me out with how to do this. I would like to be able to find all my PDF files on my system and basically make them searchable. I can do this one at a time inside of Adobe Acrobat by opening a document and then Document -> OCR Text Recognition -> Recognize Text using OCR

The reason I need this is that I'm scanning in documents using my ScanSnap scanner and it scans them in basically as a picture into a PDF.

Is there any kind of way to automate this?

I guess what I really need is an Automator Action that will allow me to Convert to OCR from within Adobe Acrobat 8.

Thanks

Josh

The most recent versions of Scansnap come with OCR software included. You can OCR the first page only or all pages of a document (which takes longer). I do it all the time and it works very well.

 

[GGJstudios]

The most recent versions of Scansnap come with OCR software included. You can OCR the first page only or all pages of a document (which takes longer). I do it all the time and it works very well.

3-year old thread. I'm guessing the OP figured it out by now, since they haven't been on this site for over a year. Also, your solution doesn't help with the documents already in Acrobat, as the OP requested.