Searching of text within multiple files

[Baletin]

Dear friends,
I am frequently searching information within three or two or ... ten PDFs and I would be greatly appreciate if you could help me to find an app or a way to perform this type of search more efficiently: in an ideal way I want to a keyword within a search window and the app will find this keyword within defined PDFs (or files).

Thanks a lot in advance for suggestions.

 

[artnoi]

The built-in Preview.app has Search functionality. Press command+F to bring up the search window, and put your search phrase in double quotes (“”) to tell the App that you want it to return only exact matches.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/155409/how-to-search-a-phrase-in-preview-of-os-x

 

[Baletin]

The built-in Preview.app has Search functionality. Press command+F to bring up the search window, and put your search phrase in double quotes (“”) to tell the App that you want it to return only exact matches.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/155409/how-to-search-a-phrase-in-preview-of-os-x

Unfortunately preview does not work in some PDFs which are searchable even within Adobe Reader. In addition, I do not want to open all endless PDFs for search...

 

[artnoi]

You did mention Adobe Reader, how about this https://www.online-tech-tips.com/co...h-for-text-inside-multiple-pdf-files-at-once/

 

[Baletin]

You did mention Adobe Reader, how about this https://www.online-tech-tips.com/co...h-for-text-inside-multiple-pdf-files-at-once/

i've got more than 4000 pdfs, thus it is impossible to know which one I should open for search... I need a way to scan an SSD drive

 

[artnoi]

i've got more than 4000 pdfs, thus it is impossible to know which one I should open for search... I need a way to scan an SSD drive

If so, the only thing I can think of (I’m not a power user) is command-line tool pdfgrep. You can install it via homebrew (brew install pdfgrep). Use it like you would use GNU grep in your terminal.

You did mention that some of your PDFs are a bit complicated, so I think you’ll need some pdf2text/pdftotext utilities to convert some of them to text files first before using grep.

 

[Baletin]

If so, the only thing I can think of (I’m not a power user) is command-line tool pdfgrep. You can install it via homebrew (brew install pdfgrep). Use it like you would use GNU grep in your terminal.

You did mention that some of your PDFs are a bit complicated, so I think you’ll need some pdf2text/pdftotext utilities to convert some of them to text files first before using grep.

thanks, I found some solution = "PDF SEARCH" app - very good for my needs.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd try Devonthink "personal edition"...

 

[Baletin]

I'd try Devonthink "personal edition"...

i am not able to apply labels for 6000 pdfs. "PDF search" app is incredibly useful