Search and navigate a PDF
Find words across the document and move through pages, links, thumbnails, and outline entries from one reading workspace.
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Search and navigate a PDF
To search a PDF in PickPDF, open the search control, enter a word or phrase, and move through the highlighted results. Use thumbnails for visual navigation, the outline for document headings, and links for saved destinations. Image-only scans need OCR before text search can find their words.
Step by step
How to use this tool in PickPDF
Confirm that the PDF contains text
Try to select a word. Run OCR first when each page behaves like one image.
Search a useful term
Enter a distinctive name, phrase, reference number, or clause and move through the highlighted results.
Use document navigation
Switch between search results, thumbnails, outline entries, and links to review each occurrence in context.
Check spelling and OCR variants
Search alternate spellings, punctuation, and number formats when the first query misses an expected result.
Current capabilities
What the current PickPDF build supports
- Full-document text search
- Highlighted search results
- Previous and next result controls
- Page thumbnails
- PDF outline navigation
- Clickable internal and external links
Search depends on the PDF text layer
PDFium exposes the text stored on each page. PickPDF searches that layer and highlights matching words. A scan can display sharp letters while storing no text, so visual readability does not guarantee searchability.
Run OCR on scans, choose the document language, and check recognition of names and numbers. Search variants when a ligature, hyphen, line break, or OCR error separates the characters in the stored layer.
Thumbnails and outlines provide different navigation
Thumbnails help you recognize page layouts, charts, signatures, and separators. An outline stores named destinations such as chapters and sections. Some PDFs contain both, while scanned packets may contain neither outline entries nor reliable page labels.
Use the outline to reach a section, then search within the document for the exact clause or identifier. Review surrounding paragraphs because a matching term may appear in a definition, exception, header, or attachment.
External links leave the document workspace
A saved PDF link can open a website, email action, phone action, or another page. Check the displayed destination before following an external link, especially in files received from an unknown sender.
PickPDF performs document search on the device. Opening an external destination can create a network request outside PickPDF based on the link and browser settings.
Common questions
Questions about search and navigate a pdf
Why can I read the PDF but search finds nothing?
The page may be a scanned image without a text layer. Run OCR, then search the recognized text.
Can PickPDF use PDF bookmarks?
Yes. PickPDF reads the document outline and lets you follow its named destinations.
Does PDF search upload the document?
No. PickPDF reads and searches the PDF text on the device.