Scanned PDF document text search impossible

Acrobat Reader does not contain an OCR module; it is Acrobat "Pro" that has it.

However, you can use a free online service like https://www.onlineocr.net/ to retrieve your text.

Same problem: Unable to search for a word in a PDF file (file sent by a client - file may be scanned or transformed from a Word document)

When I open the file with Acrobat and try to search, it doesn't find anything (yet I tested with words that are there). In fact, it considers the entire written text as an image.

I saw on Adobe's help that I need to use the OCR function to convert this image into usable text. According to their video, I need to click on tools and then I have several functions, including OCR. The problem is that I don't have this function (if I click on tools, I only have export PDF, create PDF, or send).

I'm using Adobe Reader X version 10.1.3. Is there a free version of Adobe that offers this function?

I also tried "save as" then "accessible text" but I get an empty file. And saving as Word format doesn’t work...

Explain yourself better:

Are you in Windows Explorer and looking for a specific file using the "Search" window?
Are you in the PDF document and searching for a specific word using the "Edit/Search" command?

In both cases, it works for me...
--
Retirement is great! Especially in the Caribbean... :-)
☻ Raymond ♂

Tell me, cramayelle :
The comment from Mytå (Cheers to Canada!) leads me to ask you a little question: Would you be inclined to search for a handwritten word, and not a typed one?
Because the Edit/Search tool is quite efficient at finding, in a scanned registration form, a word from the original printed document, as well as a word on the wet stamp (inked stamp) applied to the form; but it is out of the question that it could decipher the words that the user has written by hand to fill out the form!
This feat can only be accomplished (and with a pretty poor success rate) by character recognition software after you have input into the system the letters, numbers, and symbols made with your handwriting; and a document written by someone else will not be readable ...

And reassure me: you are not using Microsoft Office Starter ?

--
Retirement is great! Especially in the Caribbean ... :-)
☻ Raymond ♂

Thank you very much for your response.

I tested it, but it doesn't really meet my needs. First of all, the size of the document is limited (my documents are large overall). I tested it with a smaller document and only the first page was converted. I noticed that by registering, I would have access to other features, and apparently to multi-page support. But I don't like the idea of uploading these documents online; it's information provided by a client who would probably not agree.

Originally, they were probably Word documents (maybe also PowerPoint), but they must have been converted to PDF in such a way that I can no longer retrieve the text. I need to be able to search based on a word and possibly copy certain phrases to integrate into a Word document. But the search capability is the most important.

Apparently, Acrobat Pro can do all that, but given the price... Is there any software (preferably free or almost free!) that can recover the text?

If you have a scanner, there is often OCR software included with it... check this...

There are free software options, but you will often need to convert your PDF pages into TIF or JPG images before converting them into text... http://www.freeocr.net/ (look for this kind of software in French, unfortunately I don't have any links)

Be careful, an OCR software needs to recognize the language because it analyzes the shape of the words and compares it to an internal database... so this internal database also needs to be in French if your text is in French

Among the software that directly retrieves PDFs, I know of Omnipage (paid).

Thank you very much, Contrariness

I downloaded freeOCR. It can be useful, but you have to repeat the process for each page, so it's way too long for the documents I was talking about (sometimes 20, 30 pages or more).

I took a look at the presentation of Omnipage. Indeed, it looks pretty good.

With Foxit Reader, there is an option to "view the PDF as a text file." And Foxit Reader is free.