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maharaj1902 Author

Level 1

23 points

PDF text search problem in Preview for Mac OS Mojave

I have a Macbook Pro, and I just upgraded to Mac OS Mojave. I'm having trouble searching for text within PDFs using the Mojave version of Preview. When I used Preview before the upgrade to Mojave, I was able to search for text within PDFs (using the command-F function). Now, however, the PDF text search feature in Preview only seems to work with very few PDFs. The PDFs I'm trying to search within are definitely searchable PDFs, so this seems to be a glitch with the Mojave version of Preview. Any suggestions on what I can do?

MacBook Pro, macOS Mojave (10.14)

Posted on Sep 30, 2018 4:07 AM

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23 replies

maharaj1902 Author

Level 1

23 points

Sep 30, 2018 4:29 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks for your reply, VikingOSX. Yes, I'm able to search for text using Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, but I'm no longer able to search for text within the same PDFs using the Mojave version of Preview.

Sep 30, 2018 4:39 AM in response to maharaj1902

Though perhaps obvious, text in images won't be found, and text containing white-space must be quoted.

dialabrain

Level 10

122,555 points

Sep 30, 2018 4:58 AM in response to maharaj1902

You're welcome. It doesn't seem to be needed for all PDFs but I don't know why it's needed for any.

maharaj1902 Author

Level 1

23 points

Sep 30, 2018 8:01 AM in response to dialabrain

Will do. Thanks for all your help!

dialabrain

Level 10

122,555 points

Sep 30, 2018 8:03 AM in response to maharaj1902

You're welcome.

jokevcv

Level 1

4 points

Oct 1, 2018 11:20 AM in response to maharaj1902

I believe related to the same issue I can select text but when copy it and try to paste, it's blank. The text is visually selected but can't be copied.

Oct 23, 2018 2:31 PM in response to maharaj1902

I found I could open a doc from the Finder into Books and then the search worked - it shows up in Preview.

Perhaps this is a one time thing also but it might be a workaround.

Dec 4, 2018 8:20 AM in response to maharaj1902

I have the same problem, no idea why it doesn't work. Dialabrain method works tough. Thanks a lot!

PDF text search problem in Preview for Mac OS Mojave