Find and Change in PDF

Is there a way to find change in Acrobat Pro--any version-- Lets say you want to change all instances of the word "state" to the word "city"
Is this possible with todays technology to do this in a PDF?
Thanks
...I entered in this question in the ask a qustion area, but not sure if it went through...sorry if I double posted this.
p

Only in Acrobat Pro XI (not sure about the Standard version), and only one at a time, there's no Replace All function.

Similar Messages

Interactive Report - is there a way to find and change if necessary the unique column.

While creating an interactive report I accidently entered the wrong "unique column" on the sql query page. Is this a big deal and how can I find and change if necessary.
Query Builder
Link to Single Row View
Yes
No
Uniquely Identify Rows by
ROWID
Unique Column
Unique Column

33ac2d45-960f-45af-acba-507f01d18e08 wrote:
Please update your forum profile with a real handle instead of "33ac2d45-960f-45af-acba-507f01d18e08".
While creating an interactive report I accidently entered the wrong "unique column" on the sql query page. Is this a big deal and how can I find and change if necessary.
Query Builder
Link to Single Row View
Yes
No
Uniquely Identify Rows by
ROWID
Unique Column
Unique Column
Yes. You can change this using the Uniquely Identify Rows by/Unique Column properties in the Link Column section on the Report Attributes tab of the interactive report definition.

How can I hide what I write in a find and change list

I've written a find and change script, I prepared to offer it for anyone to use, but I don't want to anyone to read what I write in the find and change list.
How Can I hide it?

OK, my be offer it for someone to use it, I mean in house coworker, no any virus in it.
How can hide the find and change list, or change it to another format, not just .txt.
mybe change it to .doc or .vb or .js, and the script still can run well.

Possible bug in inDesign CS5 with find and change

This could be a problem with my script or it may be a bug, not sure.
The script is used for finding a double space in a fragment of text and changing it to single space.
It works only once when it is executed.
To make it work again you have to close and reopen inDesign.
Here's the code:
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = " ";
app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = " ";
app.documents[0].changeText();

This one worked, Harbs also works but I think I'll go the unicode grep route for find and change on this one.
I like the use of the positive lookbehind GREP character. (?<=)
thank you

How to modify Find and Change indicator?

I use Find and Change in Applewors 6. At present, this operation finds what is specified but the indicator is colored green and is open, and hard to locate on a page when looking for a single letter. I changed it from its original pale orange to what it is now but now I would like to change it back to something easier to find. But I forgot how I did it and did not make a note. Would appreciate info on how to change this indicator. Thanks

Neil--
Thanks for info. I found it under System preferences>Personal>Appearance. You get a lot of choices in color and intensity. I was hoping to change the Find and Change indicator to solid but maybe this is not possible.

Text find and change problem in CS3 and CS4 script

I use the script below to find some text and change into others.
There is one thing the script can't do it for me.
Example:
(g) Management
(1) that no law which is enacted in the Cayman Islands imposing any tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciation shall apply to the Company or its operations; and
(2) that the aforesaid tax or any tax in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax shall not be payable on or in respect of the shares, debentures or other obligations of the Company.
Example:(END)
I got a lot of topics or points in the passage. And I want to change the space between '(g)' and 'Management' into a tab character. So I revised the plain text file 1text.
PS: 1text.txt is filled with what to change.
text {findWhat:"^p(^?) "} {changeTo:"^p(^?)^t"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all space-dash-space and replace with an en dash.
The result is:
(^?)^tManagement
(^?)^tthat no law which is enacted in the Cayman Islands imposing any tax to be levied on profits, income, gains or appreciation shall apply to the Company or its operations; and
(^?)^tthat the aforesaid tax or any tax in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax shall not be payable on or in respect of the shares, debentures or other obligations of the Company.
PS: ^t is a tab character.
result (END)
This is not what I want.
It should be '(g)^tManagement'.
PS: ^t is a tab character.
Please someboady help me out to revised the script below to change the text into what I want. Thanks so much.
Here is the script.
//FindChangeByList.jsx
//An InDesign CS4 JavaScript
@@@BUILDINFO@@@ "FindChangeByList.jsx" 2.0.0.0 10-January-2008
//Loads a series of tab-delimited strings from a text file, then performs a series
//of find/change operations based on the strings read from the file.
//The data file is tab-delimited, with carriage returns separating records.
//The format of each record in the file is:
//findType<tab>findProperties<tab>changeProperties<tab>findChangeOptions<tab>description
//Where:
//<tab> is a tab character
//findType is "text", "grep", or "glyph" (this sets the type of find/change operation to use).
//findProperties is a properties record (as text) of the find preferences.
//changeProperties is a properties record (as text) of the change preferences.
//findChangeOptions is a properties record (as text) of the find/change options.
//description is a description of the find/change operation
//Very simple example:
//text {findWhat:"--"} {changeTo:"^_"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all double dashes and replace with an em dash.
//More complex example:
//text {findWhat:"^9^9.^9^9"} {appliedCharacterStyle:"price"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden layers:true, whole word:false} Find $10.00 to $99.99 and apply the character style "price".
//All InDesign search metacharacters are allowed in the "findWhat" and "changeTo" properties for findTextPreferences and changeTextPreferences.
//If you enter backslashes in the findWhat property of the findGrepPreferences object, they must be "escaped"
//as shown in the example below:
//{findWhat:"\\s+"}
//For more on InDesign scripting, go to http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/scripting/index.html
//or visit the InDesign Scripting User to User forum at http://www.adobeforums.com
main();
function main(){
var myObject;
//Make certain that user interaction (display of dialogs, etc.) is turned on.
app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevels.interactWithAll;
if(app.documents.length > 0){
if(app.selection.length > 0){
   switch(app.selection[0].constructor.name){
    case "InsertionPoint":
    case "Character":
    case "Word":
    case "TextStyleRange":
    case "Line":
    case "Paragraph":
    case "TextColumn":
    case "Text":
    case "Cell":
    case "Column":
    case "Row":
    case "Table":
     myDisplayDialog();
     break;
    default:
     //Something was selected, but it wasn't a text object, so search the document.
     myFindChangeByList(app.documents.item(0));
else{
   //Nothing was selected, so simply search the document.
   myFindChangeByList(app.documents.item(0));
else{
alert("No documents are open. Please open a document and try again.");
function myDisplayDialog(){
var myObject;
var myDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"FindChangeByList"});
with(myDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
with(dialogRows.add()){
   with(dialogColumns.add()){
    staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Search Range:"});
   var myRangeButtons = radiobuttonGroups.add();
   with(myRangeButtons){
    radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel:"Document", checkedState:true});
    radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel:"Selected Story"});
    if(app.selection[0].contents != ""){
     radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel:"Selection", checkedState:true});
var myResult = myDialog.show();
if(myResult == true){
switch(myRangeButtons.selectedButton){
   case 0:
    myObject = app.documents.item(0);
    break;
   case 1:
    myObject = app.selection[0].parentStory;
    break;
   case 2:
    myObject = app.selection[0];
    break;
myDialog.destroy();
myFindChangeByList(myObject);
else{
myDialog.destroy();
function myFindChangeByList(myObject){
var myScriptFileName, myFindChangeFile, myFindChangeFileName, myScriptFile, myResult;
var myFindChangeArray, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindLimit, myStory;
var myStartCharacter, myEndCharacter;
var myFindChangeFile = myFindFile("/FindChangeSupport/1test.txt")
if(myFindChangeFile != null){
myFindChangeFile = File(myFindChangeFile);
var myResult = myFindChangeFile.open("r", undefined, undefined);
if(myResult == true){
   //Loop through the find/change operations.
   do{
    myLine = myFindChangeFile.readln();
    //Ignore comment lines and blank lines.
    if((myLine.substring(0,4)=="text")||(myLine.substring(0,4)=="grep")||(myLine.substring(0, 5)=="glyph")){
     myFindChangeArray = myLine.split("\t");
     //The first field in the line is the findType string.
     myFindType = myFindChangeArray[0];
     //The second field in the line is the FindPreferences string.
     myFindPreferences = myFindChangeArray[1];
     //The second field in the line is the ChangePreferences string.
     myChangePreferences = myFindChangeArray[2];
     //The fourth field is the range--used only by text find/change.
     myFindChangeOptions = myFindChangeArray[3];
     switch(myFindType){
      case "text":
       myFindText(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions);
       break;
      case "grep":
       myFindGrep(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions);
       break;
      case "glyph":
       myFindGlyph(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions);
       break;
   } while(myFindChangeFile.eof == false);
   myFindChangeFile.close();
function myFindText(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions){
//Reset the find/change preferences before each search.
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
var myString = "app.findTextPreferences.properties = "+ myFindPreferences + ";";
myString += "app.changeTextPreferences.properties = " + myChangePreferences + ";";
myString += "app.findChangeTextOptions.properties = " + myFindChangeOptions + ";";
app.doScript(myString, ScriptLanguage.javascript);
myFoundItems = myObject.changeText();
//Reset the find/change preferences after each search.
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
function myFindGrep(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions){
//Reset the find/change grep preferences before each search.
app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
var myString = "app.findGrepPreferences.properties = "+ myFindPreferences + ";";
myString += "app.changeGrepPreferences.properties = " + myChangePreferences + ";";
myString += "app.findChangeGrepOptions.properties = " + myFindChangeOptions + ";";
app.doScript(myString, ScriptLanguage.javascript);
var myFoundItems = myObject.changeGrep();
//Reset the find/change grep preferences after each search.
app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
function myFindGlyph(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions){
//Reset the find/change glyph preferences before each search.
app.changeGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
var myString = "app.findGlyphPreferences.properties = "+ myFindPreferences + ";";
myString += "app.changeGlyphPreferences.properties = " + myChangePreferences + ";";
myString += "app.findChangeGlyphOptions.properties = " + myFindChangeOptions + ";";
app.doScript(myString, ScriptLanguage.javascript);
var myFoundItems = myObject.changeGlyph();
//Reset the find/change glyph preferences after each search.
app.changeGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
function myFindFile(myFilePath){
var myScriptFile = myGetScriptPath();
var myScriptFile = File(myScriptFile);
var myScriptFolder = myScriptFile.path;
myFilePath = myScriptFolder + myFilePath;
if(File(myFilePath).exists == false){
//Display a dialog.
myFilePath = File.openDialog("Choose the file containing your find/change list");
return myFilePath;
function myGetScriptPath(){
try{
myFile = app.activeScript;
catch(myError){
myFile = myError.fileName;
return myFile;

It takes me a lof of time to comprehend the sentence you write. Cause I am a Chinese. My poor English.
I have to say "you are genius". I used to use the indesign CS2. There is no GREP function in CS2. When I get the new script, I do not know how to use it. Just when I saw the
'grep {findWhat:" +"} {changeTo:" "} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all double spaces and replace with single spaces.'
Being confused.
Thanks so much. It seems I have to relearn the advanced Indesign.

How to download a web document and change to pdf format

i have tried downloading a web form which requires printing but in order to print, i need to download it and change it to a pdf format for my printer, but when i try downloading the web form, it downloads as a picture. How do i download it as a document and change it to pdf?

Generally all you should have to do is select what you want to copy (and copy it) and paste it into Pages.

Find and change crashing InDesign file

I'm working on a file and whenever I do a find and replace, it crashes. I recently ran Adobe updater and when I did, the application gave an error that "Scotch Rules" were used on the last saved version and it wasn't loaded on my system. Considering I built this file on my system, I knew I had Scotch Rules. I went into my extension manager and enabled it. This didn't help the crashing. It crashes with this loaded and this not loaded.
I also trashed my preferences to InDesign using the cmd+opt+cntrl+shift as well as by hand by going to the folders. Nothing is working
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Peter Spier Thanks for replying to another one of my posts. I tried what you suggested here and it didn't work. Actually, I found that when I "saved as" an IDML, it wouldn't save a file at all. It would have a temporary "lock" icon as if making one on the desktop, but no file would finalize and appear. I also reinstalled the applications from the disk image I downloaded through the creative cloud and that didn't solve the problem. I then corrected disk permissions in Apple's Disk Utility. That didn't work either.

Finding and changing ownership of files by uid

In migrating to a laptop to allow the primary account to be a mobile user on a server, I deleted the user account. Since this user was also the admin for the machine, I now have a series of applications and files on the box which show 501:501 as the owner and group. I can use find to find the files. What I am searching for is the command that would allow me to pipe that to chown so I can modify all these files. Yes I do have a back-up.
Is it something like:
sudo find / -uid 501 | chown admin:admin
And then I could repeat to get the remaining 501 group with:
sudo find / -gid 501 | chown :admin
Thanks!

I suggest using xargs. Use -print0 on 'find' and -0 with xargs (those are zeros).
Something like:
find / -uid 501 -print0 | xargs -0 chown admin:admin
(I didn't fully test it -- ran with 'echo' instead of chown )

Finding and Changing "first word character syle" in text

I want to search spesific word and only replacing first founded word character style in text. Like this :
"Transfer to Istanbul Airport for morning flight to Adana. Meet and transfer to Antioch , the place where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. Here you will visit the Church of St. Peter, a grotto discovered by the Crusaders and reputed to be the cave church where early Christians met in secret. At the Mosaic Museum in Antioch you will see an unusually rich collection of mosaics from this area. Following your visit at the museum, you will go to the Seleucia Pieria, the ancient port town of Antioch from which Paul and Barnabas set out on their first journey and where Paul returned afterwards. Finaly, you will check into the hotel in Antioch for dinner and overnight. (B,D)"
This paragraph contains 4 Antioch word. And I want to make BOLD first one.
This is my code but this code change all of them to bold. Can anyone help me?
var myDocument = app.documents.item(0);
// Clear old preferences
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
//Set the find options.
app.findChangeTextOptions.caseSensitive = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeFootnotes = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeHiddenLayers = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeMasterPages = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.wholeWord = false;
// This CharacterStyle set to BOLD FONT STYLE
app.changeTextPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = myCharacterStyle;
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "Antioch";
app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = "Antioch";
myDocument.changeText();

@cuneytoral – the explanation is:
findText() ( or findGrep() ) are methods that return an array of found texts (formatted text objects).
So the result with index 0 is the first one found. The last one is the length of the array -1.
Since the result is of type Array and not Collection, we cannot define a range with the itemByRange() method.
And also we cannot define the last item as allFoundItems[-1], but to have write this:
allFoundItems[allFoundItems.length-1].appliedCharacterStyle = myCharacterStyle;
to address the last found one.
Say, we want to format the found texts from the second one found to the last one found, we have to loop through the found array:
We do not start the loop with 0, but with 1:
for(var n=1;n<allFoundItems.length;n++){
    allFoundItems[n].appliedCharacterStyle = myCharacterStyle;
Formatting every other of the found texts would be:
for(var n=0;n<allFoundItems.length;n=n+2){
    allFoundItems[n].appliedCharacterStyle = myCharacterStyle;
Just to give you some ideas…
Uwe

Finding and changing privileges

I bought an external USB to put a large mesh and graphics library (300K+ files) on so I wouldn't have to use my limited internal HD space (MacBookPro). I also run Parallels and I think what happened was that the drive got mounted under XP because now I get a dialog box that says I need to backup the data and reformat the drive. LOT easier said than done. I am getting "insufficient privileges....." messages when trying to move the files to another drive. If I check "ignore ownership" on the drive info dialog I can copy the files to my MBP drive but get the same stupid message trying to copy from there to another drive. Is there anyway to:
A: Find out WHICH files have the privilege issue?
B: Change the privileges across the entire drive without having to do it one file at a time?
C: Any other suggestion to this dilemma?
Thanks,
Joe B

@cuneytoral – the explanation is:
findText() ( or findGrep() ) are methods that return an array of found texts (formatted text objects).
So the result with index 0 is the first one found. The last one is the length of the array -1.
Since the result is of type Array and not Collection, we cannot define a range with the itemByRange() method.
And also we cannot define the last item as allFoundItems[-1], but to have write this:
allFoundItems[allFoundItems.length-1].appliedCharacterStyle = myCharacterStyle;
to address the last found one.
Say, we want to format the found texts from the second one found to the last one found, we have to loop through the found array:
We do not start the loop with 0, but with 1:
for(var n=1;n<allFoundItems.length;n++){
allFoundItems[n].appliedCharacterStyle = myCharacterStyle;
Formatting every other of the found texts would be:
for(var n=0;n<allFoundItems.length;n=n+2){
allFoundItems[n].appliedCharacterStyle = myCharacterStyle;
Just to give you some ideas…
Uwe

How can I find and change text in Hyperlinks?

I have 6000 hyperlinks in my document, I need to change all of the "&" they contain (in the url destination, not in the textflow) to "%26" so I can export to Epub correctly (I'm getting the classic "Export failed" and found out in forums that ampersands in hyperlinks are the problem).
Can this replacement be automated? Maybe with Javascript? I just don't know how to search just through hyperlinks' text (url).
Thanks a lot.

It's perfect! Thanks a lot again!
2011/7/19 John Hawkinson <[email protected]>
Oh, incidently, Harbs has a script that does this with a UI.
>
>
http://in-tools.com/downloads/indesign/scripts/ReplaceHyperlinkUrlValues.jsx
>
It's basically the same thing, but maybe a bit more user-friendly.
>

Find and change last paragraph style

With .js or grep, I want to change the style of the last bullet paragraph to one with more space after, there are many of them in one story mixed with other styles.
Change this:
blarr blarrblarr (bullet style)
blarr blarr blarr blarr (bullet style)
blarr blarr change this one (bullet style)
To this:
blarr blarrblarr (bullet style)
blarr blarr blarr blarr (bullet style)
blarr blarr change this one (last bullet style)
Can this be done? If anyone can help, it would be great!
Many thanks!

I reckon this JavaScript does the job. You might have to change the style names to match yours. Also, it assumes that the styles aren't grouped in a folder.
//DESCRIPTION: Fix last bullet paragraphs
(function() {
     if (app.documents.length > 0) {
          findFixLastBullets(app.documents[0]);
     function findFixLastBullets(aDoc) {
          setupFindText();
          app.findTextPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = "Bullet";
          var myFinds = aDoc.findText();
          for (var j = myFinds.length - 1; j >= 0; j--) {
              var lastPara = myFinds[j].paragraphs[-1];
              // if next para already BulletLast do nothing
              var nextPara = lastPara.insertionPoints[-1].paragraphs[0];
              if (nextPara.appliedParagraphStyle.name == "BulletLast") continue;
              lastPara.appliedParagraphStyle = "BulletLast";
     function setupFindText(find, change, wholeWd, caseSense, foots, hidLayers, lockedLayers, lockedStories, masters) {
     app.findTextPreferences = null;
     app.changeTextPreferences = null;
     try { app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = find } catch(e) {};
     try {app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = change } catch(e) {};
     app.findChangeTextOptions.properties = {
          caseSensitive:(caseSense == null ? false : caseSense),
          wholeWord:(wholeWd == null ? false : wholeWd),
          includeFootnotes:(foots == null ? false : foots),
          includeHiddenLayers:(hidLayers == null ? false : hidLayers),
          includeLockedLayersForFind:(lockedLayers == null ? false : lockedLayers),
          includeLockedStoriesForFind:(lockedStories == null ? false : lockedStories),
          includeMasterPages:(masters == null ? false : masters)
} // end setupFindText
Notice the little touch that if the next paragraph is already BulletLast it ignores that found text. This allows you to run the script more than once if you add more text.
Dave

How can I find and change a mask that was created by someone else?

I need to adapt a design to a billboard; it was originally created by our parent company's marketing. The billboard company just informed me that I need to incorporate a bleed area and the document does not have that.
I think it's using a mask on the items that will need to bleed, so I need to find the masking box and expand it to meet the bleed. But since I did not create this document, I have no idea how to find it and it's difficult to reach Marketing.
Is there an easy way to find the mask, or make it visible?

Unlock all layers
Object >> unlock all
Select >> Object >> Clipping Masks
Object >> Clipping Mask >> Release
If you find there are no clipping masks, you can also mask using the tranparency palette. UYou basiclaly have on lemtn whcih is your art, adn some art on top whcih serves as the mask, you slect both then use the make mask command form the transprency palette.
Do a CMD Y to better analiyze how this is constructed, as without a screenshot we can only make a best guess as to what is going on.

Flash AS3 OOP = Can 1 objects class find and change another objects xy properties?

What I have is a game with a Level object, inside the Level is a Player object, and they don't have instance names given, what I'm trying to figure out is how to do is make it so that the player can change the x or y properties of the Level object.
To be more precise, I'm making it so that when the player moves in a certain direction, he either moves accross the stage, or he starts moving the Level object around the stage, it'd be in an Event kind of function, now I can easily make the Player move, but I don't know how to make the Level object move which the player is inside of.
Is anyone able to help me on this please?

I tried a simple getter setter idea, but it doesn't seem to work
public class Mover
private var _moveValue:Number = 5;
public function Mover()
Player.shift = _moveValue;
public class Player
private var _vx = 0;
public static function set shift (_move:number):void
_vx = _move;
public function Player
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame);
function onEnterFrame(event:Event):void
x += _vx;
Thats with my limited imagination and knowledge of AS3 here so far... is that going completely wrong? If so are there any good examples or tutorials I could check out to get a better idea of what I'm trying to do?

Find and Change in PDF

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