Last Updated on November 17, 2023
Need help understanding how to make a PDF searchable? Search through lengthy PDF documents with a lot of text with ease. Find out how to search scanned PDF files.
You could discover that you can’t search the text once you’ve converted a paper document into a PDF file. Because the pages are flattened during scanning, there is no text that your PDF viewer can read. This could be a problem, especially for documents with a lot of content.
The good news is that a speedy solution to this problem is possible. Continue reading to find out how to search a PDF file. The absence of search functionality in PDF files is becoming increasingly widespread. You can fully control your documents with the appropriate tools and techniques.
What is OCR?
The mechanical or electronic conversion is called OCR, or optical character recognition. Various materials, including scanned paper documents, can be turned into editable and searchable files using OCR. It converts non-text searchable legal documents into searchable files. It enables legal experts to search a document’s entire contents.
Once this procedure has been used on a document, readers can look up specific words or phrases in that document. Suddenly, delving deeper into a document’s details is that simple.
Why Is OCR Technology Important in Documentation?
For information, most business workflows rely on reading print media. Business procedures include invoices, scanned legal documents, and paper forms.
Much time, space, and work must be expended to store and manage these enormous amounts of paper.
The ideal way to manage paperwork is without paper. However, there are several difficulties in scanning paper documents into photographs. It is a strenuous and physically demanding process.
The text of this document has been hidden by the visual files produced during document digitization. Word processing software cannot read text included in photographs, as opposed to text documents.
Steps to Make Your Document Searchable, Editable, and Shareable
OCR technology, which transforms images into text data that other business tools can evaluate, provides a solution. After that, by analyzing the data, you can apply analytics to increase productivity.
Select the Appropriate OCR Software
You must first choose an appropriate OCR program. There are many choices, from cost-free web tools to expensive desktop programs. Image to text, Adobe Acrobat, ABBYY FineReader, and Tesseract are a few of the often-used options. Investigate a few to get one that best suits your requirements.
Your Documents Are Scannable
When your OCR software is installed, your printed or handwritten documents must be scanned using a scanner or smartphone. For accurate OCR results, ensure the scans are crisp and devoid of smudges or deformities.
Execute OCR Processing
Open the OCR program after scanning, then import your scanned papers. The text in the photographs will be analyzed by the program and changed into text that computers can understand. Check for accuracy in the transformed text and make any required adjustments.
Save your files
When you’re happy with the results, save your papers in the digital format of your choice. Whatever format best suits your needs—PDF, DOC, etc. To guarantee that your documents are currently searchable, editable, and shared, you must complete this step.
How Does OCR Work to Make Documents Searchable?
First, the file is adjusted to enhance contrast, brighten, and remove blurring. This improves recognition precision.
The OCR program identifies the letters, numbers, and symbols. The character shapes are examined and contrasted with a database of well-known fonts. To improve accuracy, context information is also incorporated into the recognition process.
OCR frequently employs machine learning techniques to enhance recognition accuracy further. To identify character patterns and features, these algorithms are trained on a range of text samples. Powerful software that can search PDFs may also recognize handwritten or difficult-to-read language.
OCR concentrates on text recognition after character recognition is finished. The identified characters are put together in this way as words and sentences. To comprehend the context of the words it has detected and fix any inaccuracies, the software also uses language models.
The OCR software outputs the detected texts in an editable format. Companies can now have PDFs that can be searched. They may now gather, classify, examine, and assess the data they hold. OCR software can, after all, make PDFs searchable. Additionally, OCR automatically processes all data following business requirements.
Benefits of OCR in Document Management
Businesses benefit from OCR’s ability to improve productivity and efficiency. It is quite useful because it can swiftly search through a lot of stuff. It deals with high volumes of document input and scanning. Here are a few of the key benefits of using OCR to make documents searchable, editable, and shareable.
Provide Higher Productivity
OCR software facilitates quicker data retrieval when needed, which increases productivity. Employees may now focus on important activities instead of having to spend time and energy retrieving relevant data.
The necessary documents are available to employees without requiring them to make frequent excursions to the central records room. Without getting up from their desks, they may access them.
Significantly Increases Customer Service
The information that clients need is usually provided by several inbound contact centers. While others give customers the information they require through call centers. To fulfill customers’ demands, some will need to access some of their personal or order-related information.
In such situations, quick data accessibility becomes crucial. OCR facilitates the digitally organized storage and lightning-fast retrieval of materials. The huge reduction in waiting time enhances the customer experience.
Cost Reduction
By using OCR instead of engaging specialists to extract data, you can save money. It is among the most significant advantages of OCR for document management techniques.
This tool helps save on several other costs, including shipping, printing, and copying.
Thus, OCR removes the cost associated with misplaced or absent papers. Reclaiming office space that would have been required to store paper documents results in higher savings.
100% Text-searchable Documents
OCR data processing has a lot of benefits, one of which is that it makes digitized documents fully text-searchable. This makes it easier for experts to quickly seek out names, numbers, and other identifying information about the document they are searching for.
Increase Storage Space
OCR can scan, record, and catalog data from paper documents used throughout an entire organization. Simply put, it means that servers can now store data in an electronic format. As a result, there is no longer a need to maintain extensive paper files. OCR data entry is therefore one of the best instruments for implementing a “paperless” approach throughout the company.
Makes Documents Editable
Scanned documents typically require editing, particularly when some information needs to be updated. OCR translates data into any desired format, including editable Word and other formats. When there are contents that need to be updated frequently or changed, this can be quite helpful.
Provide High Accuracy and Shareability
Accuracy is one of the main problems with data entry. Reduced errors and inaccuracies are the outcome of automated data entry tools, such as OCR data entry. OCR data entry can also be effective in solving issues like data loss. Since there is no labor involved, problems like mistakenly entering incorrect information can be avoided.
OCR makes the process of sharing printed or handwritten documents much easier. Once your document is digital, sharing it is simple. Through email or cloud storage, you can share with coworkers, acquaintances, or family members to ensure smooth collaboration.
Final Thoughts
A game-changing skill is the ability to make your documents searchable, editable, and shared. You get the ability to interact with ease, retrieve information quickly, and make necessary modifications. You can fully utilize OCR technology and realize the full potential of your documents by following the instructions in this tutorial. Keep in mind that OCR’s strength lies in its capacity to increase the adaptability and accessibility of your documents.
FAQ’s
How can I enable searchability in a portable document format?
Companies can use software to make a PDF searchable. With the aid of tools, they cannot only find pertinent material in the files but also classify, examine, and pass it on to subsequent workflows.
How can producing searchable document files help businesses?
Organizations can manage their papers more effectively by indexing and instantly searching the content of searchable PDFs. This expedites work procedures and makes it simpler to access pertinent information. Using search engines improves decision-making, productivity, and efficiency. Additionally, searchable PDFs improve accessibility and permit system integration.
Can a PDF be searchable without converting it?
Word can be used to change a PDF file into a searchable PDF. You will then be able to search within your document for particular terms and phrases.
If a PDF is not searchable and you need to look for specific lines or words, you don’t need to alter your file to make it searchable. Use Adobe Acrobat or the Find command to accomplish this.
