Find & Replace Text In PDF Files

There are many instances where replacing text in PDF files can be useful. This can include changing details such as names or addresses in the PDF documents. A couple of common approaches to achieving this have been to either edit the PDF using the expensive Adobe Acrobat or to convert the PDF to Microsoft Word, edit the details that need changing and then saving is back as a PDF. This is not only tedious and time consuming, it can also lead to errors and inconsistencies in the changes.

The more efficient way to find and replace text in PDF files is to use All-About-PDF.  It allows you to select the PDF document(s), specify the text to find (you can even use regular expression to match the text), and then specify the text to replace it with. 

Here is how:

If you haven’t already done so, download and install All-About-PDF from here

  1. Open All-About-PDF from the Windows Start menu

  2. Click on the Replace Txt button in All-About-PDF 

  3. Click on the button and select the file you would to process. You can specify wild card to match multiple files; for example c:\files\*.pdf will process all PDF files in the Files folder

  4. Enter the text you would like All-About-PDF to find 

  5. Enter the text you would to replace the matched text with.

    • You may also choose to replace the text with randomly generated characters by following the instructions here.

  6. You may also specify a page if you only need the text replaced on specific pages of the PDF

  7. If you have used regular expression, check the Use Regular Expression… box

  8. Once you are happy with all the settings, hit the Process button to begin processing the files

  9. All the documents will be processed and saved with “_processed.pdf” appended to the file name

**Tip: you can also use this feature to strike-through or underline text in the PDF document instead or in addition to replacing it.

We hope you find this feature useful and please get in touch with us if you have any feedback or need assistance.