"How can I make my PDF documents searchable on the web?"

By Rowan Hanna
PDF Store Support Team
Issue 21 for 2005

PDF is a wonderful technology that allows you to store reams and, indeed, rooms-worth of paper documents and books in boxes of plastic and silicon about the size of a telephone directory. That's all well and good, but how do you find them again? With paper archives, you can "hit the stacks," and your extensive familiarity with the Dewey Decimal System or polite request of a librarian will tell you which building, area, aisle and shelf to find related texts. In the electronic world, how do you track down those pesky documents? The answer: electronic search!

Most people these days are familiar with some form of electronic searching. Finding web pages with an online search engine, searching for references within Microsoft Word documents, or even tracking down that perfect gift or gewgaw on Amazon or eBay -- these are all examples of electronic searches in action. Because PDF is so much more complex than plain text or HTML, it is also more difficult to index and search.

References within an individual PDF file can be found easily enough using the Find function of Adobe Reader, Acrobat or 3rd-party viewing applications such as Nitro PDF Professional. ARTS PDF Search, however, allows you to go a step further. This server-based application can be used to create full textual indexes for PDF archives in the far more readily searchable plain text format. What's more, it includes a COM component, so that users can make their archives searchable to anyone with an internet connection!

Watch this space! Until next time, please browse PDF Store's PDF Developer aisle for the complete range of PDF development tools and components.