Searching in a PDF is something you most likely to do whenever you open a PDF document, finding and replacing texts in PDF then becomes an essential thing you have to do in this digital times.

Chances are you are finding and replacing text in PDF in an inappropriate & inefficient way—search and replace manually one by one, you don’t have to do so. There are, on both Mac and Windows, handy tools to find and replace all texts in a PDF, even texts in the comments, bookmarks, metadata.

Table of Contents

1. Acrobat — Find and Replace All in Any PDF, Comments Included

Even after using more than 10 PDF apps that have great fame, Adobe Acrobat remains the most powerful and work-flow friendly PDF editing software for most Mac and Windows users.

It sets the industry standard and features plentiful of tools & options, lets users create, edit, scan & OCR, convert, prepare form, add fillable or interactive contents, embed media files. It also supports real-time collaboration and track, sending files for review, signature, comments and so on.

The Find and Replace allows users to search and replace all texts in a PDF, including the texts in comments or bookmarks. To find and replace in a scanned PDF, you need to recognize text in the PDF first, then use the Find and Replace tool to continue your job.

How to find and replace all (comments) in PDF using Adobe Acrobat:

  1. Get a free trial of Adobe Acrobat, install and fire up the app on your machine.
  2. Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat, click on Find text, tools, or help on the top of the interface.find replace adobe 1
  3. Click on … icon and choose the items you want to include when find and replace, for example, comments. Then hit Replace text. find replace adobe 2
  4. Input the text that you want to find and search, Exact Matches will be highlighted. Then click Replace.find replace adobe 3
  5. Click on Save button.

Tips 1:

You can also use Acrobat AI Assistant to find and replace all in your PDF, by entering prompts like this, it will get the replacement ready and lets you continue:

find replace adobe 5

Tips 2: 

To find and replace text in a scanned PDF, import the file to Acrobat first, then head to All tools> Scan & OCR> Recognize Text> In this File, once the file becomes searchable, you can now find and replace text in the file by following above-listed steps.

find replace adobe 4

Also, you can check this YouTube video to find & replace all texts or comments in Adobe, starting from 02:47,

2. Foxit — Find and Replace Text in PDF without Adobe Acrobat

If you are really not interested in Adobe Acrobat, Foxit is the option on offer to find and replace PDF without installing Adobe Acrobat, but still efficiently.

Foxit uses a Microsoft Office style, this app also boasts a lot of feature that you can experience in Adobe Acrobat, including create, edit,fill, sign, share, collaborate, export, organize, protect, scan and OCR and so on.

How to find and replace text in PDF without Adobe Acrobat?

  1. Get a free copy of Foxit PDF Editor on your machine, fire it up.
  2. Import the file to the app.
  3. Click the Search or replace button with a magnifying glass.find and replace foxit
  4. Input the text that you want to search and that you want to replace, then click replace.
  5. Save the file.

3. How to Find and Replace All in PDF Online & Free

Maybe you are frantically Googling around to refresh your knowledge about replacing text in a PDF, it becomes very natural to wonder if there is any online free option to find and replace text in a PDF file. Yes, there is, we have picked 3 for you to make this job a little easier.

ASPOSE

Why it made the cut: Not only find and replace text in the body of PDF file, it can also search and replace in comments, metadata and can be case sensitive.

Pros:

Free, easy to use, efficient, find and replace text in comments or metadata, export file to different file format

Cons:

Not all texts can be searched and replaced, doesn’t support scanned PDF

How to find and replace all (comments) in PDF online free

  1. Navigate to products.aspose.app/words/replace/pdf, upload your PDF.find replace online 1
  2. Type the text to search for and to replace with.
  3. Select what items to search through, text, comments, metadata or others.find replace online 2
  4. Then click Find and Replace.
  5. Download the file to your machine.

Sejda

Why it made the cut: It has 30+ tools, including the most powerful editing tools. Its Edit feature has the least limits and allows users to edit a PDF document with freedom as much as possible.

Pros:

Rich editing tools, user-friendly

Cons:

Files will be stored on the server for 2 hours, free service up to 200 pages or 50 Mb and 3 tasks per hour, not all texts can be searched and replaced, doesn’t support finding and replacing all comments

How to find and replace all text in PDF online free

  1. Navigate to sejda.com/pdf-editor, upload the file.find replace online 3
  2. Head to Text> Find & Replace.find replace online 4
  3. Type the text you want to search for and to replace with, click Replace or Replace all.find replace online 5
  4. Hit Apply changes and Download button to save the file to your device.find and replace online 8

HiPDF

Why it made the cut: All the tools, including Converter, Creator, Merger & Splitter, Compressor, Editor, Organizer, Signature tool, Document Sharing, Image tool are accommodated neatly and clearly on ad-free webpage, 100% free. It offers basic OCR function.

Pros:

Many tools, free to use, safe

Cons:

Up to 10MB, max 50 pages, can’t edit existing text in PDF, slow progress, basic OCR, not all texts can be searched and replaced, doesn’t support finding and replacing comments

How to find and replace all in PDF online free

  1. Navigate to hipdf.com/erplace-text.
  2. Drop file to the website.find replace online 6
  3. Type the text you want to find and replace all with, hit Replace.find replace online 7
  4. Download the file to your device.find replace online 8

And you can watch this YouTube shorts to find & replace all in a PDF online, free: