Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

How to Search for Text Inside Multiple PDF Files at Once
Alternative Method to Hide Files and Folders in Windows
Best Free Alternative PDF Viewer to Adobe Reader

How to Search for Text Inside Multiple PDF Files at Once

Posted: 16 Oct 2014 12:34 AM PDT

PDF documents are probably the most commonly used set of documents in most offices today because of their ability to be locked from accidental changes or unauthorized modifications by users. However, it’s a lot easier to find something you’re looking for in a Word document than it is for a PDF document because by default Windows search indexes all of the text inside of a Word document, thus making it easy to search all Word documents quickly.

The text inside PDF documents are not indexed by Windows or by most desktop search programs, so if you need to find a particular PDF doc, you have to manually open each one and perform a search. If you’re simply looking for some text in one PDF, it’s not a problem, but if you need to scan through many PDF documents in a directory, you can use the Advanced PDF search features in Adobe.

Adobe Reader

With the advanced search, you can search all PDF files in a directory and it’s sub-directories in a single go. By default, if you open Adobe Reader and press CTRL + F, you’ll get the normal search box. It is located at the top right.

To use the advanced PDF search option, you can choose Advanced Search from the Edit drop down menu or press SHIFT + CTRL + F.

Go ahead and enter the phrase you are searching for in the search box. Next choose the All PDF Documents In option under Where would you like to search heading.

Browse to the folder where all of your PDF documents are stored and then choose the options for the search. These include Whole words only, Case-Sensitive, Include Bookmarks, and Include Comments.

Click Search and all PDFs under the current folder will be scanned for your term. Just click on the hyperlink in the results to open the file!

Foxit Reader

If you’re using a different PDF viewing program like Foxit, which I highly recommend, then you can also search multiple PDF files easily. Once you run the program just click on the little folder search icon that is located to the left of the search box at the top right of the program screen.

When you click on that icon, a pane will appear on the right-hand side of the program window and you’ll be able to search all PDF files located in a particular directory.

Just like Adobe, you have a couple of search options in Foxit also, including Whole Words Only, Case-Sensitive, Include Bookmarks, Include Comments and Include Form Data.

I really like the fact that Foxit also lets you search form data too. When filling out some insanely long INS forms years back, it was a life-saver being able to search within the form fields also, so that’s a plus for Foxit.

The post How to Search for Text Inside Multiple PDF Files at Once appeared first on Online Tech Tips.

Alternative Method to Hide Files and Folders in Windows

Posted: 15 Oct 2014 11:21 PM PDT

It seems like people just can’t get enough of the how-to guides on creating hidden folders or locked folders in Windows. I’ve already written two guides on how to hide a folder, one by using a very simple built-in feature of Windows and another by using some Windows scripts. In the latter article, I also mentioned a free program that you can use called Folder Hide to completely remove a folder from visibility. Lastly, I’ve written about hiding an entire drive letter in Windows too.

But there’s yet ANOTHER way you can hide a files and folders, which is similar to the first post I mentioned above, but is a little bit more secure. It actually involves using the command prompt and a built-in Windows function to change certain attributes of a file or folder. Once the attributes have been changed, the files cannot be seen by the system.

The reason I like this method is because it does not involve any third-party software, which people may notice, and it’s not as simplistic as the first method I wrote about where you simply change the properties of the file or folder to hidden and anyone can easily un-hide the folder by configuring the Windows Explorer setting to “Show Hidden Files and Folders”.

Here’s how you can create a hidden folder in Windows for free that is fairly secure:

1. Go to Start, Run and then type in CMD to open the command prompt window

2. Now navigate to the parent folder of the folder you want to hide. If you want to hide a file, navigate to the folder where the file is located. For example, I want to hide a file in C:\Test, so I would type in the following:

CD C:\Test

3. Now type in the following command, replacing the word filename with the name of the file you want to hide.

attrib filename +s +h

And that’s it! Your file or folder is now completely hidden! It won’t show up in My Computer, it won’t show up if you browse via the command prompt and it won’t even show up if you select “Show all Hidden Files and Folders“.

If you want to un-hide the folder, you simply follow the same steps, expect now you’ll run this command:

attrib filename -s -h

You can use this command for both files and for folders. In our example, if I wanted to hide C:\Test, I would go one level above to C:\ and then type in:

attrib Test +s +h.

So you’ll notice that I had said this procedure is “fairly secure” above and the reason for that is you can still un-hide the hidden files or folders in a very simple way. When we change the attributes of the file/folder in the above method, we are actually just making it a hidden protected system file. In order to show protected system files, all you have to do is go to Folder Options, View tab and uncheck the Hide protected operating system files box.

Now if you were to browse into that directory with the hidden file or folder, you would see it listed there with a greyed out icon. As mentioned previously, all of these are very simplistic ways to hide data in Windows, but they can come in handy for short-term situations or for hiding content from kids, etc. It’s also rare for people to un-hide system protected files whereas a lot of people do enable the Show Hidden Files and Folders option in Windows.

So now you have four different ways to hide a file, folder or drive in Windows! If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!

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Best Free Alternative PDF Viewer to Adobe Reader

Posted: 15 Oct 2014 10:05 PM PDT

If you’re looking for a free alternative to Adobe Reader, one of the best options out there currently is Foxit PDF Reader. Other than being able to view a PDF file, the program has a huge number of features that pushes it far beyond Adobe Reader and much closer to what Adobe Acrobat can do.

I used Adobe Reader for years because it was from Adobe and I felt it had to be better because Adobe is a behemoth and they create amazing software like Photoshop! However, being a behemoth is also a bad thing. Adobe Reader, in my opinion, is bloated and slow. Performance has improved over the years, but it’s still massive compared to a program like Foxit.

The best thing is that it can do everything Adobe Reader can plus a whole lot of other stuff. Want to search a bunch of PDF files at once? Foxit can do it. Want to have the computer read out the whole PDF to you? Foxit can do it. Want to create your own PDF file? Foxit can do it. Want to sign a PDF file securely? You know the answer! Plus, all of this is for free.

Of course, there are a few caveats. For example, you can sign your PDF document with an ink signature for free, but if you want a real electronic signature verified by a third-party, you will have to use the DocuSign service built right into Foxit. Also, you can create simple PDF files from scans, from the clipboard or by adding text boxes and images, but if you want to create more advanced PDF forms, you’ll have to purchase their PhantomPDF software. Still, it’s a lot of functionality for just a PDF reader.

In this article, I’ll go through a lot of the features in Foxit and why I like it so much as my primary PDF viewing software.

User Interface and Layout

The first thing you’ll notice right off the bat is that the interface looks awfully similar to the new ribbon interface Microsoft introduced in Office 2007. It’s super clean and viewing PDF files in Foxit is an enjoyable experience.

It’s so good in fact, it also seems like it would fit perfectly into the Office family of applications. Also, like the Office ribbon, you can customize the ribbon menus in Foxit too. You can add/remove buttons and Foxit even has the same quick access toolbar at the top, which can be customized.

It also has the standard multi-tab style for viewing multiple PDF files that you see in all web browsers. Along the left side are a couple of buttons that let you access a few convenient features like bookmarks, page thumbnails, page layers, comments and annotations, any file attachments, security settings and digital signatures.

Foxit also has a lot of different ways to view your PDF files. If you go over to the View tab, you’ll see two sections called Document Views and Page Display.

There is Reading Mode, which hides the ribbon, Reverse View, which reverses the order of all the pages and Text Viewer, which gets rid of all formatting, images, etc, and shows you just the text in the document. For Page Display, you have single page, single page continuous, double-page, double-page continuous, split, separate cover page and auto scroll. My favorite feature is the Rotate View option. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a PDF from someone and the scanned image was in the wrong orientation.

Creating PDF Files

Outside of the great interface for viewing, organizing and searching your PDF files, Foxit has a whole set of tools for creating your own PDF files. Click on File, Create PDF and you’ll have several options to choose from: Blank, From File, From Scanner or From Clipboard.

The PDF format used by Foxit is 100% standards compliant and therefore will work with any other PDF program out there. If you have Office installed, Foxit has plugins available that will let you create PDFs directly within Office programs. Using Word to create a PDF file is much more robust than creating one in Foxit from scratch. By default, there is a text tool and some drawing tools under the Comment tab on the ribbon for creating your PDF file within Foxit Reader.

If you have a lot of documents to scan, you can easily scan them straight to PDF format using Foxit rather than converting them from images to PDFs later on. You can also edit the metadata for PDF files so that they are easier to search.

Collaboration & Sharing

There are a lot of useful collaboration features in Foxit Reader that make life more convenient. One feature I use a lot is the fact that Evernote is integrated right into the Share tab.

You need to have the Evernote Windows application installed in order for the icon to become active. Once it detects Evernote, you can instantly save PDF files directly to Evernote. In addition to Evernote, you can also email files and share to Facebook or Twitter. The email feature will basically open your default email program set in Windows with the PDF file attached.

For corporate environments, Foxit also include SharePoint Integration, which is really useful for companies in the Microsoft camp. If you click on the Comment tab, there are a lot of options for adding notes and annotations to your PDF document.

You can markup text, pin notes and files, add textboxes and call outs, add drawings, highlight areas on the page, add stamps to a document and manage comments.

Security & Other Features

Another great aspect to Foxit is the security built-into the program. Foxit has a feature called Safe Reading Mode that will basically warn users if any PDF file tries to make any external call and lets them decide to terminate the process or to go ahead.

By default, Foxit is set to prevent PDF files from sending information over the Internet unless explicitly allowed to do so. If you want to be safer, you can disable JavaScript Actions also.

In addition, if you are receiving documents that are digitally signed, Foxit uses a ISO 32000 compliant verification process to ensure that the digital signature is genuine and that neither the signature nor the document have been altered.

Overall, Foxit is by far the best free application for replacing Adobe Reader as your primary PDF reading program. Also, using their paid software like PhantomPDF is a lot cheaper than Adobe Acrobat and the feature set is just as good, if not better than Adobe’s. If you have a different opinion, let us know in the comments. Enjoy!

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