Erin Wright Writing

Writing-Related Software Tutorials

How to Find and Replace Text in Adobe Acrobat (Updated Interface)

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This tutorial explains the basic method to find and replace text in Adobe Acrobat using the updated interface on PC and Mac.

These steps can also be used to find text in Adobe’s free PDF display software, Acrobat Reader. However, Reader does not provide an option to replace text.

All the steps listed here are demonstrated in real-time on my YouTube channel:

If you are using a version of Adobe Acrobat with the older interface, please see the previous tutorial about this topic.

Important Note: This process applies to PDFs with editable text boxes. These steps don’t apply to PDFs with editing restrictions or text that has been inserted as an image.

How to Find and Replace Text

  1. Right-click (PC) or Control-click (Mac) the page and then select Find text or tools in the shortcut menu.

The Find toolbar should appear in the upper right corner of the screen.

Pro Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F (PC) or Command + F (Mac) to open the Find toolbar.
  1. Enter the word, phrase, or number string you want to find into the Find text box.
  2. Select the three-dot menu to open the options menu.
  3. Check the necessary parameter(s): Include related words, Whole words, Case sensitive, Include bookmarks, or Include comments.
  4. Select Replace text.
  5. Enter the replacement word, phrase, or number string into the Replace text box.
  6. Select the Next arrow button to find the first occurrence, which will be highlighted in blue.
  7. Select the Replace button to make the replacement. The Replace button will become a Replace next button.
  8. Repeatedly select the Replace next button to replace the remaining occurrences.
Pro Tip: If necessary, edit the word in the Replace text box before selecting the Replace or Replace next button. For example, you may have to alter capitalization to match sentence positioning.
  1. Continue to select the Next and Replace next buttons until a dialog box appears stating that Acrobat has finished searching the document.
  2. Select the OK button in the dialog box.
  3. Select the closing X in the Find toolbar.

Related Resources

How to Extract Pages from PDFs in Adobe Acrobat (Updated Interface)

How to Crop Pages in Adobe Acrobat (Updated Interface)