Text Search in PDFs vs Quicknotes

[dfgyz 1]

I'm pretty frustrated noticing that evernote fails to find text within an image of a PDF file, but will detect that exact same text if I screenshot the same image (for example in a quicknote screen capture). It seems the program is capable of finding text where I thought it couldn't. Is there something about the PDF format that prevents evernote from searching for text in the PDF's images? I'm also using evernote premium for Mac if that matters.

[gazumped 11,665]

Hi.  If your PDF is a 'searchable' file - ie if you can use the PDF-based search feature to find words within it,  you'll be able to search and find content in Evernote.  If you're a paying subscriber Evernote will convert PDF files into searchable documents if they're not already set up that way.  Basic users have to save searchable PDFs for this function to work.  Evernote's process does take a little while - hours in some cases - to make the text searchable.

Picture files containing text are always searchable - they're easier to process -they're one-page documents- and the process is carried out by a completely different system.

[dfgyz 1]

Thanks for the reply. To be more specific... when I search for the term, evernote pulls up the original note and the quick note that contains a screenshot from the original note. When I open the quick note and perform a command + F search within the note, I'm able to jump to the specific page in the note containing the term. However, in the original note, command + F finds nothing, despite containing the exact same image with the exact same written term which was detected by the general search function. The PDF should be searchable by now since it has been uploaded for about 2 weeks. 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,959]

Just to make sure I understand: you've got an image within a PDF document that has been put into an Evernote note; and you're trying to search for text that's in that image within the PDF. Correct?

If that's what you're after, I doubt that it's possible. I can't even get Adobe Acrobat Reader to find text in an image in a PDF. (Try it with the attached, from the comic strip F Minus.) But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

F Minus.pdf

[gazumped 11,665]

18 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Just to make sure I understand: you've got an image within a PDF document that has been put into an Evernote note; and you're trying to search for text that's in that image within the PDF. Correct?

If that's what you're after, I doubt that it's possible. I can't even get Adobe Acrobat Reader to find text in an image in a PDF. (Try it with the attached, from the comic strip F Minus.) But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

F Minus.pdf

I opened that link with the Acrobat editor and searched - no hits.  Then I OCR'd the page in the same editor - text is findable!

[dfgyz 1]

18 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Just to make sure I understand: you've got an image within a PDF document that has been put into an Evernote note; and you're trying to search for text that's in that image within the PDF. Correct?

If that's what you're after, I doubt that it's possible. I can't even get Adobe Acrobat Reader to find text in an image in a PDF. (Try it with the attached, from the comic strip F Minus.) But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

F Minus.pdf

Correct. The original text isn't really in an image; the original file is a powerpoint and all of this desired text is in diagrams, BUT it is all searchable if opened in powerpoint. In evernote it is converted to a PDF and most of the text will not appear on a command + F search. However, in my screenshot of the image as a note, I can find the text with command + F despite this being an image. I'm more confused because the general search function will pull up the PDF, so it must "know" the specific text is in that PDF, but it can't find the text with a command + F search.

 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,959]

My expectation would be that Evernote can, to some extent, recognize and search for text in an image, but it can't do so for text in a PowerPoint that is "inside" a PDF. If you open this PDF with Adobe Acrobat Reader, can it search for and find text in the PowerPoint? I think there may be too many layers involved for EN to be able to do this search. But I could be wrong.

[dfgyz 1]

5 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

My expectation would be that Evernote can, to some extent, recognize and search for text in an image, but it can't do so for text in a PowerPoint that is "inside" a PDF. If you open this PDF with Adobe Acrobat Reader, can it search for and find text in the PowerPoint? I think there may be too many layers involved for EN to be able to do this search. But I could be wrong.

Text is searchable in powerpoint and adobe. Is there some way I could convert the powerpoint file into something else that will be  searchable in evernote?

[gazumped 11,665]

6 hours ago, dfgyz said:

Text is searchable in powerpoint and adobe. Is there some way I could convert the powerpoint file into something else that will be  searchable in evernote?

Adobe Acrobat (not the 'reader') has the ability to create 'searchable' files (if they're not already processed that way) by OCR - not sure about powerpoint,  but it can save (IIRC) to PDF,  so that's Adobe again..