Finding text

Finding text in documents

Find searches the current document for text. It works in PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and other formats that support text extraction, and opens from the Find toolbar button, Ctrl + F or Go To → Find….

Press Ctrl + F, type, and matches are found as you type. A n / m counter shows the current match and the total number of matches.

Find: open the find box (Ctrl + F or /)
Find next / previous: step through matches (F3 / Shift + F3)
Find selection: use the selected text as the search term (Ctrl + F3 / Shift + Ctrl + F3)
Floating window: a movable window with a list of all matches
Limit to pages: search only a page range (floating window)
Command line: open a document and start a search (-search)

Start a search #

Click the Find button in the toolbar, or use Go To → Find….
Press Ctrl + F or /.
Command Palette: Ctrl + K, then Find.

A small find bar appears near the Find button. Type your text, and matches are found as you type.

The find bar with 7 matches; the current one is yellow

Go to the next or previous match #

Action	Shortcut
Find next	`F3`
Find previous	`Shift + F3`
Find next (selection as needle)	`Ctrl + F3`
Find previous (selection as needle)	`Shift + Ctrl + F3`

Shortcuts depend on where keyboard focus is:

Focus in the document: F3 / Shift + F3 jump to the next / previous match.
Focus in the find box: Enter finds the next match, and Shift + Enter the previous. In the floating window, Enter, Shift + Enter and the arrow keys step through the results list while the cursor stays in the box. With the compact bar, F3 may not work until you click back in the document.

If Ctrl + F behaves oddly (for example replacing the search term with selected text), focus may be split between the find box and the page. Click the document pane, then press F3.

If F3 changes volume instead of finding the next match (many laptops map F1 to F12 to volume and brightness unless you hold Fn), press Fn + F3, or rebind CmdFindNext in custom keyboard shortcuts.

All shortcuts are also listed in Keyboard shortcuts and Commands.

See all matches in a floating window #

The find UI has two forms:

Compact bar (default): the small overlay near the toolbar.
Floating window: a separate, movable and resizable window that also shows a results list. It floats over the document so it doesn’t cover the page.

Switch between them with the diagonal-arrows button on the right of the find UI (hover it for a tooltip):

Button	Tooltip	Action
arrows pointing out, on the compact bar	Open in a window	Pop the find UI out into a floating window
arrows pointing in, on the floating window	Dock to toolbar	Dock it back to the compact bar

The choice is remembered across launches via the SearchUIFloating advanced setting (true = floating window). The floating window’s position and size are remembered via SearchUIWindowPos. See Advanced settings.

The results list shows every match below the search box, across the whole document, even on large files:

Each row shows a snippet of the surrounding text with the match highlighted, plus the page number on the right.
Click a result, or use Up / Down (and Page Up / Page Down) while the cursor stays in the search box, to jump to that match.
Find Next / Previous (the buttons, F3 / Shift + F3, or Enter / Shift + Enter) step through the list the same way.
Typing selects and jumps to the first match automatically.

The floating Find window with the list of matches

Search only some pages #

In the floating window, below the search field, Limit to pages 1-N: restricts the search to a page range (N is the last page of the document). Leave the box empty to search every page.

List several ranges: 3,4-6,18- (page 3, pages 4 to 6, and page 18 through the end).
Other forms: 10-25, 10, 10-, -25.

The n / m counter and the results list follow the same range. The compact find bar always searches the whole document.

Search from the command line #

Open a document and start a search immediately:

SumatraPDF.exe -search "needle" document.pdf

The leading - is required. Adobe Reader-style /A also works:

SumatraPDF.exe /A "page=1;search=needle" document.pdf

See Command-line arguments for the full /A parameter list.

For an already open document, use DDE:

[Search("C:\path\file.pdf", "needle")]

To jump to a page and select a term only if it appears on that page:

[GotoPageWord("C:\path\file.pdf", 12, "needle")]

Search across many PDFs #

Use the sumatrapdf-tool grep command-line tool. See Tool grep and Search text in PDF from command line.

Search the web or translate a selection #

To send selected text to Google, Bing, DeepL, etc., see Customize search / translation. Sending text to a web service is separate from in-document find.

How search works #

Search is case-insensitive by default (German ß matches ss since 3.7).
Matching continues onto following pages and wraps around to the start of the document.
The current match is highlighted with FixedPageUI.SelectionColor (configurable in advanced settings), and all other matches use a secondary orange highlight so the active match stands out.
The find UI closes when you switch tabs, and each tab gets its own fresh search.

Tips #

Select a word and press Ctrl + F3 to find its next occurrence without typing it.
Use the floating window to see every match with its page number before jumping.
Set a page range like 10- to skip front matter.
If F3 does nothing, click the document first so it has focus.