I have a library of 500+ research articles in PDF (about 700-800 MB of my HD). They are all searchable PDFs (I have OCRed the ones which were scanned pages with noi text). The articles are of different sizes, but about 50 pages each.
I've put these PDFs all together in one folder and now I am looking for a search engine (for Windows 7) which is able to perform full-text searches in this whole library of PDF files. I've tried several pieces of software, but no one has given me a satiisfactory experience. Let me tell you which ones I've used:
Windows Search: fast and indexes files, but not very straightforward to limit the searches to a specific folder.
Google Desktop: fast and indexes files, but I have not found a way to linit the searches to PDFs inside a specific folder (I don't want it to search the thousands of PDFs stored in my HD). Plus, it has been discontinued by Google.
Copernic: fast, indexes files and I can limit the searches to a specific folder. However, it is not able to render properly the text inside the PDFs.
Mendeley: it creates a database of PDFs, indexes and searches those PDFs included in the database. However, it has crashed due to the large number of PDF files I've added. In addition, it cannot display all the instances of a specific word I search for.
Zotero: I couldn't even try it, it crashed as I tried to add my PDFs to its database.
Adobe Reader: it searches all PDF files inside a specific folder. However, the search is very slow (it does not index files). It is able to show all the instances a word is found in each PDF file, renders PDFs greatly and it is possible to read and annotate the PDFs right after the search. But it is sooooo slow.
PDF X-Change Viewer: prety much the same as Adobe Reader.
Foxit Reader: the best so far. Just like Adobe Reader and PDF X-Change Viewer, but the searches are a bit faster. In addition, I liked the interface better.
The ideal solution for me would be if Foxit Reader could index all PDFs inside a specific folder, so searches would be much faster. Is it possible? Is there a solution which I have not yet tried?
I've put these PDFs all together in one folder and now I am looking for a search engine (for Windows 7) which is able to perform full-text searches in this whole library of PDF files. I've tried several pieces of software, but no one has given me a satiisfactory experience. Let me tell you which ones I've used:
Windows Search: fast and indexes files, but not very straightforward to limit the searches to a specific folder.
Google Desktop: fast and indexes files, but I have not found a way to linit the searches to PDFs inside a specific folder (I don't want it to search the thousands of PDFs stored in my HD). Plus, it has been discontinued by Google.
Copernic: fast, indexes files and I can limit the searches to a specific folder. However, it is not able to render properly the text inside the PDFs.
Mendeley: it creates a database of PDFs, indexes and searches those PDFs included in the database. However, it has crashed due to the large number of PDF files I've added. In addition, it cannot display all the instances of a specific word I search for.
Zotero: I couldn't even try it, it crashed as I tried to add my PDFs to its database.
Adobe Reader: it searches all PDF files inside a specific folder. However, the search is very slow (it does not index files). It is able to show all the instances a word is found in each PDF file, renders PDFs greatly and it is possible to read and annotate the PDFs right after the search. But it is sooooo slow.
PDF X-Change Viewer: prety much the same as Adobe Reader.
Foxit Reader: the best so far. Just like Adobe Reader and PDF X-Change Viewer, but the searches are a bit faster. In addition, I liked the interface better.
The ideal solution for me would be if Foxit Reader could index all PDFs inside a specific folder, so searches would be much faster. Is it possible? Is there a solution which I have not yet tried?
