I have a (long) list of words that I want to search for in a pdf. In DTP, I can enter these words in the Search or Find fields, and the words are then highlighted in the DTP view of the pdf. I would like the make the search highlights stick–that is, actually print them onto the pdf so that they become part of it (i.e. so I don’t have to rerun the search to see the highlights, so I can see the highlights in another editor, so I can run multiple searches and save words in different colors, etc.). Is this at all possible in DTP? I’ve searched through the forums and user manual and haven’t found anything.
Any ideas?
P.s. I’m not particular to the pdf format. If this is easier or possible in a rich text file (or something else), then that would fine.
Some external RTF editors have a “select all” feature. For example, Bean (free): Find > Select All, then use the Inspector panel to change the highlight.
Otherwise, in DT you can use the Find box (Edit > Find) to find your word(s) one by one. You then highlight each found word before clicking Next. Lots of clicking around, though.
Thanks for the quick replies. After a day of searching around, I found the best solution in OpenOffice’s Writer (though I haven’t tried Bean). In case anyone is interested: In Writer, select Edit > Find & Replace. In the Find & Replace window, select “More Options” and check “Regular Expressions.” Then, in the “Search for” field, enter all of the search terms, separated by “|” (i.e. the vertical bar or pipe key). For example, if I wanted to search for “bird” or “star” or “walking stick,” then I would enter (without the quotation marks) “bird|walking stick|star”. As far as I can tell, the search allows a lot of terms (I’ve used close to 30 without problems). Then select “Find All,” which will select all of the search terms in the text. With all of the words/phrases selected, simply click on the highlight icon in the toolbar (or any other formatting option–bold, underline, etc.), and all of the terms will now be highlighted.
As far as I was able to determine, Skim doesn’t allow for multiple search terms or Boolean operators (or actually highlighting the results in a permanent way).
Actually, Skim has a very nice script that is included with the installation and appears in the Skin Scripts menu (looks like a scrolly-thing on the menu bar). The “Highlight Occurrences of Text” prompt you for the kind of highlight you wish to make, and then prompt for the search text. All the instances of that text are found and highlighted as specified.