Have you ever misplaced an invoice, report or other document on your computer? Or even lost a specific reference number, important name or other key detail in a document? We’ve all been there - and it can often feel like searching for a needle in a digital haystack.
In this guide, we’ll talk all-things document search and document indexing. That way, you can organise and retrieve your documents in a few easy clicks.
At one time, documents would have been stored in filing cabinets and transferred by email, fax or - going way back - courier. Document management systems changed all that, allowing people to access documents stored digitally from anywhere in the world. But they’re not without their complications.
In a digital filing system of many thousands of pages, it’s easy to lose track of your documents. That’s why most document management systems have a function that allows you to find your file by simply searching the file name, vendor name, tag or indexing terms.
You can also perform a full-text search. This allows you to search for content within the documents - a good backup if you don’t have a specific file or vendor name to hand. With this, you could search for a memorable name, date or sentence instead. This less specific method may generate multiple results for your query, but it can be useful in a pinch.
Performing a search is simple. Just enter your index title, document title, vendor name or document text into the search function of your Windows or Mac file manager, click enter and wait for your document to appear. Depending on how many files you have stored, this could take a few minutes.
At times, you might have a long document like a report or whitepaper and need to search for a specific term, name, number or section within it. Let’s go through how to do that on a few different programmes.
If you’re working with PDFs, you can use the search function in Adobe Acrobat to find what you need. Simply open Acrobat and use the search bar at the top of the page. The best bit? With Adobe’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, you can even search in PDFs created from paper documents.
To search a Word document, you’ll need to use the Find tool.
Sometimes, you might need to replace a specific word, sentence or chunk of text with an entirely new one. Think if a brand changes its name or needs to update a specific stat or paragraph in a statement in line with a new policy.
To do this in Adobe Acrobat:
The process is very similar in Word:
Cloud-based document storage may once have seemed the wave of the future, but these digital files can get just as messy and disorganised as their analogue equivalents. The key to success is to up your indexing game.
Essentially, indexing is the categorising and tagging of documents to make them easier to sift through and track down. You can think about it in a similar way to a good old-fashioned textbook, cookery book or travel guide in print. If you’re looking for a reference or other information on a specific subject, the most efficient way is to head to the index section at the back of the book to find what you need.
Digital indexing uses similar principles. By creating and allocating specific tags to your document, you can easily search by this tag to find what you need. This saves time, frees up your staff for more important tasks, aids better collaboration and can even help with audit compliance. The end result of a solid tagging process could be an improved bottom line.
Everyone works differently. Some people might save documents following different conventions to others. Here are some of the key methods of document indexing.
Document retrieval is the overarching process behind document searches. Put simply, it allows users to retrieve documents from central servers to their computers from wherever they are in the world. Document retrieval processes are, therefore, essential to remote working and studying practices.
Users may need a VPN to access the relevant server or they could simply require a username and password to access an online folder. Users are normally granted restricted access to only specific folders and documents to prevent them from reading sensitive information from other documents.
You can search for specific documents online using Google Chrome. In the Google search field, enter ‘filetype:’ followed by the specific file extension type you’re looking for - such as PDF or DOCX. Then, enter the search term as usual. So, if you were searching for a PDF of Oliver Twist, you’d enter filetype:pdf “oliver twist”.
You can perform a document search using a simple Find shortcut. On Word and Adobe Acrobat, this is Cntrl+F. On Mac devices, you’ll need to enter Command-F.
There are a number of advanced PDF search options that could be useful. For example, you could include bookmarks and comments in your search. You can also make your search case sensitive or search PDF indexes specifically.
With Adobe Scan, you can digitise your documents to make them searchable. Find out more.