Find and replace text in a PDF

Change a name, date, price or spelling everywhere it appears in a PDF, without editing each line by hand. Review every match before anything changes.

Your file will be processed on this device.

How to find and replace text in a PDF

  1. Select or drop the PDF.
  2. Type the text to find and what to replace it with. Turn on Match case or Whole words only if you need to.
  3. Select Find, untick any matches you want to keep, then select Replace and export the PDF.
The Find and replace dialog searching a fictional letter for Noah Bennett to replace with Nora Bennett, with Match case and Whole words only ticked and three matches listed, one of them unticked.
Find and replace listing three matches in a fictional Northfield Lettings letter, with the signature block left unticked.

Worked example: changing a contact name in a two-page letter

In this test we used a fictional tenancy renewal letter from Northfield Lettings (2 pages, 32,816 bytes), exported from a word processor with embedded subset fonts. The contact for questions was changing from Noah Bennett to Nora Bennett, but Noah's signature block had to stay as it was.

With Match case and Whole words only ticked, Find listed 3 matches in 3 places: the request to call Noah Bennett on page 1, the signature block on page 1 and a note on page 2. Each line in the list shows the words around the match, which made the signature block easy to spot. We unticked it and selected Replace 2 selected.

The tool reported 2 matches replaced and nothing skipped. Comparing the extracted text of the exported PDF (43,437 bytes) with the original showed exactly two changed lines, and the signature block still read Noah Bennett.

Check every replacement before you export

Replacements reuse the font embedded in the PDF, and documents often embed only the letters they use. Before replacing a match, the tool checks that the font can draw every new letter. In a separate test on the same letter, replacing Mill Street with Mill Quay was skipped with the reason that the font cannot show "Q", because that letter had never been embedded. Zoom in on each changed line in the exported file to check its spacing.

After replacing, zoom in on each changed line in the editor and select Undo if anything looks wrong. Replacement words built from letters that already appear in the document are the most reliable. In our example, every letter in Nora already appeared elsewhere in the letter.

How Match case and Whole words only work

Without Match case, a search for larch also finds Larch and LARCH. Whole words only stops a search for Ann from matching Annex or Joanne; letters, digits and underscores in any script count as part of a word.

The search covers every page of every PDF open in the editor, plus text boxes you added, and page numbers in the list follow the current page order. If you change the search words or options after a search, the tool asks you to select Find again before it will replace anything, so the list always matches what will change.

When to use another tool instead of find and replace

Use Edit PDF text to rewrite a single line when the change is more than a word swap. Use Redact PDF to remove personal details. On a scanned page, OCR adds an invisible text layer behind the picture, so replacing that text would not change the words you can see. Add new text with Edit PDF instead.

Good to know

Why your files stay on your device

RedactNinja PDF runs in your web browser. When you choose a file, it is read and processed on your own computer, tablet or phone. It is not uploaded to a server, so there is nothing for us to store, read or delete afterwards.

You can check this yourself: open your browser's developer tools, select the Network tab and use a tool. Your document does not appear in the requests. The editor also loads no advertising or analytics code. How to check that nothing is uploaded.

Free, with no sign-up and no watermark

Every tool is free to use without an account. Nothing is added to your documents, and there are no daily task limits. Large files depend on your device's memory, so very big scans may take longer on older machines.

Questions about Find and replace in PDF

Can I replace a word throughout a PDF?

Yes. Every match is listed with its page number. Replace them all, or untick the ones to leave alone.

Why was a match skipped?

PDFs often include only the letters they use from each font. When the replacement needs a letter that is not there, the match is skipped and the missing letters are named, so nothing shows as an empty box. Choose wording that uses letters already in the document, or add new text with Edit PDF.

Can I use this to remove sensitive text?

No. To remove text so it cannot be recovered, use Redact PDF. Replacing text is for corrections.

Does it work on signed PDFs or forms?

No. Changing a signed PDF breaks its signature, and PDFs with form fields are blocked to protect the form.

Are my files uploaded?

No. The tool runs in your browser and processes the file on your device. Nothing is sent to a server.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no account, no watermark and no daily limit.

Related tools

All PDF tools

Organise

Convert from PDF

Convert to PDF

Edit and sign

Optimise and repair

Security and privacy

All PDF toolsPDF guidesEditor user guidePrivacyContactSoftware notices