Search content in pdf files?

How To
1

Hi,
I am trying to make it possible to use the WordPress search functionality on the frontend to search for the content in pdf files.

To make this possible I have tried a few different plugins that handles the indexing of the contents of the pdf files. I have tried these so far:

  • SearchWP
  • Ajax Search Pro
  • Full Text Search Pro

From what I can see in the backend, the content of the pdf:s are indexed, but it is not possible to find the pdf files, when searching for words from within their contents from the WordPress site search function.

I assume these different plugins overrides the original search template in WordPress, to enable the functionality to search in pdf files.
However, it seems like Bricks do not allow such an override. Whatever I do, I still get the normal search results, without the results from the indexed pdf:s.

Does anyone know how I can go around this, to make it possible to present search results including pdf files?

Thanks!
Nicklas

2

You can use Relevanssi ( https://www.relevanssi.com/ ). Used in combination with WP Gridbuilder or Search&Filter for the Search functions.

Only issue I’ve found is that some PDFs are not created so that their content is fully indexable. Especially, in my case, where old association magazines were scanned. Seems like the old OCR wasn’t up to the job. Hopefully fixable by rescanning.

1 Like
3

Hi,
Thanks for the help! I guess I will need the premium version of Relevanssi, if I want to be able to search for the content in PDF files?

4

Yes, you in fact need Relevanssi pro license for this.

1 Like