Bug: Searching for em-dash finds hyphens too

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Open any PDF file containing em-dashes, e.g. the PDF file linked to at the top of this page.

Find (Ctrl F) and search for em-dash.

All hyphens will be found too, even soft hyphens.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Bhikkhu,

Thanks for that - I see the same thing here in Adobe and the Editor, but not in the Viewer. I've forwarded this on to the Devs. to see what can be done and will post back later today/early tomorrow (the Dev. is in the Canadian office, I'm in the U.K.).

Cheers,

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

This bug still exists in build 319.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Bhikkhu,

Here's what I've heard back:

There some ambiguity around this. Because many users may want current behavior too. Simple example: Currently if you will try to find the "google-moogle" in document that contains only "google—moogle" - it will be found as well. The vice-versa statement is true too. So our current behavior - its mostly like a feature, not a bug..

We may implement an option to switch between the two behaviours, but I can't guarantee it and it's not likely to be considered a high priority at this time.

Thanks,

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Well, at least you're in good company. Adobe Reader gets it wrong too.

Finding em-dash when searching for hyphen might make some sense, but finding hyphens when searching specifically for em-dash makes no sense at all to me. Users need to make a special effort to type an em-dash (or en-dash) in the Find dialogue.

If they want to find Google—Moogle with an em-dash then searching for Google-Moogle (with a hyphen will find it).

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

HI Bhikkhu,

I will bring this up on tonight's meeting, but I can't promise whether it will be fixed or when.

Regards,
Stefan

[Heike]

I have the same problem in a book with about 700 pages where I have to look for the wrong used hyphen instead of dash, for example: "The whole story - listen, my friend - is just fake." Seems as this problem was not fixed yet.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hi,

I am reading here from Will that the problem should not be present in PDF-XChange Viewer (the predecessor of PDF-XChange Editor).

PDF-XChange Viewer is still available for download and installation. You can install it next to PDF-XChange Editor.
So you can give it a try, for searching for em-dashes.

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer

Keep us posted.


Willy

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Willy Van Nuffel,

Thanks for the suggestion!

And if I may add - there's also a portable version of the Viewer, so if it will only be needed for searching in a few files, a non-install version might be preferred!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Joxon]

For special searches I always use Infix PDF Editor. You can easily find ‘en dashes’ or ‘em dashes’, but also (double) spaces, or words/characters in Italic or Bold, or a specific font or size. I hope all these handy search options will be included in PDF-XChange Editor one day...

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Joxon,

Thanks for sharing your experience! Hope others in this topic find it useful! And as for the Editor and support for such improvements to the search tool - I can not promise anything for the time being, but we will be discussing this internally!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[bostock]

Hello, people of the past and future,

I can confirm that this bug still exists in the current PDF-Xchange Editor (and the current Adobe Acrobat) in March 2025.

The link in this discussion that promises a download of the old Viewer just leads to the Editor download. Guess the older program got phased out.

Infix gets it right, as reported.

Looking forward to you guys evening the race.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

PDF-XChange Viewer is still available for download:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/dow ... scontinued

Like PDF-XChange Support stated earlier: search and find for 'dashes' is currently rather a feature than a bug.

Kind regards.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]