A Suggestion to Improve the Search Pane

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I tested the latest build of PDF-XChange with my huge (11,800 page) test document.

PDF-XChange now finds 7,100 occurrences of a common word in 2 mins 23 seconds (the previous build took 3 mins 5 secs).

Foxit takes about 5 mins 10 seconds for the same task, while Adobe Reader would take 17 or 18 mins if I waited that long.

Most documents won't be this long, so most searches will finish in < 30 seconds. Nevertheless, it could be improved by making the Stop button pause and resume the current search rather than just aborting it. In case users are searching long documents, they can pause after 5 or 10 seconds to see if the result is found, then resume the search if necessary later.

This is not important, but if it can be done easily, then please consider it.

Another Improvement

Adobe Reader starts searching from the current page, then continues from page 1 when it reaches the end of the document. I think this is more intelligent than starting from page 1 every time as PDF-XChange does. Better still would be to pause automatically at the end of the document, with a result like "Search summary: 1 documents, 710 entries, paused," and continue from page 1 if the user clicks on Resume Search.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

I think this is more intelligent than starting from page 1 every time as PDF-XChange does.

The viewer start searches from the current page for opened document. It starts from page 1 only for files on the disk.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The viewer start searches from the current page for opened document. It starts from page 1 only for files on the disk.

You must be using the Find toolbar — it always starts searching from page 1 in the Search Pane, which is what I am suggesting improvements for.

[benpal]

You obviously use the Search function to search within one single document, and an exceptionally large one at that. I don't consider 2 or 3 minutes of search time excessive in this case. Why don't you use the Find function in the first place?

I'm using the Search function mainly to search through multiple documents, such as all documents in a specific folder. A search through 30 GB of data on my PC reveals 79 documents and 5000 entries and is accomplished in 7 minutes.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

A search through 30 GB of data on my PC reveals 79 documents and 5000 entries and is accomplished in 7 minutes.

It is good or bad?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

You obviously use the Search function to search within one single document, and an exceptionally large one at that. I don't consider 2 or 3 minutes of search time excessive in this case. Why don't you use the Find function in the first place?

I used an exceptionally large document to compare the speed of PDF-XChange with other viewers — a short time is hard to measure accurately.

Most documents won't be this long, so most searches will finish in < 30 seconds.

Indeed, as my tests show, PDF-XChange Viewer completes the search in a very reasonable time considering the abnormal size of the document.

If searching an average long document of about 100-500 pages a user may wish to pause the search after 5 seconds rather than waiting for 30 seconds. The find toolbar is not designed for the same task — if it were, why bother with implementing the Search pane at all? The search pane shows a list of search results with their page numbers and context. Using the “find next” function twenty times until you find the relevant paragraph is not much fun at all.

If searching multiple documents for a search string, the pause feature would be even more useful than if searching a single long document.

[Giraffe]

Just tried a search in a fairly large PDF: the complete timetable for UK Railways, at 65.8MB and 2916 pages. I used this as there will be a lot of entries for almost any station due to the name appearing many times on a page.

Did 'Clapham'; it took 3.5 min. and came up with 940 instances!

BTW, the PDF took about 7s to open fully on what is basically an 'office' PC - very impressive.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Excellent - Pleased it performs well for you