Search limitations of browser PDF plugin

  • 7019825
  • 09-Sep-2016
  • 07-Aug-2017

Environment

Retain 4.0.3

Situation

When we search for an exact phrase and find Retain returns a message with a PDF attachment we can't find the search phrase, that looks like a false positive, we were expecting an exact match.

Resolution

When you search for an exact phrase by placing "double quotes" around the phrase in the Search tab, Retain will return only those items with that exact phrase.

However, when you open the pdf document with the browser pdf plugin we have found that the search capabilites of the plugin are unable to find the exact phrase, it will return each word individually.
You can click through each instance the plugin finds and you will find the result Retain found, but it is generally faster to open the pdf in a desktop reader which has more powerful search capabilities and will take you right to the exact phrase.

Additional Information

This article was originally published in the GWAVA knowledgebase as article ID 2859.