Search your PDF files - it's the fast way to find information

Most PDF files are searchable.  And, if they're not, then just make them so by OCR'ing them.  Let's take a quick example.  The  federal district courts in Louisiana have their entire local rules available on the webs.  But searching the rules online is cumbersome, so I decided to capture the rules to PDF.  I clicked on the the button that suggested allowed me to "print all local rules" and was hyperlinked to this page.

Instead of printing the entire set of rules to my printer I 'printed to PDF'.  That's a function built into the full versions of Acrobat (Standard and Professional).  The resulting PDF file size was about 500 kilobites, which is nothing.  But that file had 128 pages of local rules, as you can see for yourself.  That would be a lot of information to sift through if you wanted, as I did, to find the local rule on oral arguments in the Eastern District.  But, if you have a searchable PDF, finding the rule takes only a few seconds.

Just open the file in Adobe Reader or Acrobat, hit the 'Find" command and type in: 'oral argument.'  I think you'll agree this is a faster way than looking through the index.  But the ability to search PDFs really shines when you are looking for information that relates to your cases.

For example, I always OCR the documents I receive from opposing counsel.  The other day I was in a deposition and the witness was asked about a certain person and no one other than the questioner seemed to know who the person was.  I quickly searched the documents to see if that person's name appeared and, lo and behold, it did.  This would not have been possible if I hadn't made the documents searchable.  The OCR function in Acrobat 7.0 and 8.0 is really quick and reliable.  For more information, about OCRing your documents click here.