When multiple PDF files contain similar but not identical keywords, dates, numbers, or years, searching and replacing by opening each file individually is time-consuming. This article uses HeSoft Doc Batch Tool as an example to demonstrate how to use wildcards or formulas for fuzzy text search, batch replacing keywords in multiple PDFs, such as uniformly replacing different months or years with new content, helping office workers reduce repetitive operations and improve file processing efficiency.
In daily office work, PDF files are often used for contracts, reports, notifications, document archiving, and external distribution. The problem is that once the number of PDFs increases, manually handling unified changes to content like dates, project names, version numbers, years, and department names becomes very inefficient. This is especially true when the content is not entirely consistent; for example, some files might contain "April" while others contain "May," and the year could be 2017, 2018, or another four-digit number. A standard precise find-and-replace operation is not flexible enough in such cases.
This article aims to solve precisely this type of problem: how to use wildcards or formula-based fuzzy finding to batch search for and replace keywords across many PDF files. Taking HeSoft Doc Batch Tool as an example, we will demonstrate the process from importing PDFs and setting fuzzy search rules to the final effect of a completed batch replacement. This tool belongs to the batch document processing category within office software. Its core value lies in centrally executing repetitive, mechanical file processing actions, making it suitable for users who frequently need to handle office files like PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Applicable Scenarios: Which PDF Content is Suitable for Wildcard Batch Replacement
Wildcard batch find and replace is suitable for handling PDF text content that follows patterns but is not exactly identical. For instance, multiple PDF reports all have a publication date, but with different months and years; several notification files contain different batch numbers, but the batch number format is consistent; various PDF contracts contain different numbers that need to be uniformly replaced according to a rule; multiple document files contain an old company name, old project code, or old version number that needs to be updated to a new one.
Using the example from the screenshot, the PDF page before processing displays the date content "April 13, 2017". If you only needed to replace "April" with "August" and "2017" with "2026", a precise find could certainly accomplish this. However, if the month in multiple PDFs could be "April" or "May", and the year could be any four-digit number, using formula-based fuzzy text search is more suitable. This approach allows you to match multiple possible values with a single rule, for example, using "April|May" to match "April" or "May", and "\d{4}" to match any four-digit year, then replacing them with "August" and "2026" respectively.
The advantage of this method is that you don't need to open files one by one, nor do you need to perform a separate replacement for each variation. As long as you first confirm that the text within the PDF can be recognized and set up the search rules reasonably, the software can process multiple PDF files at once, reducing the probability of missed or incorrect changes.
Effect Preview: Date Keywords in PDF Before Processing
Before starting the operation, let's first look at the files and PDF content for this batch process. The folder contains multiple PDF files; the example includes 1.pdf, 2.pdf, 3.pdf, and 4.pdf, all of which need unified keyword find and replace.
After opening one of the PDFs, you can see the date content on the page is "April 13, 2017". The screenshot highlights two parts that need processing with a red box: the month "April" and the year "2017". The date number "13" in between does not need to change, so the rules for this task only target the month and year for replacement.
This type of content is very common in PDFs, such as report cover dates, project deadlines, file version dates, and document publication dates. If you only have one file, manual correction is acceptable; but if you have dozens or even hundreds of PDFs, individually finding, replacing, and saving takes up a significant amount of time and makes it easy to miss processing some files.
Effect After Processing: Keywords in Multiple PDFs Replaced Uniformly
After completing the batch process, open a PDF to check, and you can see that the original "April 13, 2017" has been changed to "August 13, 2026". The month was replaced with "August", the year with "2026", while the date number "13" in between remained unchanged. This shows that the fuzzy search rules only targeted the content within the specified scope and did not replace text that didn't need modification.
In a batch processing scenario, this result is very important. A good batch replacement must not only be fast but also controllable: content intended for replacement gets replaced, while content that shouldn't change remains original. Therefore, when setting up wildcards or formulas, it is necessary to clearly define the replacement content for each search rule and to sample and check files after processing for verification.
Operation Step 1: Enter the PDF Tool and Select the Find and Replace Function
After opening HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , you can see multiple office file processing entries in the left tool category list, such as PDF Tools, Word Tools, Excel Tools, PowerPoint Tools, Text Tools, Image Tools, etc. Here we need to process PDF file content, so first enter "PDF Tools".
In the PDF tools list, find the "Find and Replace Keywords in PDF" function. In the screenshot, this function is located as the first item in the list, indicating its purpose is to batch find and replace keywords in PDF file content. Click this function to enter the batch processing wizard.
The purpose of this step is to tell the software the file type and processing method for this task. After selecting the correct function, the subsequent interface will center around "Select Files, Set Replacement Rules, Set Save Location, Start Processing," suitable for office users who prefer not to write scripts or open PDFs one by one.
Operation Step 2: Add Multiple PDF Files to Process
After entering the "Find and Replace Keywords in PDF" function, you first arrive at Step 1, "Select Records to Process". At the top right of the interface, you can see buttons like "Add Files", "Import Files from Folder", "Clear", "More", etc. If processing only a few PDFs, you can click "Add Files"; if the PDFs are already consolidated in a specific folder, it is more suitable to use "Import Files from Folder" to add all PDFs from that folder to the task list at once.
The screenshot shows that 4 PDF files have been imported: 1.pdf, 2.pdf, 3.pdf, and 4.pdf, located in the D:\test directory. The table also displays information like extension, creation time, and modification time, making it easy to confirm if the imported files are correct. The summary area at the bottom left shows a record count of 4, indicating that the subsequent replacement task will be performed on these 4 PDFs.
At this step, users are advised to check two key aspects: first, whether the file quantity matches expectations; second, whether any PDFs that shouldn't be processed were mistakenly imported. If you find a file that should not be processed, you can remove it using the delete button in the operation column. After confirming everything is correct, click "Next" at the bottom to proceed to the processing option settings.
Operation Step 3: Enable Formula Fuzzy Text Search and Fill in Replacement Rules
Step 2 is the key part of the entire process, i.e., "Set Processing Options". In the "Set Keyword Options" area, you can see the "Search Method" includes "Precise Text Search" and "Use Formula for Fuzzy Text Search". This case requires the use of wildcards or regex-like rules to match variable content, so select "Use Formula for Fuzzy Text Search".
Next, in the "Keyword List to Search" on the left, fill in the content to find line by line, and in the "Replaced Keyword List" on the right, fill in the corresponding replacement result for each line. The settings in the screenshot can be understood as two sets of corresponding relationships:
Line 1: The search content is "April|May", and the replacement content is "August". The vertical bar here means matching multiple possible values, so when "April" or "May" appears in the PDF, both are replaced with "August". This is suitable for handling files where the month is inconsistent, but the target month needs to be uniform.
Line 2: The search content is "\d{4}", and the replacement content is "2026". This rule is used to match four-digit numbers, commonly found in year content like 2017, 2018, 2020, etc. With this method, any four-digit year in the PDF can be uniformly replaced with "2026".
It is important to note that the left and right lists usually correspond by row. That is, the first row on the left corresponds to the first row on the right, and the second row on the left corresponds to the second row on the right. Do not confuse the order when filling, otherwise the replacement result may not meet expectations. If the replacement content for a row is left blank, the interface prompt indicates "leaving it blank means deletion", meaning this can be used for batch deletion of matched text. However, if you are just replacing keywords, you should fill in the new content explicitly.
Operation Step 4: Set Save Location and Start Batch Processing
After completing the search method and replacement content settings, click "Next". Following the progress flow at the top of the interface, the subsequent steps are "Set Save Location" and "Start Processing". When batch processing PDFs, it is recommended to save the output files to a new folder rather than overwriting the original files directly. This way, even if the rules are set incorrectly, you can return to the original PDFs and reprocess them, avoiding irreversible file loss.
When setting the save location, you can create a new output directory based on the project or date, such as "Replaced PDFs" or "2026 Date Updated Version". After confirming the save location, proceed to "Start Processing" and let the software automatically execute the batch find and replace. Once processing is complete, open the PDF files in the output directory to spot-check the content and confirm that keywords like month and year have been replaced according to the rules.
For multiple PDF files, the software processes them one by one according to the task list, without requiring the user to repeatedly open, search, type, and save. Compared to manual operation, this batch method significantly reduces mechanical labor and is especially suitable for roles that frequently process PDFs, such as document administrators, administrative staff, financial personnel, project assistants, and document archivists.
Frequently Asked Questions and Notes
1. Why can't some PDFs be replaced? If a PDF is a scanned image, the text on the page is not editable text itself, and standard text find and replace might not recognize it. The text in the example PDF screenshot could be recognized, hence the replacement was possible. When encountering scanned PDFs, you need to first confirm whether the text can be selected and copied.
2. Should wildcard rules be written broadly? It is not recommended. For example, "\d{4}" will match all four-digit numbers. If the PDF contains report numbers, amount codes, or other four-digit numbers besides the year, they might also be replaced. When applying this in practice, rules should be set cautiously based on the document content, and it's necessary to test with a small number of files first if needed.
3. Can multiple replacement sets be configured at once? As seen in the screenshot, the keyword list supports multi-line input, with the left and right sides corresponding by row, so you can configure multiple sets of find and replace content simultaneously. Ensure the number of rows and the order are consistent when filling them in.
4. Is it recommended to overwrite source files directly? It is not recommended. When batch processing files, it's best to output to a new directory and keep the original PDFs. This allows for easy comparison of the effects before and after processing, and also allows re-execution if the rules are found to be inaccurate.
Summary: Batch Replace Keywords in PDFs with Wildcards to Reduce Repetitive Labor
When many PDF files contain similar but not entirely identical keywords, manual find and replace is not only slow but also prone to omissions. By using the "Find and Replace Keywords in PDF" function in HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , you can batch match content like months, years, and numbers using "Use Formula for Fuzzy Text Search" and replace them with target text in one go.
In the example provided in this article, after importing multiple PDF files into the task list, rules like "April|May" and "\d{4}" were used to batch change the date content in the PDFs from "April 13, 2017" to "August 13, 2026". The entire process is clear and verifiable, suitable for office users who frequently need to maintain PDF reports, contracts, notices, and archived documents. It is recommended that before formally processing a large number of files, you prepare one or two sample PDFs to test the rules. Once you confirm the effect is correct, you can proceed with the batch execution, which will improve efficiency while ensuring the accuracy of the file content modifications.