When dates, years, numbers, or names in multiple PDFs need to be uniformly modified, opening each PDF individually for manual find-and-replace is very time-consuming. This article uses HeSoft Doc Batch Tool as an example to demonstrate how to use "Find and Replace Keywords in PDF" within a PDF tool. By using formula-based fuzzy search to achieve matching similar to wildcards, the month and four-digit year in multiple PDFs can be batch replaced with new content, making it suitable for batch revision of office documents and unified correction before archiving.
Many office workers encounter a situation where a batch of PDF materials has already been generated and distributed, only to realize that the dates, years, project names, or numbers need to be uniformly adjusted. PDFs are not as easy to edit directly as Word documents. If there are only one or two files, manually opening and processing them is acceptable; but if there are dozens or even hundreds of PDFs, and each file needs to be searched, replaced, and saved, the workload becomes enormous.
Even more troublesome is that the content to be replaced is not always exactly the same. For example, dates may contain different months, and years may be different four-digit numbers; numbers may contain different serial numbers; and report names may contain different batches. In such cases, simply entering a fixed keyword for replacement is often not flexible enough. This article will introduce a more suitable method for batch office work: using HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to perform fuzzy keyword searches in PDF files using wildcards or formulas, and batch replace them with target text.
The example in this article demonstrates changing old months and years in multiple PDFs to new months and years uniformly. Before processing, "April 13, 2017" can be seen in the PDF, and after processing, it becomes "August 13, 2026". Through this case, you can understand how to apply similar methods to tasks such as batch modification of PDF dates, batch replacement of PDF numbers, and batch revision of PDF keywords.
Applicable Scenarios: Why Use Fuzzy Search for Batch Replacing PDF Content
In enterprise office work and document management, PDF is often the final delivery format. Its advantage is stable layout, but its disadvantage is that it is not as easy to modify as source files like doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, and pptx. When source files are lost, or content revision can only be based on existing PDFs, batch find-and-replace tools are very practical.
The following scenarios are particularly suitable for using PDF wildcard fuzzy find-and-replace:
- The cover dates of a batch of PDF reports need to be uniformly updated, for example, changing an old year to a new year.
- Old company names, brand names, or department names in multiple PDF contracts need to be uniformly replaced.
- There are multiple similarly formatted numbers in PDF notices, announcements, or manuals that need to be batch-modified according to rules.
- Old project names are found in PDF materials before archiving and need to be revised across multiple documents at once.
- Keywords in documents follow a pattern but are not completely identical, such as months, years, serial numbers, and codes.
Compared to opening PDFs one by one, the advantage of batch processing software is that files can be imported centrally first, and then rules can be set uniformly, allowing the software to automatically perform repetitive operations. HeSoft Doc Batch Tool 's positioning revolves around batch processing files, reducing repetitive labor, and improving office efficiency, making it suitable for users who frequently process document materials.
Effect Preview: Old Date Content in PDF Before Processing
In the example, there are 4 PDF files in the folder to be processed: 1.pdf, 2.pdf, 3.pdf, and 4.pdf. All of them are objects that need to be batch-processed this time. If using traditional methods, you would need to open these 4 PDFs in sequence and manually search for date content.
After opening one of the PDFs, you can see a date text on the page. The screenshot uses a red box to highlight "April" and "2017", indicating that the focus of the replacement is the month and year in the date, while the "13," in the middle remains unchanged.
If you only search for "April", you can only replace the exact match for that month; if "May" or other months appear in other PDFs, they might be missed. Searching only for "2017" would also only replace this fixed year. To cover similar content more flexibly, fuzzy search rules are needed. For example, the settings shown later in screenshots like "April|May" and "\d{4}" reflect this idea of matching text based on patterns.
Effect Preview: Date Has Been Updated to Target Content After Processing
After the batch processing is complete, open the PDFs for verification, and you can see that the original "April 13, 2017" has become "August 13, 2026". The month has been replaced with "August", and the four-digit year has been replaced with "2026".
From the effect, the software completed two types of replacements: one is replacing matched month text with the specified month; the other is replacing matched four-digit year numbers with the specified year. This method is very intuitive for batch modifying PDF dates and can also be extended to other keyword replacement tasks with regular patterns.
Operation Steps: Batch Replacing Multiple PDF Keywords with HeSoft Doc Batch Tool
Step 1: Enter the Find and Replace Function in the PDF Tool
After launching HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , first select "PDF Tools" in the left navigation bar. The right side will display multiple PDF-related batch processing functions, such as adding password protection to PDFs, adding watermarks to PDFs, converting PDFs to Word, converting PDFs to images, etc. This article needs to modify the text within PDF content, so select "Find and Replace Keywords in PDF".
In the screenshot, this function card displays as "1. Find and Replace Keywords in PDF", with the description "Batch find and replace keywords in PDF file content". This indicates that it deals not with file names or format conversion, but with finding and replacing content within PDF files. Entering the correct function entry is a prerequisite for the smooth execution of subsequent batch operations.
Step 2: Import All PDFs to Be Processed
After entering the function, the top of the interface shows the current task name "Find and Replace Keywords in PDF". The processing workflow adopts a step-by-step design, with Step 1 being "Select records to process". On this page, you can import single or multiple PDFs via "Add Files", or import all PDFs from a folder at once via "Import Files from Folder".
In the example, 4 records have been imported, with file names 1.pdf, 2.pdf, 3.pdf, and 4.pdf, located in a test directory on the D drive. The table also displays information like extension, creation time, and modification time, making it easy for users to confirm the processing objects. For batch processing, it is recommended to check carefully at this step: if files are missed during import, they will be omitted from processing; if irrelevant PDFs are imported by mistake, unnecessary content modifications may occur.
After confirming the file list is correct, click "Next" at the bottom of the page to enter the rule setting page.
Step 3: Select "Use Formula for Fuzzy Text Search"
In Step 2 "Set Processing Options", the software will require you to set keyword options. In the screenshot, you can see that "Search Mode" includes two options: "Exact Text Search" and "Use Formula for Fuzzy Text Search". Since this case aims to perform wildcard-style fuzzy searching, you should select "Use Formula for Fuzzy Text Search".
This can be understood as follows: exact search is suitable for fixed content, such as replacing an "old company name" with a "new company name"; while formula-based fuzzy search is suitable for patterned content, such as years, numbers, or multiple optional words. For batch replacement of keywords in PDFs, selecting the correct search mode will directly affect the replacement results.
Step 4: Fill in the Wildcard or Formula Rules to Find on the Left Side
The left area of the screenshot is the "List of keywords to find". Two rules are filled in the example:
- April|May
- \d{4}
The first rule "April|May" means to find month words like April or May. The second rule "\d{4}" means to match four-digit numbers, commonly used for identifying years. Through such formulations, the software can search for text based on patterns, rather than just searching for a single, completely fixed string.
In actual office work, you can adjust the rules based on document content. For example, if you need to replace multiple old department names, you can fill in multiple names as search items; if you need to process numbers in a fixed format, you should first analyze the number pattern and then set the corresponding search content. It is recommended not to set rules that are too broad initially, especially when involving numbers, to avoid incorrectly matching other numbers, monetary amounts, or page numbers.
Step 5: Fill in the Target Content for Replacement on the Right Side
The right area is the "List of keywords to replace with". The example is filled with:
- August
- 2026
These two lines correspond row-by-row to the find list on the left. That is, content matched by row 1 on the left will be replaced with "August" from row 1 on the right; content matched by row 2 on the left will be replaced with "2026" from row 2 on the right. Because there is a correspondence between the left and right lists, the number of rows and order should be kept consistent when filling them in.
If you are performing batch PDF date modifications, it is advisable to first clarify which parts need to change and which parts should remain the same. Taking this example, only the month and year are replaced; the middle date "13," is not in the find list, so it will not be replaced. This allows for partial modification without having to rewrite the entire date segment.
Step 6: Proceed to Save Location and Start Processing Flow
After setting the find and replace rules, click "Next". From the top progress bar, you can see that "Set Save Location" and "Start Processing" are the subsequent steps. Although the screenshot does not show the detailed content of the save location page, the save location is very important when batch modifying PDFs. It is recommended to save the processed PDFs to a new output directory for easy comparison with the original files.
After completing the save location setting, proceed to the start processing step. When processing is finished, spot-check some PDFs to confirm whether the keyword replacement meets expectations. If there are many files, prioritize checking PDFs containing typical content, such as files with complete dates, numbers, and titles.
Common Questions and Precautions
1. Why should "\d{4}" be used with caution?
From the screenshot example, "\d{4}" is used to match four-digit numbers, suitable for finding years. However, if the PDF contains report numbers, page numbers, monetary amounts, codes, or other four-digit numbers, they might also be matched. Therefore, before formal batch processing, test the rules with a small number of sample documents first. If you only want to replace years in specific positions, you need to narrow the search scope as much as possible or use more precise rules.
2. Can the order of multiple find and replace items be arbitrary?
It is not recommended to adjust them arbitrarily. In the software interface, the left side is the find list and the right side is the replace list, usually establishing a row-by-row correspondence. Row 1 corresponds to row 1, row 2 to row 2. If the order is messed up, the replacement results may not meet expectations. After filling in, you can check row by row to confirm correctness.
3. When should I use exact search versus fuzzy search?
If the content to be replaced is completely fixed, such as changing "2025 Annual Report" to "2026 Annual Report" uniformly, you can consider exact search. If the content to be replaced has variable patterns, such as different years, different months, or different numbers, it is more suitable to use the formula-based fuzzy text search. The wildcard batch replacement theme in this article essentially aims to solve the problem of modifying PDF content that is "not completely identical but follows a pattern".
4. Can scanned PDFs be replaced?
If the PDF pages are in image format and the text is not searchable, direct find-and-replace might not recognize the content. You can first try searching for the target text in a PDF reader. If it cannot be found, it indicates that the PDF may need preprocessing like optical character recognition (OCR) first. For copyable and searchable text in PDFs, the success rate of batch find-and-replace is usually higher.
5. Do I need to keep the original files before batch processing?
It is recommended to keep them. Batch replacement affects multiple files simultaneously. Once rules are set incorrectly, errors can also be magnified in batch. A safer approach is to keep the original PDFs, output the processing results to a new folder, and after confirming they are correct, use them for formal archiving, distribution, or overwriting.
Summary: Using Wildcards to Improve PDF Batch Revision Efficiency
When multiple PDF dates and numbers need to be uniformly modified, the greatest waste of time is not a single replacement action, but the constant repetition of opening files, searching locations, manual input, saving, and closing. HeSoft Doc Batch Tool consolidates these repetitive steps into a single task flow: first select the PDF tool, then import files, next set find and replace rules, and finally output the processing results uniformly.
By "using formulas for fuzzy text search", the example in this article batch-identified and replaced months and four-digit years in PDFs, achieving a rapid update from old dates to new dates. For users who need to batch replace PDF keywords, batch modify PDF dates, or batch process PDF report numbers, this method is more stable, more efficient than manual operation, and more suitable for batch file processing needs in daily office work.
If you are facing a batch of PDF files with similar content that need uniform revision, it is recommended to prepare a few sample documents first, set up fuzzy search rules following the steps in this article, and test the effect. After confirming correctness, import the complete folder into the software for batch processing, which can significantly reduce repetitive labor while ensuring accuracy.