How to Search for Words in Documents on Mac (PDFs, Word, Pages, and Scans)

1. Searching Words in Apple Preview and PDFs

When viewing a PDF in Apple Preview, press Command + F (⌘ F) to bring up the search field in the top-right corner. Preview highlights all occurrences with yellow boxes and lists matched pages in the sidebar.

If your PDF is a scanned paper document with no selectable text, macOS Live Text can still recognize words on Apple Silicon Macs. Simply hover your cursor over the text to copy or search it.

2. Searching for Words in Microsoft Word & Apple Pages

In Microsoft Word for Mac, Command + F opens the Navigation pane. You can review matches across entire headings or pages. To perform word replacements, press Option + Command + F (⌥ ⌘ F).

In Apple Pages, Command + F pulls up the compact floating find-and-replace banner above the document canvas.

3. Searching Across Multiple Documents Simultaneously in Finder

Open Finder, press ⌘ F, and select 'This Mac'. In the search bar, type your target word. Under the search bar, select 'Contents' rather than 'File Name'.

You can narrow the results by adding attributes: click the '+' button on the right side and select 'Kind is Document' or 'Document Kind is PDF'.

4. Instant Full-Text Previews with SearchOnMac

SearchOnMac lets you search document words from anywhere with Option + Space (⌥ Space). Pressing Spacebar or ⌘ Y immediately previews the exact sentence match in an integrated preview card without launching Preview or Word.