Having a technique to quickly find and display a document within a bundle PDF, by searching for a string of letters/numbers in its bookmark, can be important, so that you don't lose the thread, if you are having to read one document and constantly refer back and forth to other documents as they are mentioned.
Ideally each document will be referred to by a distinctive exhibit mark or other string of letters and numbers such as JJS21 and the referred to document will have that same series of letters and numbers at the start or end of its bookmark.
Quickly finding and displaying the first page of a document within a bundle PDF by doing a "Find" for its bookmark is easier with some PDF software than with others.
The best software to use is probably PDF X-Change Editor. Using that first tap Ctrl-F to bring up the Find box, tap the More Options icon and tick Include Bookmarks and Whole Words and untick Include Page Text. You only have to do this once. Then every time you want to display a document based on its bookmark:
Simply type into the Find box the reference you are looking for e.g. JJS21 and tap Enter and the document will be immediately displayed.
Once you have looked at the referred-to document you can return to the paragraph of the document you are reading (the document which had the reference that you followed) by tapping the Previous View button (or by holding Alt and tapping the left hand arrow button).
If you are using Foxit PDF Reader then every time you want to display a document based on its bookmark:
Type into the search box in the Bookmarks panel the reference you are looking for e.g.JJS21 to locate the bookmark, then tap the bookmark to go to the document itself.
Once you have looked at the referred-to document you can return to the paragraph of the document you are reading (the document which had the reference that you followed) by tapping the Previous View button (or by holding Alt and tapping the left hand arrow button).
Using Foxit PDF Reader takes slightly longer each time (than using PDF X-Change Editor) because you have to tap on the bookmark to display the document but, on the other hand, Foxit Reader can be downloaded free from www.foxit.com/pdf-reader
It is possible to use Adobe Acrobat Reader (which is also free) but it is not easy and it is better to use one of the above instead. If you do decide to use Adobe Acrobat Reader, you have to do the following every time:
Tap Ctrl-Shift-F and, in the Search panel, make sure Include Bookmarks is ticked (it should be if you ticked it last time).
Type in the reference you are looking for e.g. JJS21 and tap Enter. The search will then start showing hits in the Search panel as it proceeds. It will search for occurrences of JJS21 in bookmarks first and then go on to search for occurrences of JJS21 in text (it would normally be only bookmarks you want to search but there is no "bookmarks only" option in Search so you have to do a search for both bookmarks and text).
If (as expected) the reference only appears in one bookmark that bookmark will be highlighted in the bookmark panel and you can tap on it to go to the document - you don't need to wait until the search has finished searching text. If the Search (unexpectedly) finds the reference in more than one bookmark then the bookmarks may not be automatically highlighted in the Bookmarks panel and you then need to go to the top of the search results in the Search panel and select a particular bookmark hit to get the bookmark to appear in the Bookmarks panel, then hit the bookmark to go to the document.
Once you have looked at the referred-to document you can return to the paragraph of the document you are reading (the document which had the reference that you followed) by holding Alt and tapping the left hand arrow button.
You cannot do a bookmark find using a browser such as Chrome as browsers generally only allow you to search for text, not bookmarks.
Disclaimer
This information page is designed to be used only by clients of John Antell who have entered into an agreement for the provision of legal services. The information in it is necessarily of a general nature and will not be applicable to every case: it is intended to be used only in conjunction with more specific advice to the individual client about the individual case. This information page should not be used by, or relied on, by anyone else.
The information on this page about specific computer techniques is provided for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date at the time it was written but no responsibility for its accuracy, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by me. You should satisfy yourself, before using any of the techniques, software or services described, that the techniques are appropriate for your purposes and that the software or service is reliable.
This page was lasted updated in September 2025. Disclaimer