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What Is “Search By Rank” In Preview App While Doing Searching?

Hi Gary
What is “search by rank” in preview app when I do a search of some word in a pdf? Can you make a video on all the terms listed in preview sidebar like contact shert,table of contents,two page scrolling,one page scroll etc..it’s been a while since you haven’t make any video on preview app.

Thanks
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Ashish

Comments: One Response to “What Is “Search By Rank” In Preview App While Doing Searching?”

    5 years ago

    There are two options: Page Order and Search Rank. Page Order is pretty self-explanatory. You get pages listed on the right in the order they appear. Page 1, 5, 7, 15, etc.

    Search Rank is supposed to give you the order by the number of times the search phase is found. So you may get page 7 first, if the phrase is there 4 times, and page 1 next if the phrase is there 3 times, etc.

    In practice, it doesn't seem to be so simple. You definitely seem to get pages at the top of the list where the search phrase appears many times. And at the bottom, you get pages where it appears only once. But the order does seem to be based on something more complex than just the number of appearances.

    My guess is that it has to do with appearances on the page and surrounding pages. In an example, I used a 71-page document and the Ranked order was:
    Page 50 - 30 matches
    Page 49 - 6 matches
    Page 51 - 26 matches
    Page 43 - 4 matches
    Page 62 - 16 matches

    Page 50 seemed like the real winner, but why was page 49 ranked above page 51? Perhaps because it is close to page 50? Or, maybe just before page 50 with some matches. That would make sense if I was looking for a section on the topic that phrase represented.

    So, in short, it is using an algorithm to figure out the most relevant page results for your search.

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