How to add and edit metadata in PDF files?
The literal meaning of the term metadata is “data about data”. As evident from its meaning, additional information for a certain file is provided by metadata. This additional information may include the application that is used to create the file, any copyrights restrictions, name of the file’s author, date of creation and modification of the file, etc.
In this article, it has been explained how a user can add or edit metadata in a PDF file. If a user simply wants to view the metadata in PDF file then first of all open your PDF reader (Classic PDF Editor or Adobe Acrobat), select the File menu and click on the option Properties. Here the metadata can be viewed.
The process of adding or editing the metadata in a PDF version of file is explained in detail below:
How to add and edit metadata in PDF files?
The user is allowed to add metadata by many applications that are used for creating the content such as Adobe Acrobat, InDesign and Microsoft Word, etc. For defining the metadata in InDesign program, click on the option “file info”, here the additional information to the file can be added such as the author, keyword and information related to copyrights, etc. When this file is exported to PDF format, the metadata is embedded in the fields of PDF metadata.
Different PDF editing softwares such as Adobe Acrobat allow the users to add and edit metadata for PDF format files. A plug-in might be offered for the facilitation of data entry and offers clear guidelines to the user for some specific kinds of metadata. There are different tools available for the extraction and embedding of metadata such as Exiftool.
Although, value is added to the document by embedding metadata but in some scenarios, the user may want to remove the metadata due to any legal or security concerns. This can be done simply by using Adobe Reader. First of all, click on the File option and then open Properties window where you will find the fields containing metadata. The user can remove the information from here.
Editing the Metadata using PDF Element:
The steps listed below are for editing the metadata in PDF by using PDF Element software that is also used for converting PDF to DOC.
1) Open PDF file:
First of all, open the PDF Element software and then import the PDF document that is required to be edited, in PDF Element.
2) Edit metadata:
Now in the menu bar click on the File button and click on the option Properties. Here the metadata can be edited i.e., the title, keywords, author etc.
3) Save the PDF File:
For saving the changes that have been done in the metadata, click on the Save As button in File menu.
The metadata of the PDF files can be added, edited and removed by using the simple methods mentioned above. The result is an enriched PDF file that can also help in improving your search rankings in the search engine result pages (SERPs).
