How to change pdf file properties?

Question

Level 1

41 points

How to change pdf file properties?

Hi all,
Preview works great at generating PDFs from Word files, but the metadata fields (e.g., author, title, etc.) don't come over accurately. In Preview, when I click "Get Info," the metadata fields have different values than the original Word document had.

Anyone know how I can edit the info in the pdf file? Even if I open the properties window through the Finder instead of Preview, I can still only view them, not edit them.

Thanks

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jun 4, 2008 11:34 AM

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Answer 1

Lumberjack Author

Level 1

41 points

Jun 4, 2008 1:42 PM in response to Lumberjack

Thanks Clea!

Over at macosxhints, I found an answer that works and is free: TextEdit!
Yep, TextEdit (and most other text editing tools, I imagine) can open a pdf file. Then you just search for the offending value and replace it with whatever you want!

It would be nice if I could make Preview respect the metadata that exists in the Word file already, but editing it after the fact this way works for me, because I don't do it very often.

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Answer 2

Clea Rees

Level 4

1,245 points

Jun 4, 2008 12:43 PM in response to Lumberjack

Acrobat Pro can certainly do it. I am pretty sure there are command line utilities you could use but I'm not sure whether you are interested in that sort of option or not. Let me know if you are. An X11 application such as xpdf may also offer this sort of capability.

I am certain there must be better options than Acrobat Pro, though - even if you are not interested in command line or X11 utilities.

- cfr

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Answer 3

Clea Rees

Level 4

1,245 points

Jun 4, 2008 2:08 PM in response to Lumberjack

It isn't actually Preview's fault - at least, I doubt it. I expect you would see the same in any viewer. It could be Word's fault or it could be Apple's underlying PDF creation software. Apple's distiller respects this data when created in other ways, though.

I didn't suggest the text editing option because it is a little hair-raising editing binary files in that way and I assumed you probably wanted a slightly more user-friendly option. I can see it working if your need is infrequent, though - especially since if anything does go wrong, you can always recreate the PDF from the Word source.

Good luck with it, anyway.

- cfr

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