How to Edit PDF Metadata 

Discover how to edit PDF metadata with Xodo PDF Studio securely and offline across Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms.

Need to update document properties like title, author, keywords, or subject in your PDFs? Xodo PDF Studio makes it simple.

Whether you're managing a large archive or preparing files for distribution, editing PDF metadata improves organization, searchability, and ensures compliance.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to use Xodo PDF Studio to view and edit PDF metadata in just a few clicks. You’ll learn:

• How to edit PDF metadata
• How to add custom PDF metadata
• What PDF metadata is
• Why remove or modify PDF metadata

Let’s get started!

How to edit PDF metadata

To edit your PDF metadata, follow the steps below:

1. Download and install Xodo PDF Studio.
2. Open your PDF and go to Document > Properties.
3. In the General tab edit your metadata.
4. Click on Additional Metadata to add more detailed information. Click OK.
5. Once all your metadata looks accurate, click OK.
6. Save the document to your computer.

Xodo PDF Studio lets you edit metadata such as:

• Title - Displays the current Title of the document.
• Author - Displays the current Author of the document.
• Subject - Displays the current Subject of the document.
• Keywords - Displays the current Keywords of the document.
• Author Title - Displays the current Author title of the document.
• Description - Displays the current Description of the document.
• Description writer - Displays the name of the person who wrote the description.
• Copyright Status - Displays the current status of the copyright for the document.
• Copyright notice - Displays the details of the copyright information.
• Copyright info URL - Displays the URL to access the copyright information if available. You can click the icon beside the field to open the webpage in your web browser.

With Xodo PDF Studio, you have an Adobe Acrobat alternative you can use as a metadata editor tool. Xodo will let you confidently share information about your documents while protecting it at the same time.

For files that have metadata details that don’t fall under the general metadata fields provided, you can add customized metadata fields to your PDF.

How to Add Custom Metadata to your PDF File

Add your own custom metadata to your PDF using these steps:

1. In Xodo PDF Studio, open your PDF and go to Document > Properties.
2. In the Custom tab, click Add. Type in your information where the Name field is the title of the value, and the Value field is the metadata information you wish to add. You will also be able to edit or delete any existing custom metadata properties.
3. Click OK.
4. Save the document.

Note that the custom properties must have unique names that don’t already appear in the other tabs of the Document Properties dialog. 

This option is the perfect way to further categorize your document with details such as a document version number, a company name, a co-author, related project details, or any other PDF properties.

What is PDF Metadata?

PDF metadata is any data or information about a PDF file. Metadata includes details about the file's content and creation, and can be either manually added by the user or are generated automatically when the file is generated or undergoes revisions.

The metadata information plays a key role in keeping PDFs well-organized, easy to find, and up to date across different industries:

• Legal Professionals use PDF metadata for case management, e-discovery and version control to access cases easily during legal investigations.
• Healthcare Providers implement metadata to tag PDFs by patient ID, department, or treatment date, and confirm a document’s origins to ensure records haven't been tampered with.
• Researchers & Academics keep detailed metadata for easier citation and document retrieval, sorting journal articles or whitepapers by topic or publication date.
• IT & Records Management professionals can use metadata to trigger actions in document management systems and can be used to ensure long-term retrievability of files.

Why Should You Remove or Change PDF Metadata?

While metadata can help improve your PDF file, there are instances when you should either edit or remove metadata from PDF files altogether:

Protect Privacy and Sensitive Info - Metadata can reveal personal or confidential details (usernames, document history, comments) that you may not want to share, especially in legal or corporate settings.

Ensure Professionalism - Irrelevant metadata, like "Untitled Document," can be unprofessional and cause confusion. Editing PDF metadata with more standardized labels can improve the credibility of your document.

Improve Search and Organization - Accurate metadata makes it easier to categorize and locate files, especially in large document archives or shared drives.

Comply with Regulations - Certain industries like the healthcare and finance industry, for instance, require specific metadata handling or redaction to meet compliance and data standards.

Effective Marketing and SEO -Metadata can provide SEO value to PDFs online. Accurately filled in metadata fields can help search engines index and rank PDFs via context provided by keywords, and descriptions.

Prepare for Distribution or Publishing - Before sending or publishing a PDF, professionals can review and clean the PDF metadata to ensure unintended or outdated information isn't being shared.

FAQs

How do you remove PDF metadata?

You can quickly remove metadata from PDF files using Xodo PDF Studio by sanitizing your PDF. Simply go to Secure >Sanitize and click on OK in the information dialog box that appears. Then save your document.

Doing so will delete sensitive and identifying metadata, essentially securing the file at the same time.

Does editing metadata change the PDF content?

No. Editing PDF metadata does not change the content of the PDF. Only the metadata is altered.

How do I check if a file has metadata?

You can check if your PDF has any metadata in a few ways:

• In Xodo PDF Studio: Open your PDF in Xodo PDF Studio and go to Document > Properties. Under the General tab you’ll be able to view the most common metadata details. Go to the Custom tab to view any customized metadata details that have been added.
• On Windows: Locate your PDF in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the file and click Properties. A dialog will appear with multiple sections where you can view the PDF file’s full metadata information.
• On macOS: Open your PDF, click the "Inspector" icon, and go to More Info. Here you'll find information like the title and the author of the PDF. Go to General Info, for details on the file like file size and the date it was created.

Does every file have metadata?

Any digital file you come across will have metadata embedded, which can include a wide range of information.

Standard details such as the title, author, subject, keywords will be visible and editable. Other metadata, though, can be more technically detailed and permanently set such as the creation date, device it was generated on, and the application that was used.

Manage Your PDF Metadata and More with Xodo

Editing PDF metadata is a small step that makes a big impact, especially when it comes to organizing files, protecting sensitive information, and maintaining professional standards.

With Xodo PDF Studio, you can quickly change metadata and take advantage of its advanced PDF tools to further manage your PDF at the document level, from securing and validating your PDF to batch processing and merging PDF files.

Whether you're publishing or simply tidying up your PDFs, Xodo PDF Studio gives you the tools to do it securely on Window, macOS and Linux - no technical skills needed.

Try it free and streamline how you manage your PDF documents today!