PDF Metadata Editor

Why PDF metadata is usually wrong

Open a folder of PDFs and check the Author column in Windows Explorer. Some will

say your name. Some will say "Microsoft Word". Some will say the name of whoever

sent you the file three years ago. A few will be blank.

This happens because a PDF stores its metadata in two separate places: the old

Document Info dictionary, and the newer XMP packet. Most tools write one and

leave the other alone. Acrobat prefers XMP. Windows Explorer reads the Info

dictionary. So you edit the title, it looks correct in one program, and the old

value keeps showing up in the other.

PDF Metadata Editor writes both layers in the same save. That is the whole point

of the tool.

What it does

It reads every field already in the file — the eight standard Info keys plus any

non-standard key a previous program left behind — and shows the raw XMP alongside

it, so you can see exactly what is stored rather than guessing.

Eleven fields are editable: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer,

Language, Company, Category, Copyright and Comments. On top of that you can add

unlimited custom properties as name/value pairs. They are written into the PDF

and read back the next time you open it, which means they survive being emailed,

copied, or opened in a different program.

Dates get their own treatment. For both Created and Modified you choose: keep

whatever is in the file, stamp the current date and time, or pick a specific date

from the built-in calendar. Most tools silently rewrite the modification date on

every save. This one only does it if you ask.

Working across many files

Setting metadata on one PDF is a five-second job. Setting it on four hundred is

the reason this app exists.

Add files to the batch list, set the metadata once, and apply it to everything.

The status bar shows live progress and the Cancel button stops the run cleanly

between files rather than mid-write. When it finishes you get a summary that

lists every success and every failure with its reason — a locked file, a

password-protected file, a permission error. Nothing fails silently.

For anything more complex, export the metadata of every file to CSV, Excel or

JSON, edit it in a spreadsheet with formulas and find-and-replace, then import it

back. Rows are matched to files by full path or by filename, so a spreadsheet

someone else built still works.

Templates cover the repetitive cases. Save a preset once — one for invoices, one

for client reports, one for archived scans — and load it whenever you need it.

They are stored as plain JSON in a templates folder, so you can back them up or

send them to a colleague.

There is also a metadata clone: copy from one PDF, paste into another. Useful

when one file in a set is already correct and you want the rest to match.

Not losing work

Every save writes a backup first, restorable in one click. Undo and Redo hold

twenty steps. "Restore Original Metadata" puts the file back to exactly what it

had when you opened it, even after a dozen edits.

Before saving, a validation pass warns about empty Title or Author fields,

invalid dates, duplicate keywords, and characters that will not survive being

written to a PDF. You can save anyway — the warnings are there to catch mistakes,

not to block you.

Speed and stability

Every long operation — opening, saving, batch runs, imports, exports, searches —

runs on a background thread. The window does not freeze and Windows never shows

"Not Responding", even when a batch is halfway through a few hundred files.

What it doesn't do

Being honest about scope, because the wrong tool wastes your afternoon:

• It does not remove passwords. Encrypted PDFs are detected and reported

clearly, but you need to remove the password with another tool first.

• It does not touch page content. No editing text, no splitting, merging,

compressing, rotating or watermarking. Metadata only.

• It does not handle digital signatures. It will not create or validate them,

and editing metadata on a signed PDF invalidates the existing signature. That

is how PDF signatures work, not a bug in the app.

• It does not check PDF/A conformance. If you need archival validation, use

a dedicated preflight tool.

• Windows only. No macOS