PrivatePDF

Change what a PDF says about itself

Every PDF carries a set of properties that most people never see and that survive almost every edit: a title that is still the filename of the Word document it came from, an author who left the company two years ago, the name and version of the software that made it. This lets you set them to whatever you want — and set the two properties accessibility checks look for first: the document’s language, so a screen reader pronounces it correctly, and a title that readers show instead of the filename.

or drop a file anywhere on this panel

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How it works

  1. 01Open the PDF.
  2. 02Read the panel — it shows what the file currently claims.
  3. 03Type the values you want. Leave a field empty to write nothing at all.
  4. 04Export.

The old properties go regardless

Exporting here rebuilds the document from its pages, so the original file’s properties never come across whether you set new ones or not. That is worth knowing before you spend time clearing fields one by one: the clearing already happened.

Setting versus stripping

This tool sets properties. The Sanitize tool removes them. If you have both in play, removal wins — a document you asked to have cleaned should not come out carrying a title you typed earlier, and the panel warns you when that is the situation you are in.

Why the author’s name matters

For a document leaving your organisation, the properties are often more revealing than the text. They routinely name the person who wrote it, the software and version in use, and the times it was created and last touched. For a document that has passed through several hands, that is a history nobody meant to attach.

Questions

Why set a language?
Because a screen reader uses it to choose a voice. A document that declares none is read in whatever language the listener’s device defaults to — an English report read aloud by a French voice. It is also the property accessibility checks fail most often, and it is dropped by every export here unless you set it, so this is where to put it back. A malformed tag is refused rather than written, since a wrong language is worse than none.
Does this change what is written on the pages?
No. Properties are metadata about the document, not content in it. If a name appears in the text of a page, this will not touch it — that needs Redact.
What about XMP metadata?
It lives in the document catalog rather than the pages, so like attachments it is not carried across by the export at all.
Can I see what a PDF currently claims before changing it?
Yes — the panel shows it as you work, and the Inspect tool shows the full picture including things this tool does not edit.