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D DocNectar

Free PDF Metadata Editor

Set a PDF's title, author, subject and keywords — useful for organizing and searching your documents.

Built and fact-checked by the DocNectar team — see our editorial standards

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Key Features

Instant Calculation

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Mobile Friendly

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Privacy Focused

Your data stays on your device. We don't store any inputs.

100% Free

No hidden costs. This tool is completely free forever.

A PDF's metadata — its title, author, subject, and keywords — is what shows up in a file browser's "Properties" panel, in search results, and in some document management systems. A PDF exported without proper metadata often just shows a generic filename or "Untitled" where a real title should be.

This tool lets you set a PDF's metadata directly — no need for specialized desktop software — and gives you back a file with the same content and page count, just properly labeled.

How it works

Upload your PDF and fill in any of the metadata fields you want to set: title, author, subject, and keywords (comma-separated). The tool rebuilds the PDF with every original page intact and applies the metadata you entered, then gives you the updated file to download.

  1. Upload a PDF file.
  2. Fill in any of the title, author, subject, or keywords fields.
  3. Generate and download the updated PDF.

Examples

Labeling a scanned document

A scanned PDF named "scan0042.pdf" with no metadata can be given a proper title like "2025 Annual Report" and an author name, making it identifiable at a glance in a file browser or document management system.

Adding keywords for searchability

Adding keywords like "invoice, Q3, client-acme" to a PDF makes it easier to find later in tools that index PDF metadata for search.

Who should use it

  • Labeling scanned documents with a proper title and author.
  • Adding searchable keywords to PDFs stored in a document management system.
  • Standardizing metadata across a batch of related documents.

Industry applications

  • Office administration and document management
  • Legal and compliance document handling
  • Publishing and content archiving

Advantages

  • Sets title, author, subject and keywords in one step, with no signup or watermark.
  • Preserves the original PDF content and page count exactly.
  • Works entirely in the browser session — no desktop software required.

Limitations

  • Can't open password-protected or corrupted PDFs.
  • Doesn't auto-suggest metadata values from the document's content.
  • Only sets standard metadata fields, not custom or extended XMP metadata.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Assuming metadata changes the visible content of the PDF, when it only affects document properties.
  • Leaving all fields blank and expecting the tool to auto-detect a title from the content.
  • Uploading a password-protected PDF, which can't be read by this tool.

Best practices

  • Use a clear, descriptive title rather than leaving it as a generic filename-derived value.
  • Add keywords that match how you'd actually search for the document later.
  • Keep author names consistent across related documents for easier filtering in document management tools.

Tips

  • Set metadata right after generating or scanning a document, before it gets filed away and forgotten.
  • Use consistent keyword conventions across related documents to make them easier to find later.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, with no signup and no watermark added to your file.
No — fill in only the fields you want to set. At least one field (title, author, subject, or keywords) is required, but the rest can be left blank.
No — every page is preserved exactly as it was. Only the document metadata (the properties shown in a file browser or PDF viewer's "Document Properties" panel) is changed.
Most PDF viewers show it under a "Document Properties" or "Properties" menu option — the exact location depends on which viewer you use.
No — encrypted or password-protected PDFs can't be read by this tool. Remove the password first using your PDF viewer, then upload the unprotected file.
Your uploaded file and the updated result are processed and linked to your browser session so you can download it — they aren't shared with anyone else.

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