A PDF’s metadata — its title, subject, and keywords — is what file managers, search tools, and PDF viewers display in document lists and properties panels. Files assembled from scans and merges often carry a scanner’s filename as their title, or nothing at all. PDF Arranger lets you edit the document properties directly, as part of the same session as your page work.
Be clear on what metadata is not: it is information about the document, not the text on its pages. PDF Arranger cannot change words in the document body — for that you would need a full PDF editor. What it edits, it edits properly and saves into the exported file.
Before you start
You need PDF Arranger 1.14.0 (or a recent version) installed. If it is not on your computer yet, download PDF Arranger first — it is free, open source (GPL-3.0), and works entirely offline, so your files never leave your computer.
Nothing you do in PDF Arranger changes the original file on disk. Every edit only takes effect when you export the result to a new PDF, which makes experimenting safe: if the output is not what you wanted, adjust the arrangement and export again.
Step by step: edit the document properties
- Open the PDF in PDF Arranger.
- Open the document properties (metadata) dialog. The dialog shows the document’s current metadata fields.
- Edit the fields you need. The editable metadata includes the Title (the name viewers show instead of the filename), the Subject (a short description of what the document covers), and Keywords (terms that help search tools find the file). The dialog also covers fields such as Producer and Creator information stored in the document’s XMP and document information data.
- Confirm the changes and export the PDF. Metadata is written into the file on export, so exporting is what makes your edits permanent.
- Reopen the exported file’s properties in your PDF viewer to verify the new title and fields appear as intended.
Writing metadata that helps
A good Title names the document the way a human would: “2026 Project Proposal — Final” beats “scan_final2”. Keep the Subject to one descriptive sentence, and choose Keywords you would actually search for later — a project name, a client, a document type. Consistent metadata across a folder of PDFs pays off every time you search it.
Tips
- Set metadata after merging: a merged document inherits a mixed history, and a fresh title and subject make its origin clear.
- Changing metadata does not alter page content, creation software records elsewhere in the file, or anything visible on the pages themselves.
- If a field looks wrong after export, re-edit and export again — the original file is unchanged until you overwrite it.
When metadata matters most
Metadata earns its keep in shared folders and document libraries. When a team stores hundreds of PDFs, the title shown in a viewer or file manager is often the only label a colleague sees before opening the file, and search tools index the subject and keywords you set. A merged report exported straight from assembly may carry the first source file’s title, which can be actively misleading once the contents have grown. A thirty-second pass through the properties dialog — a clear title, a one-line subject, a handful of keywords — makes the finished document findable and self-explanatory for everyone who receives it, without touching a single page of content.
Related guides
Keep going with these step-by-step guides from the same series: