Tutorial for batch editing PDF metadata: setting author, title, and keywords for multiple files at once

The metadata of PDFs, such as title, author, subject, and keywords, is often overlooked, but it is very important for file archiving, document retrieval, and external distribution. This article uses HeSoft Doc Batch Tool as an example to demonstrate how to import multiple PDF files through the "Modify PDF Metadata" feature, uniformly fill in the title, author, subject, and keywords, and verify the results using the PDF document properties window after processing, helping users reduce the time spent on repeatedly modifying file properties.

Many people, when organizing PDF files, only pay attention to file names and page content, but ignore the metadata in the document properties. In fact, information such as the title, author, subject, and keywords of a PDF is read by readers, document management systems, or retrieval tools. If these fields are empty, or retain information from old files, old templates, or old authors, subsequent searching and archiving will become less standardized.

Typical problems include: a batch of PDFs are all converted from Word, docx, doc, PPT, or other materials, but the author field is inconsistent; multiple training materials have empty titles, and opening the document properties cannot identify the subject; externally published PDFs have no keywords, which is not conducive to classification and retrieval; when archiving projects, it is necessary to uniformly fill in information such as the year, project name, and person in charge. Manual modification one by one can certainly be done, but when the number of files increases from 5 to 50 or 500, the repetitive labor will quickly increase.

This article will introduce how to use the office software " HeSoft Doc Batch Tool " to batch edit PDF metadata. It is a batch document processing tool oriented toward office efficiency, and its core value is batch processing files, reducing repetitive labor, and improving document organization efficiency. The following tutorial will be divided into three parts with screenshots: the effect before processing, the software operation process, and verification after processing, to help you quickly master the method of batch setting PDF author, title, subject, and keywords.

Applicable scenarios: Who is batch editing PDF document properties suitable for

Batch editing PDF metadata is not only suitable for technical personnel; it is encountered in many ordinary office scenarios. As long as you need to manage multiple PDF files and want these files to have unified, clear, and searchable property information, you can use this method.

• Administrative and archival personnel: When organizing contracts, policy documents, meeting minutes, and scanned PDFs, it is necessary to unify the author, subject, and keywords for archiving.
• Teachers and training institutions: When organizing course materials, handouts, workbooks, and electronic textbooks, course subjects and year keywords can be set uniformly.
• Content operations and website editors: Before uploading PDF white papers, product manuals, and user guides, titles and keywords can be improved to make file information more accurate.
• Enterprise project teams: During project acceptance, material delivery, or knowledge base construction, PDF file properties need to conform to unified specifications.
• Personal material organization: For large amounts of downloaded or converted PDF materials with messy properties, new authors, titles, or subjects can be batch written.

Compared with editing individual files, the advantage of batch editing lies in "configuring once and applying it to multiple files in batches". For highly repetitive office tasks, such tools can significantly reduce manual operation time.

Effect preview: Before modification, fields such as the PDF author and title are empty

First, look at the effect before processing. The image below shows the interface after opening the PDF document properties in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. The red-boxed area shows the four fields "Title", "Author", "Subject", and "Keywords", but none of them are currently filled in.

This situation is very common in actual work, especially for PDFs converted from other formats. For example, after a Word document is converted to PDF, it may retain some program information, but the title and keywords are not necessarily complete; PDFs generated from web pages, scanning tools, or online conversion tools may also lack standardized metadata. For a single file, this is only a minor issue; for a large number of files, it will affect subsequent filtering, searching, and unified management.

Effect preview: After modification, PDF metadata has been uniformly written

After batch processing, when the document properties of the output PDF are opened again, it can be seen that the target fields have been written. In the example, the title becomes "Title for 2026", the author becomes "Jack", the subject becomes "How to learn English", and the keywords become "2026".

This shows that the software has applied the configured metadata to the PDF files. For office scenarios that require batch standardization of file properties, in the end it is only necessary to check the results in the output folder, without manually entering them one by one.

Operation step 1: Find the function for modifying PDF metadata in the PDF tool

After opening " HeSoft Doc Batch Tool ", first enter "PDF Tools" from the left navigation bar. From the screenshot, it can be seen that the software provides multiple PDF batch processing functions, including PDF optimization and compression, deleting blank pages in PDF, deleting metadata in PDF, deleting bookmarks in PDF, setting the initial view of PDF, and converting PDF to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, TXT, JPG images, and so on.

The function to use this time is "34. Modify PDF metadata". The description text below this function card shows that it batch modifies the title, author, subject, keywords, and other content in PDF files. The mouse hover prompt further explains that it can batch modify metadata such as title, author, subject, keywords, dates, and programs.

After selecting this function, the software will enter the corresponding batch processing workflow. It should be noted here not to mistakenly select "Delete metadata in PDF". If the goal is to clear property information, the delete function can be used; if the goal is to write or replace the title, author, subject, and keywords, then "Modify PDF metadata" should be selected.

Operation step 2: Import the PDF files that need unified property settings

After entering the function page, the top of the interface shows that the current task is "Modify PDF metadata". Below is a step-by-step process, and the first step is "Select the records to be processed". The core purpose of this step is to add all PDF files that need batch property editing to the task list.

The upper right of the interface provides two common entry points: "Add files" and "Import files from folder". The former is suitable for selecting a few scattered PDF files; the latter is suitable for processing a batch of PDF materials in a folder. After importing, the table will display information such as the file name, path, extension, creation time, and modification time, making it easy to confirm whether the correct files have been selected.

In the example, 4 records have been imported, with file names 1.pdf, 2.pdf, 3.pdf, and 4.pdf, all with the pdf extension, and the path is D:\test\. The bottom of the table shows that the number of records is 4, indicating that 4 PDF files will be processed this time. After confirming that the list is correct, click "Next" at the bottom of the page.

If the wrong files were imported, you can use the delete button in the operation column to remove individual files, or click "Clear" to select again. Checking the list before batch processing is an important step to avoid incorrect processing.

Operation step 3: Enable the metadata fields to be modified and fill in the content

The second step is "Set processing options". On this page, multiple metadata fields can be seen, and each field has a switch on the left. In the screenshot, items include "Title", "Author", "Subject", "Keywords", "Creation Date", "Application", "Producer", and so on.

The goal of this tutorial is to batch modify the title, author, subject, and keywords of the PDF, so it is only necessary to enable the switches for these four fields and fill in the desired content in the input boxes. The example configuration is as follows:

• Title:Title for 2026
• Author:Jack
• Subject:How to learn English
• Keywords:2026

The switch design here is very important. Enabling a field means that the software will write that field into all pending PDFs; disabling a field means that it will not be modified this time. For example, in the screenshot, "Creation Date", "Application", and "Producer" are not enabled, so this example will not change that information.

If your task is to unify the author, you can enable only "Author"; if your task is to supplement search keywords, you can enable only "Keywords"; if you want to fully standardize document properties, you can enable title, author, subject, and keywords at the same time. It is recommended to choose according to actual needs and avoid overwriting fields that do not need to be modified.

Operation step 4: Continue to set the save location and generate the processed PDF files

After filling in the metadata content, click "Next" at the bottom. According to the top process, the next step will enter "Set save location", and then "Start processing". The roles of these two stages are respectively to determine the output directory and to execute the batch writing task.

From the post-processing screenshot, it can be seen that the output PDF location is C:\Users\hello\Desktop\hesoft-output\. This shows that the software saves the processed files to the specified output directory, rather than letting users continue to mix pre- and post-processing files in the original folder. For office batch processing, saving result files separately is a very practical approach.

It is recommended to set a clear name for the output folder during formal processing, such as "PDF metadata after processing", "Project materials - properties written", "2026 material output", and so on. This facilitates handover between colleagues and later checking. After setting the save location, continue to start processing and wait for the software to complete the batch modification.

Operation step 5: Verify the document properties of the output PDF

After the batch task is completed, it is not recommended to delete the original files immediately. First open the PDFs in the output directory and check whether the metadata meets expectations. You can use Adobe Acrobat or other PDF tools that support viewing document properties to open the files.

From the post-processing screenshot, it can be seen that the title, author, subject, and keywords have been successfully written, and the corresponding content is consistent with the settings in step three. This verification step can help confirm the software processing results and also detect in time whether there are spelling errors in the entered content.

If a large number of files are processed, you can spot-check several PDFs from different file sources. For example, check the first file, the last file, and several files in the middle to confirm that their properties have been updated. If the content needs to be adjusted, you can return to the software, reconfigure the fields, and perform batch processing again.

Common questions and precautions

1. What is the difference between PDF metadata and PDF body content?

PDF metadata belongs to document property information, and common fields include title, author, subject, keywords, and so on. It usually does not appear directly in the body text of a PDF page. Modifying metadata is not the same as modifying the text on a PDF page. If page content needs to be changed, other editing functions or PDF editing software are required.

2. Can different titles be batch set for different PDFs?

Judging from the process shown in the current screenshots, this operation fills in a unified title, author, subject, and keywords on the settings page, and then applies them to the PDF files in the imported list. Therefore, it is more suitable for the scenario of "writing the same metadata to multiple files". If each file needs a different title, further confirmation should be made according to the actual software interface to see whether there is a corresponding differentiated setting method, and this article does not make additional assumptions.

3. Should a backup be made before processing?

Backup is recommended. Although the screenshots show that the processed files are saved to a new output directory, important materials should still retain the original files before batch processing. Especially for contracts, papers, formal reports, archived scans, and other files, backup can reduce the risk of misoperation.

4. What should be noted when filling in multiple keywords?

Keywords should be as concise and accurate as possible, and should be filled in around the document subject. Information such as the year, project name, course name, department name, and product name can be used. Do not pile up irrelevant words just for the sake of search, otherwise it will actually reduce accuracy during later retrieval.

5. Why are the properties of some PDFs originally empty?

PDFs come from different sources, and the completeness of metadata also differs. PDFs converted from Word, doc, docx, PPT, or Excel may inherit some properties from the original files; PDFs generated from scanning tools or online tools may contain only information such as creation time and producer, while the title, author, subject, and keywords are empty. This is also a common reason for batch supplementing metadata.

6. What is the difference between "Modify PDF metadata" and "Delete metadata in PDF"?

Judging from the function names, "Modify PDF metadata" is used to write or replace fields such as title, author, subject, and keywords; "Delete metadata in PDF" is more inclined to clear existing property information. During actual operation, the function should be selected according to the goal to avoid deleting information that needs to be retained.

Summary: Make PDF property maintenance change from manual entry to batch processing

When the number of PDF files is small, manually opening document properties to modify the title, author, subject, and keywords is not troublesome. But in real office scenarios, materials usually appear in batches: a batch of training handouts, a batch of project documents, a batch of product manuals, a batch of archived files. At this time, if metadata is still entered one by one, it is not only inefficient, but also prone to missed changes, incorrect changes, and inconsistent formats.

With the "Modify PDF metadata" function of " HeSoft Doc Batch Tool ", multiple PDF files can be added to the list, the fields to be modified can be uniformly enabled, the title, author, subject, and keywords can be filled in, and then the processed files can be output. The entire process is clear and suitable for office users without complex technical backgrounds.

If you are organizing a large number of PDF files, it is recommended to first select several sample documents for testing: import files, set metadata, select the output directory, start processing, and then open the output PDFs to check the properties. After confirming that the results meet the requirements, the same process can be applied to more files, making PDF document property maintenance more standardized and more efficient.