Wrong document title shows when I open a file

[avalonpp]

Hi All:

I am working on an iMac using El Capitan 10.11.6. Until last week, when I upgraded to DC, hoping it would solve my problem (did not) I was using the previous version of Acrobat Pro. Regardless of version of Acrobat, whenever I open a PDF that came originally form a Word file, the wrong file title appears in the title bar above the page. Instead of "BigFile-Client ABC-2016" the title will be what it was in Word the first time I made the file "BigFile-GENERIC-2009" Even if I resave the file, add or subtract security, close and reopen, the name in the title bar is still wrong, and always an old name from years ago. This is a problem since I am customizing the same document for different clients and changing the names so I can tell them apart. Oddly enough, if I save and close the file, it appears in the desktop with the correct name and this does not happen at all with files that were originally made in InDesign. This problem just started a couple of weeks ago. Any ideas? What could have changed to cause this to just start happening?

[George_Johnson · Accepted solution]

For the problem file, what does it show when you select: File > Properties > Description > Title

[davidk68352095]

This is not correct.  I renamed an MS ppt document and still had the same issue.

[Test Screen Name]

Not correct? The point was about Word documents, not PPT documents, and said nothing about renaming. Anyway, it's down to the software that makes the PDF. If it puts the wrong title, then Acrobat will happily show it.

[richelleh6556797]

Open file in Adobe, click on File/Properties and you can alter the document's title.

[bluemoon0009]

Hi, I tried but that tab is fixed and doesnt allow to change. Any idea? Thanks

[Bernd Alheit]

Does you use Adobe Acrobat? Is the file protected?

[JonasEng]

In any Office product-doc click "File" -> "Info" -> Edit the title under "Properties" -> Export to PDF

In any PDF-doc use the solution provided by George Johnson 

Peace!

[LEA_MORRIS]

This is a MS word issue.. With your document opened in MS word, go to File > Info > Properties > Advanced Properties

Change the 'Title' under the Summary tab

[amandar1510]

I'm having the same issue - Adobe using the Title instead of File name.  I can change the document properties but with the amount of PDF files I work with and as much as they are shared among different users that is NOT a practical solution.  It just started when I switched to a new computer and reinstalled Adobe Pro DC.  Still using my old computer (temporarily) and not an issue there.  Following if anyone else has a solution.

[任帅79051904]

Hello,

Have you resolved this issue for PDF default display the "Document Title" rather than "File Name", when save as Word file into PDF format?

We also encounter this issue.

[Test Screen Name]

Several people seem to have solved this. See especially reply 9.

[任帅79051904]

We still need the document Title in Word, can't change it.

Is this a bug from MS, not Acrobat?

[try67]

It's not a bug, it's just a setting. You can change it for one file via the file's Properties or you can use an Action (if you have Acrobat Pro) and process multiple files at ones to show the file-name instead of the title, or the other way around.

[任帅79051904]

I have Acrobat DC pro and know how to change the setting in here. I want to know how to set that can be default display Word file name not the document Title when Save As Word into PDF.

[try67]

As mentioned this is all working as designed. However, I do agree that it would be nice to set these options in the PDFMaker plugin, before creating the file. You can post a feature request to add this new feature to future versions of the application here: Acrobat for Windows and Mac: Top (1660 ideas) – Share your feedback on Acrobat DC

And/or here: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[Test Screen Name]

Please read the Message just before your own.

[techu67492984]

Turn off Track changes or finalise the word doc before exporting

[Test Screen Name]

There is no setting to change in Acrobat. Acrobat is working as designed. The design is that if the PDF creation software sets a title, then the title is shown. Word puts the document name as title. This is as designed. Post 9 gave exact instructions to change this in Word, does this not work?

[jazamm]

Said "design" does not appear to be working when exporting from .PPT to .PDF. The Document Title is indeed what we need to display by default, otherwise it fails the Accessibilty Check, required for gov't compliance w/ the Disabilities Act. Instead, despite having set a title in the metadata, and that title being well passed along to the .PDF, the exported file now defaults to showing Filename. Please tell me how to fix this w/out having to manually set it for each .PDF, as we have thousands of files we need to make government compliant. Given the law, this issue (which was never a problem in previous versions) seems astoundingly moronic.

[aphantas]

I am also having this problem with .pdf documents opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. I understand that Reader DC is just displaying the 'title' property of the pdf, which was created in Word. Word not updating this property when the filename is changed is unfortunate but beyond Adobe's responsibility.

I am using a word file as a template to create other files. I do not want to have to recreate tables and headers and such, and I do not want to have manually set the 'title' property every time I make a new file from a template.

Reader DC should have an option to display filename instead of 'title'. Please let me know where this is located, If it does not have this Adobe should look into adding it.

Looking at past posts, it seems that the name displayed at the top of the file window is commonly expected to the the same as the filename. It is likely this issue will necro'ed again and again (and not just by me ) as the current design is bucking a common expectation.

[pdfa8255420]

In Word you can remove metadata by clicking FILE>INFO and Inspect Document (Check for Issues). Remove document properties then export to PDF.

[Keith__Solterre_]

Word [Office 365 PC version] in the File menu, it shows "properties" in the right-hand pane, or a button for "advanced properties." Make the title blank, and it will then export the pdf title as the document title.

[johns42761495]

I struggled with this when changing a computer, but here is what you do:

With your document opened in MS word, go to File > Info > Properties > Advanced Properties and erase the title that is there.  It then defaults to the file name.  If you do this with your source document, everything else after will not have a file name.  But if you have a lot of source docs like me, then you'll be doing this for a while and then eventually it will be fine.  I have no idea why this changed all of a sudden.  With my old computers, I had been doing this the same way for 15 years w/o a problem.  I assume there might be a way to just change the default to file name for all docs all the time, but I haven't found that. 

[philk5057951]

Having recently come across this issue (which it seems has been going on for longer than I have noticed), I think the previous posts can be summarised as below. There are two points of view, both of which are correct - and a little bit mutually exclusive (if that's possible!)

• Adobe is apparently behaving "as designed" in displaying the document title meta-data in the application title bar & document tab.
• You can argue whether the programmers made the right decision here - I'm not enough of a PDF expert to say.
• Every other mainstream Windows-based program that I use DOES NOT DO THIS - it displays the file name of the file, and it does this regardless of whether there is any meta-data present.
• It is this final point that is the crux of the discussion - yes Adobe's working as designed, but seemingly not how a large number of users expect it to. It seems odd that there's not a setting within Adobe to choose whether you want to see file name or title meta-data displayed on the title bar & tab.
• As a side note, I have encountered some inconsistencies - sometimes it displays meta-data title and sometimes it displays file name (even when there is a meta-data title to display) - see screen shots below.

If anyone has any deeper insights I'd be grateful to hear them. Thanks.

• 
• 

[try67]

This is not up to Adobe. This is how the PDF format is defined. There's an (optional) flag in each PDF file that defines whether the document's title should be displayed or the file-name. From the PDF ISO Specifications (Table 150 – Entries in a viewer preferences dictionary):

DisplayDocTitle

boolean

(Optional; PDF 1.4) A flag specifying whether the window’s title bar should display the document title taken from the Title entry of the document information dictionary (see 14.3.3, “Document Information Dictionary”). If false, the title bar should instead display the name of the PDF file containing the document. Default value: false.

If this flag is missing (or is set to FALSE), the file-name will be displayed. If it's not missing and is set to TRUE it means the author explicitly decided to show the file title, instead. Whether or not they are aware of this decision, or have specified the correct title for the file, is another matter.

By the way, this is certainly not the only place where this happens. When you open an HTML file in your browser it does not show the file's name. It shows the value of the <Title> tag from it, as well as other applications. This is common practice.

[Bernd Alheit]

What can you see under "Initial View" ?