Web Accessibility Training

Creating or editing a PDF document title

When you upload a PDF to the website, it must have a PDF document title. This is legally required under WCAG criterion '2.4.2 Page Titled'.

A 'PDF document title' is not the title that appears at the top of the first page of your document.

Page contents

What is a PDF document title?

It's a title that is embedded into the PDF's code. It's also known as a document metadata title or XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) title.

It is not a requirement for a PDF to have a visible title on its first page but this is considered best practice.

The purpose of a document title

Assistive technologies will initially announce your PDF using its embedded document title and not any title you may have written at the top of your document.

If your PDF doesn't have a document title then these technologies will announce your document by its filename instead. If the file name is something like 'winterlistfinal.pdf' or 'newform_version2.pdf' this can be uninformative, misleading, confusing or even incomprehensible – and it's a compliance failure.

Assistive technologies use the document title in this way because not everyone includes a written title on the first page of their document, and even those who do will create them in inconsistent ways, sometimes making it challenging for these technologies to determine which part of the text is the actual title.

The document title also used by search engines when they list your PDF.

How to tell if your PDF has a document title

Chrome (simplest and recommended option)

When you open a PDF in Chrome, the PDF document title (if it has one) will be displayed in the browser tab. If the title is particularly long, you may need to hover your mouse over the tab to see the full text. If the browser tab shows the filename instead (which will end with '.pdf'), then the PDF doesn't have a document title.

You can also see the document title by clicking on the 'More actions' icon, a vertical line of three dots, in the top right of the screen just to the right of the printer icon. From there select 'Document properties' and a box will appear displaying the title, which will be blank if it hasn't been entered.

Firefox

When you open a PDF in Firefox:

  • if the PDF doesn't have a document title, the browser tab will just display the filename
  • if the PDF does have a document title, the browser tab will display it, and then - if there's room - a hyphen and the filename afterwards.

If the combined text is too long then it will be truncated, even when you hover your mouse over the tab. This means it can be difficult to discern if the tab is displaying just the document title, just the filename, or both, because a title could include a hyphen, and there's not necessarily room for the final '.pdf'.

So the easiest option with Firefox is to instead click on the 'Tools' icon (two arrows pointing to the right in the top right area of the screen when the PDF is open) and then select 'Document Properties' - a box will then appear displaying the document title, which will be blank if it hasn't been entered.

Edge

When you open a PDF in Edge, it will always just display the filename, whether the PDF has a document title or not. So to see the document title in Edge, click the 'Settings' icon (a gear wheel in the top right area of the screen when the PDF is open) and then select 'View document properties' - a box will then appear displaying the document title, which will be blank if it hasn't been entered.

How to write a good document title

When you write your document title, make sure it describes your document clearly and accurately. Remember that it needs to be useful to anyone finding it as a search result among other web pages. If the first page of your document has a visible title, the document title doesn't have to match it exactly (although, equally, it could).

The following would not be good examples of document titles, because they don't provide enough information on what to expect from the document:

  • Dissertation
  • List of tables
  • Fred Smith
  • Year End Report 2026
  • Supporting evidence
  • Map version 3
  • Spring Summer Programme

Documents in a series, and newsletters

If your document is one of a repeated series, such as a newsletter for example, then you need to take care to include information within the document title that will differentiate each publication, so that they can be told apart when all the results appear in a search list. For a newsletter this would typically be the date of issue. So a document title for a newsletter would be something like 'Campus News - April 2025'.

Publications with ambiguous titles

If the official title of your publication doesn't clearly indicate the topic of the PDF, for example you might have a newsletter called 'Spotlight' (which could cover any number of subjects), then you can add a line describing the topic in the metadata 'subject' field. This is not required but it is considered best practice, and it will help people using assistive technologies to more easily find the information they're looking for.

It's not considered best practice to include this extra information in the document title field. So you wouldn't give a PDF the minimal document title of 'Dissertation', it should have the full title, but if further clarity would also be helpful you'd then put that additional information in the subject field.

Where to find the subject field

Word and PowerPoint
  1. Select 'File'.
  2. Select 'Info'.
  3. On the right of the screen you'll see the 'Properties' panel. At the bottom of this panel, click 'Show All Properties'.
  4. The list will expand to include a 'Subject' field that you can edit.
  5. Click 'Save'.

When you generate your PDF according to the instructions for Word or PowerPoint, the subject will be included in its metadata.

How to include a document title when creating a new PDF

How you create the PDF document title will depend on the program you're using. We have provided instructions below for:

If you need instructions for another program please email the web team at digitalteam@exeter.ac.uk.

See also: how to add or edit a document title in an existing PDF.

Word

  1. Open your document in Word.
  2. Go to 'File', then 'Info'.
  3. On the right side of the Info screen, you'll see a list of attributes under the heading 'Properties'. One of these attributes is 'Title', which will say 'Add a title' next to it (if it hasn't already been added). Click on the 'Add a title' text and it will turn into an editable text box. Enter your document title here.
  4. Save.

When you subsequently generate your PDF from this Word document, the title will automatically be embedded as the PDF document title.

Updating your document

If you later change the title at the top of your first page, remember to update this embedded title too before you regenerate the PDF.

There is a technique, however, that makes this step unnecessary.

  1. Before typing your page title, go to Insert.
  2. In the Text group, click on 'Quick Parts', go to 'Document Properties' and then 'Title'. This will insert a 'title block' into your document.
  3. Type your title into the title block.
  4. This title, in the title block, will automatically synchronise with the title you see listed in Properties, so you won't need to update it in both locations.

PowerPoint

You can't set the document title using the web version of PowerPoint – you'll need to use the desktop version.

  1. Open your presentation in PowerPoint.
  2. Go to 'File', then 'Info'.
  3. On the right side of the Info screen, you'll see a list of attributes under the heading 'Properties'. One of these attributes is 'Title', which will say 'Add a title' next to it (if it hasn't already been added). Click on the 'Add a title' text and it will turn into an editable text box. Enter your document title here.
  4. Save.

Take care to also follow the instructions for generating your PDF, to ensure that your title is included in the final document.

InDesign

  1. Go to File, then File Info.
  2. Enter the Document Title in the metadata field.

When generating your PDF (via export to PDF), make sure that 'Include Document Metadata' is checked.

How to add or edit a document title in an existing PDF

You will need to use one of the following:

  • Adobe Acrobat Pro
    This is not the free version of Adobe Acrobat, and you will need a licence for it.
  • ABBYY FineReader
    This is available to all University-owned staff computers – instructions for installation are provided below.

Note for programmers about Notepad++

It's theoretically possible to add or alter the document title using Notepad++ but this is not advised as it can result in a byte offset shift, which can corrupt the file.

Adobe Acrobat Pro

You will need a licence for Adobe Acrobat Pro (it's not possible to edit the document title using Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is the free version). If you don't have Acrobat Pro, see the instructions for ABBYY FineReader instead.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat Pro.
  2. Go to File, then Properties.
  3. In the Description tab, enter your title in the Title field.
  4. Select show Document Title (not File Name).
  5. Click OK.
  6. Save.

ABBYY FineReader

ABBYY FineReader is available to download to any University-owned staff computer from the Company Portal (found via the Start menu). Please use this method to ensure you have a legimate installation. It may take around 10-15 minutes to install. When it's installed you'll see multiple program options in the Start menu – you will need to choose 'ABBYY FineReader PDF'.

  1. Open your PDF using ABBYY FineReader.
  2. Open the Main Menu (the three bar button in the top left of the screen).
  3. Go to 'File' and then 'Document Properties...'
  4. Enter your title in the Title field and click OK.
  5. Click Save (the button to the right of the Main Menu) if you want to overwrite your original, or to save a copy, click on the Main Menu button and then choose 'File', 'Save As...', 'PDF Document'.