I'm testing this software because we have a library of PDF files which we have added comments to in Windows XP. Now on Windows 7 explorer will not display them or allow new ones to be added.
I installed PDF shell tools, and the result now is I can see the comments in a "tool tip" but they still do not display in the properties pane and I cannot add/edit them.
These XP metadata fields are not part of the PDFs metadata. These are kept in a NTFS Alternate Data Stream linked to the main file. Read
this topicIn that topic there is a sample script you may use to copy the metadata from the ADS to the PDF itself. But better use the new PDF-ShellTools My Scripts "File Summary information to PDF Metadata" script. See first attached screenshot. This script relies on a custom field named Comments, so first define it as explained next.
I tried adding system.comment using a custom field in the property handler and comment shows in the preview pane, but the data does not display and it does not remember anything I type there.
The standard PDFs metadata don't have such a field, so it's not handled by default by the PDF-ShellTools Property handler. To work, you need to map the system.comment to a PDF custom defined field, using the
Property Handler config tools from the PDF-ShellTools Manager.
1st you create a Comments named custom field (2nd screenshot), next you map it to the shell system.comment property (3th screenshot) and next you can make it visible in the Explorer details pane (4th screenshot). To finish, click the "Apply changes" button.
You will now be able to see and edit the comments field, and the changes will be saved to the PDF itself.
Now that the comments field is defined, you can run the above mentioned "File Summary Information to PDF Metadata" script to copy all the metadata from the ADS to the PDFs equivalent metadata fields. Just select the PDFs you want to process, and run the script.
If all goes well, the metadata will be now in the PDFs, and visible from the Windows shell.
