Custom fields

[Lisbeth]

Hi, I tried to make some custom fields via the Advanced custom fields settings editor, but when I pressed the import button I couldn't choose any fields because the document was empty. Any ideas what's wrong?

[RTT]

First make sure you are using the last version, currently 1.5.0.61 + patch 3.

That PDF may be slightly corrupted, and most of the times you can fix this errors opening the PDF is a PDF reader, and using the save, or save as, option to get a fixed PDF that PDFE will now handle correctly.

If problems continue, and the custom fields do show in Acrobat but not in the PDFE custom fields import tool, then, if possible, please send me that PDF, so I can check for what's wrong.
You can send it as an email attachment to the email address you will find in the program about box (menu Help>About), attached to a private message here in the forum, or in an attachment to a reply here in the forum if you have no problem to make it public.

[Lisbeth]

I'm sorry I should have said, that it was in Pdf-Shelltools-administration.

[RTT]

Wrong forum then. I will move this topic to the correct forum later.
Anyway, my reply is also valid for PDF-ShellTools. Check if you are using the last version (currently 2.1.3) and, if the problem persist, please send me that PDF from where you want o import the custom fields, so I can check if indeed a bug is the culprit.

[Lisbeth]

I have mailed the pdf. Thanks a lot.

[RTT]

And I have received it, but now I have doubts if you understand for what the advanced custom fields editor, import functionality, is used?!

The PDF you sent is just the standard cover sheet used by the Create/Edit PDF packages tool, and that PDF doesn't has any metadata fields defined. Using the import tool in that PDF is nonsense, and obviously will show nothing to import. You have to use it in a PDF that has the custom fields you want to define as custom PDF-ShellTools fields.

Please explain what you want to achieve.

[Lisbeth]

Well I tought so I just pressed the import button and this was the pdf, I could open. I would like to add some additional fields to my pdf properties.

[RTT]

You use the import button only if you already have a PDF using these custom fields, you may have created and edited in another tool. And, if that's the case, that is a typical Windows open file dialog. Just browse to the folder where you have your PDF, to open it as the source from where to import these custom fields definition settings.
You can also import from a XML file, if the file follows the XMP specifications.

If what you need is to define these custom fields settings from scratch, then you have to create them manually and for that you don't even need to use that advanced section. Just add the fields from the basic custom fields settings editor tool. You just need to click the add button, and edit the columns "label", "name" and "type". Hit the F1 key, to open the user's guide, for an explanation of these fields meaning.

And if you are using Windows Vista, and up, you can also use:

• The mapping tool to assign these custom fields you have just created to a Windows shell defined property.
• The details pane items tool to make them visible in the Windows Explorer details pane.

When done, just hit the apply button and you will have now PDF-ShellTools configured to add, edit and show these custom fields on your Windows shell.

[Lisbeth]

Some of it was easier, than I thought. I used two of the custom-fields to create new property-columns. They are visible in PDF-Explorer - and I can edit them. They are also chosen in the "details pane items tool", but the columns aren't visible in Windows Explorer - or rather I can choose them, but the fields are empty.

[RTT]

You always have to manually set the columns you want visible, by folder, from the Windows Explorer.
Regarding the fact the columns are showing empty. If the PDFs are in an Windows Search indexed folder, or in a Library folder, you have to wait until the indexer re-index these folders, or force the rebuild of the index.

But the fields should show filled, and can be edited, in the Windows Explorer details pane and in the file properties details tab.

See also:
http://windows.microsoft.com/is-is/windows7/change-the-properties-for-a-file

[Lisbeth]

I'm using Windows 8. I rebuild the index - but it didn't help.

[RTT]

I'm using Windows 8.

32 or 64 bits?
In here, Windows 8 64-bit, it is working just fine.

Do the fields show in the details pane and file properties details tab? If yes, can you edit these fields on these file details panes?

If you have not done so, reboot windows, or better, if you know how to use the task manager, restart the Windows Explorer that will also restart the shell extensions. All this is not usually needed, but better try it.

[Lisbeth]

I'm using the 64 bit. I can see and change the properties in PDF Explorer. I can see the columns in Windows Explorer but not the content. I cannot see the properties, when I right-click on the file it self. I use a Danish version of Explorer, so I tried to name the columns with and English name, but that didn't help either. I have booted my laptop and restartet Windows Explorer, that didn't help either.

[RTT]

Send me one of these PDFs edited in PDF Explorer, with these custom fields filled, so I can check how are you defining the custom fields.
Run also this tool STRegKeysChecker.zip and send me the text that will show, so I can inspect your system PDF-ShellTools related settings.

[RTT]

I received your sample PDF, and the diagnostics tool output, and the most evident error is that you have the custom fields differently named in the PDF and in the PDF-ShellTools configuration. I suppose you used PDF Explorer to create the fields, and in PDF-ShellTools you also created the fields manually, instead of importing them.
What happens is that PDFE uses PDFECustomX as default name for the fields, and PDF-ShellTools uses PDFCustomX, so PDF-ShellTools is trying to read different fields from your PDFs.

To fix it, open the PDF-ShellTools manager and change the names to PDFECustomX. See first attached image.

This change field name operation, if done from the basic custom fields settings editor (don't happen if done from the advanced settings editor), will make the fields mapping to still refer the old name (due to a bug that will be fixed in the next release), so you also need to change the field label or use the mapping tab to map the field to another system defined property. In your case it's even what you should do, because one of your custom fields is named Kommentarer and the Windows property system already has a "comments" property defined, used by files that natively have this metadata field, such as MS Office documents.
So, let's map your Kommentarer field to the system.comments property. This way you can have the column comments showing metadata from PDFs, along with other file types that also populate this field.
Just use the property handler mapping tab to map your field to the system.comment one (check second attached screenshot for better reference).

The label of the system field may be different (than "Comments" as in the screenshot) if your Windows UI uses a different language The important is to find the property with System.Comment as the [canonical name].
Now check under the details pane items tab if the fields are still checked, and apply the changes.

When setting the Kommentarer field as visible column in Windows Explorer, and if your Windows UI language is also Danish, you may have two fields named kommentarer (I have no idea if the Danish Windows uses "kommentarer" for the system.comment property). If that's the case, the only way to know the correct one is to make visible the two and check the one that shows also the comments for MS office files too. In this situations it is better to label the custom fields with a different name, such as "PDF kommentarer", so you can better distinguish your fields from the system ones.