InfoSetter

User Guide — Mapsoft InfoSetter Plugin for Adobe Acrobat

Overview

InfoSetter is an Adobe Acrobat plug-in that allows you to view and set PDF document metadata. Every PDF file contains metadata fields such as title, author, subject, and keywords that are used by search engines, document management systems, and Acrobat itself to identify and catalogue documents. InfoSetter provides a straightforward interface for editing these fields individually or in bulk.

The plug-in supports all standard PDF document information fields: title, subject, author, keywords, creator, producer, index file, and base URL. Each field can be individually enabled or disabled, so you can update only the fields you need while leaving the rest unchanged. InfoSetter also supports reading metadata from the currently open document and importing metadata from CSV files for batch processing.

For advanced workflows, InfoSetter provides XMP metadata support, allowing you to copy and manage the extended metadata stored in the document's XMP stream. A COM automation interface is available for programmatic access from scripts and external applications.

Getting Started

After installation, InfoSetter adds a menu item under Extensions › Mapsoft › InfoSetter in Adobe Acrobat. Click this to open the InfoSetter dialog.

Open a PDF document in Adobe Acrobat.
Go to Extensions › Mapsoft › InfoSetter.
Enable the checkboxes next to the metadata fields you wish to set.
Enter your desired values for each enabled field.
Click OK to apply the changes to the document.

Tip: Click Get Current Info to populate the dialog fields with the metadata already stored in the open PDF. This is useful when you want to review or modify existing metadata rather than replacing it entirely.

Metadata Fields

InfoSetter supports the following standard PDF document information dictionary fields. Each field has a checkbox that must be enabled for the value to be written when you apply the settings.

Field	Description	Typical Use
Title	The document title, displayed in Acrobat's title bar and used by search engines.	A descriptive name for the document, e.g., “Annual Report 2025”.
Subject	A brief description of the document's subject matter or purpose.	A short summary, e.g., “Financial performance summary for FY2025”.
Author	The name of the person or organisation that authored the document.	An individual name or company name, e.g., “Marketing Department”.
Keywords	Keywords associated with the document, used for search indexing.	Comma-separated terms, e.g., “finance, annual report, 2025”.
Creator	The application that originally created the document content (before PDF conversion).	E.g., “Microsoft Word”, “Adobe InDesign”.
Producer	The application or library that converted the document to PDF format.	E.g., “Adobe PDF Library 15.0”, “Mapsoft InfoSetter”.
Index	A path to a PDF index file (.pdx) for full-text search integration.	Used in enterprise document management workflows with Acrobat Search.
Base URL	The base URL used to resolve relative web links within the document.	E.g., `https://www.example.com/docs/` for documents with relative hyperlinks.

Reading Current Metadata

The Get Current Info button reads the metadata from the currently open PDF and populates the dialog fields. This is useful for reviewing what metadata a document already contains, or as a starting point for modifications. The Get From File button lets you read metadata from a different PDF file on disk without opening it in Acrobat.

Clearing and Resetting

The Clear button empties all field values while leaving the checkboxes in their current state. The Reset button restores the dialog to its default state. Use Clear when you want to remove all metadata from a document by applying empty values to all enabled fields.

Saved Configurations

The Configuration dropdown lets you save and recall named sets of metadata values. This is particularly useful when you regularly apply the same metadata to multiple documents — for example, setting a consistent author and producer across all documents from a specific department.

To save a configuration, fill in the fields as desired, type a name in the configuration dropdown, and click Save. To recall a saved configuration, select it from the dropdown. To remove a saved configuration, select it and click Remove.

Saved configurations are stored in the InfoSetter.ini file in your local application data folder and persist between Acrobat sessions. Each configuration stores the complete set of field values and their enabled/disabled states.

CSV Import

InfoSetter supports importing metadata from a CSV (comma-separated values) file, enabling batch metadata assignment across multiple PDF documents. This is ideal for workflows where document metadata is managed in a spreadsheet or database and needs to be applied to corresponding PDF files.

Click the Import CSV button to select a CSV file. The CSV should contain columns mapping to the metadata fields (title, subject, author, keywords, etc.) along with a column identifying the target PDF file path. InfoSetter reads each row and applies the specified metadata to the corresponding document.

Tip: Prepare your CSV in a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel. Ensure the file paths in the CSV match the actual locations of the PDF files on disk. Use absolute paths for reliability.

XMP Metadata

In addition to the standard document information dictionary, modern PDF files store metadata in an XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) stream. InfoSetter provides XMP support through the Copy All XMP button, which copies the document's XMP metadata, and the Advanced button, which opens an advanced XMP options dialog.

XMP metadata can contain richer information than the standard fields, including Dublin Core properties, rights management information, and custom metadata schemas. The XMP support in InfoSetter allows you to transfer XMP metadata between documents or inspect the full XMP stream for diagnostic purposes.

When you set standard metadata fields through InfoSetter, the corresponding XMP properties are also updated to keep the document information dictionary and the XMP stream in sync. This ensures consistency regardless of which metadata source an application reads.

COM Automation

InfoSetter provides a COM automation interface (IInfoSetterAuto) that allows external applications and scripts to set PDF metadata programmatically. The COM object exposes properties for each metadata field (Title, Subject, Author, Keywords, Creator, Producer, Index, BaseURL) and a Set() method that applies the configured values to a PDF document handle.

This interface is useful for integrating metadata management into automated document processing pipelines. You can call the automation interface from any COM-compatible language, including VBScript, PowerShell, C#, VB.NET, and Python. The automation DLL (MAPSInfoSetter.dll) must be registered on the system before use.

A typical automation workflow involves creating an instance of the InfoSetter COM object, setting the desired property values, and then calling the Set method with a reference to the target PDF. This can be repeated in a loop to process multiple documents with different metadata values.

System Requirements

Adobe Acrobat: Acrobat Pro or Standard DC (2017 or later). Not compatible with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Operating System: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (both 32-bit and 64-bit Acrobat installations are supported).
Optional: Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet application for preparing CSV import files.

Support

If you encounter a problem or have a question not covered here, please get in touch: