Add keywords to a PDF
Make the document findable by the words people will actually search for.
Keywords and the subject field are what document management systems, intranet search and desktop search index alongside the text. For a document whose useful terms are not in the text itself, a drawing, a certificate, a scanned form, they are the only way it will ever be found. Set them here, and set the subject line to a sentence that describes the document properly.
How to add keywords to a PDF
- 1
Open the document
Any existing keywords are read out of the file and shown, which is often nothing at all.
- 2
Write your keywords
Separate them with commas. Use the words a colleague would type, including project codes, client names and the year.
- 3
Add a subject line too
One sentence saying what the document is. Then save; the pages are unchanged.
Why this beats renaming the file
A file name holds a few words and breaks the moment somebody copies the file somewhere else. Keywords travel inside the document, so it stays findable wherever it ends up.
Scanned document?
Keywords help, but OCR makes the whole document searchable, which helps more.
Frequently asked questions
Do keywords help on Google?+
The keywords field itself is ignored by search engines, but the title and the document text are not, and both matter for a PDF on a website. Keywords are most useful for search inside your own systems.
How many should I add?+
Enough to cover how people will look for it, usually five to ten. A list of fifty is noise and some systems truncate it anyway.
Will the document text be indexed too?+
Yes, if there is text to index. A scan is just pictures until you run OCR on it, and then the words in it become searchable as well.
Is anything uploaded?+
No. The file stays on your device throughout.