# What property of a PDF file is used for the browser tab title? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746 "2019-09-05T17:26:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/1 "2019-09-05T17:26:26Z")
I just opened a document from a federal government agency for a strategic plan, and the URL tab says “Recipe Book.” How does that happen? ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/2 "2019-09-05T17:50:11Z")
Sounds like they replaced page content and forgot to retitle it. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/3 "2019-09-05T17:55:10Z")
May depend on the browser. PDF files have a “title” field in the header, but Acrobat DC and Internet Explorer seem to display the filename rather than the title. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/4 "2019-09-05T18:41:08Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > I just opened a document from a federal government agency for a strategic plan, and the URL tab says “Recipe Book.” > > How does that happen? Is it a strategic plan on “How to Serve Man”? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/5 "2019-09-05T19:15:41Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > How does that happen? I could have nothing to do with the PDF file itself. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/6 "2019-09-05T19:28:46Z")
Oooh, we had this problem for a long time. In Word + Powerpoint, there is another field called “title” in the information for a document- same place you can see the list of authors. On Apple Word or Powerpoint, when you print or save as a PDF, this title (if it is filled out) becomes the title of the PDF when viewed on Adobe on a Windows machine. I don’t know what the Field in the PDF is called. (But in a browser or Preview, the PDF file name always showed up. Only in Acrobat or adobe products did the Title appear.) As far as how we found this out, a long bad story that technically breached many confidentiality agreements… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/7 "2019-09-05T20:42:24Z")
The title in the URL tab may be in the HTML header attributes (e.g.: [\](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_title.asp)) and not coming from the PDF file at all. I just opened a random PDF file to see what is in there, and there are fields for Document Title, Author, Author Title, Subject, Description, Description Writer, Keywords, Copyright Notice, Copyright Info URL, Application, etc. Basically, you can cram any sort of metadata in there. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/8 "2019-09-06T20:56:22Z")
If it is a PDF you can edit, click Ctrl+D to open the Document properties window. There are several metadata fields there, one of them is Title. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/9 "2019-09-06T21:26:07Z")
You could just open the PDF in a text editor, and search for the word “recipe”. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/10 "2019-09-06T23:33:08Z")
In older versions of Acrobat Pro, at least… File menu --\> Properties --\> Description tab. Title, along with Author, Subject, keywords. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-property-of-a-pdf-file-is-used-for-the-browser-tab-title/839746/11 "2019-09-07T11:28:44Z")
Just checked Foxit Reader. It uses the file name and ignores the title property. Ditto Edge. Vivaldi and Chrome use the title property. So, YMMV.