Title Pages in PDFs:
Ideally, when converting a document to PDF (portable document format), the version identification methods already implemented in the original text document can be incorporated into the newly created PDF.
For example, a document with a title page, with page numbers adjusted, will still display the correct page numbers when converted to PDF format. Also, information from the properties fields from a document will map over into a PDF's properties fields. Please see below how these fields are transferred across. In addition to the information that maps across, PDF has wider scope for including metadata in the file's properties.
Properties within a PDF
PDF provides a great deal of opportunity for metadata to be contained as part of a document. In Adobe Acrobat, by going to File > Document Properties (ctrl+d), a host of fields for metadata about a document can be found. This is a screenshot of the first box you are presented with (from Adobe Acrobat Professional Version 7.0.8):
Clicking Additional Metadata brings up this box:
How properties map from Word 2003:
File > Properties:
Some fields will map over directly, such as title and subject. This is the properties page from the original Word document that the PDF above was created from:
The fields that aren't understood by PDF are mapped over as custom fields. Back in Acrobat, from the first properties box, clicking the Custom tab, you can see these custom fields:
Recommendations
All information contained in a Word document's properties will be mapped
over to PDF, but some will be more prominent than others. VIF recommends that PDF properties are used as fully as
possible as they provide an excellent opportunity to embed version
information into a document. This will be a great help to future
researchers and repository staff.