Before uploading a PDF to the WordPress Media Gallery, first be sure that your PDF document is formatted and titled properly.

A PDF document uploaded to WordPress has two titles:
  1. the original metadata title added to the document before the file was saved to a PDF. If no title was added, the file name is used.
  2. the "Title" you gave the document in the WordPress media gallery. The WordPress title is ONLY used for the link text on the page. It will not update the title embedded in the PDF file.
Original PDF file properties
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PDF after upload to WordPress. Browsers use the PDF's metadata title, NOT the title added in WordPress.
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Update a Word Document's meta title, save as PDF


The best way to be sure a PDF's title displays in the browser as you desire is to start with the original Microsoft Word (or Google Doc).
  1. Open your Word document.
  2. Go to File > Properties
  3. Depending on the version of Office that you have, click the General or Summary tab to see the Title field.Image Placeholder
  4. In the Title field, type the Title as you would want it to appear when a PDF opens in a web browser. For example, if you wanted the file to display as “Test Document for CAS” you would enter “Test Document for CAS".
  5. Click OK
  6. Next go to File > Save as.. > File Format: PDF
  7. Click Export to save as a PDF.
  8. Next upload the file to your site's media gallery.
  9. Once you upload the file and link it on a page, when a user views it will show the document title, not the file name as demonstrated below. Note that it shows as “Test Document for CAS” in the black PDF viewer bar and the tab. Success!

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Update a PDF's title

To learn more about how to simply update a PDF's title, visit Abode's help tutorial.