Bug 33307 - No control over PDF metadata, not possible to opt-out writing them. LO should prompt to change them on exporting.
Summary: No control over PDF metadata, not possible to opt-out writing them. LO should...
Status: REOPENED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: Other All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: PDF-Export
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Reported: 2011-01-20 14:56 UTC by Zsolt
Modified: 2024-08-25 05:27 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Zsolt 2011-01-20 14:56:24 UTC
Most of the metadata can be edited in the document properties, before exporting to pdf. But I can't change the author. It will always be my name. Even if I change it in the user data setting before exporting. Also my names will be in the wrong order in my language because its not like in english and libreoffice just assumes it is. 

Apart from this it would be prudent to show what metadata will be written in the pdf file. So that users could change it just before exporting. Also its not exactly obvious which data from the description tab will be exported. (Comments are not exported, but keywords are)
Comment 1 Noel Power 2011-01-21 02:46:12 UTC
isn't this really a number of problems you talk about, please ensure that you have one issue per bug otherwise things can get mighty confusing. If I understand things correctly then the issues you have are
a) changes in the user data not reflected in the properties
b) names in the wrong order ( in pdf document ? )
c) some indication of the properties that are exported to pdf

btw for a) above I can't reproduce that in rc4, perhaps you forgot to press the 'reset' button ( opposite the checkbox that enabled the userdata ) this refreshes the userdata

for b) you really should explain what happens and what you expect to happen.. additionally what your locale/language is 

for c) I would say that it makes little sense to tell the user each individual feature that won't be exported when you save in a different format. I know you mention just the properties here but this is actually is just one instance of something that isn't exported amongst a much larger list. Additionally afaic comments don't event exist in pdf 1.4 ( which is the pdf format we export to )

please split this bug into separate issues as appropriate
Comment 2 Zsolt 2011-01-21 09:32:57 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> btw for a) above I can't reproduce that in rc4, perhaps you forgot to press the
> 'reset' button ( opposite the checkbox that enabled the userdata ) this
> refreshes the userdata

Sorry, I missed that. 

> for b) you really should explain what happens and what you expect to happen..
> additionally what your locale/language is 

In hungarian and a couple other languages the family name is the first. But writer doesn't write it that way. But it wouldn't be a problem if the user could edit the author name for the exported. 

> for c) I would say that it makes little sense to tell the user each individual
> feature that won't be exported when you save in a different format. I know you
> mention just the properties here but this is actually is just one instance of
> something that isn't exported amongst a much larger list. Additionally afaic
> comments don't event exist in pdf 1.4 ( which is the pdf format we export to )


This is not what I meant. Quite the opposite actually. Show what will get exported, so that the user can change it. Also the user would see exactly what metadata will be written to the pdf file. After you exported it you can only edit it with a pdf editor.

> please split this bug into separate issues as appropriate
How would I do that? Just start new bugs?
Comment 3 Björn Michaelsen 2011-12-23 11:43:48 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Björn Michaelsen 2011-12-23 17:01:18 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 5 sasha.libreoffice 2012-02-23 03:45:58 UTC
@ Zsolt
In version 3.5.0 problem still exist?
Comment 6 Zsolt 2012-02-23 06:32:10 UTC
(In reply to comment #5)
> @ Zsolt
> In version 3.5.0 problem still exist?

I still don't see any control over the author attribute.
Comment 7 sasha.libreoffice 2012-02-23 07:27:45 UTC
I also can not find this (how change author). But author exports correctly to pdf (if on English).
My be intention was that it will made by using button "Reset" in File->Properties.
IMHO it can be implemented using Basic macro.

@ Zsolt
My be among extensions for OpenOffice exist one with this functionality. Please, verify.
Comment 8 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 13:57:57 UTC
Dear bug submitter!

Due to the fact, that there are a lot of NEEDINFO bugs with no answer within the last six months, we close all of these bugs.

To keep this message short, more infos are available @ https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/NeedinfoClosure#Statement

Thanks for understanding and hopefully updating your bug, so that everything is prepared for developers to fix your problem.

Yours!

Florian
Comment 9 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 13:59:16 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 14:03:50 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 11 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 14:06:04 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 12 Zsolt 2012-08-14 22:21:04 UTC
(In reply to comment #8)
> Dear bug submitter!
> 
> Due to the fact, that there are a lot of NEEDINFO bugs with no answer within
> the last six months, we close all of these bugs.
> 
> To keep this message short, more infos are available @
> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/NeedinfoClosure#Statement
> 
> Thanks for understanding and hopefully updating your bug, so that everything is
> prepared for developers to fix your problem.
> 
> Yours!
> 
> Florian

Cool... Auto marked as needinfo. And then auto marked as invalid based on that....
I think I provided extensive description in the comments

The Author field now seem to be dependent on the name I set in the preferences. But for it to appear in the correct order according to my language I have to switch the given name and the family name which 

Anyway, there's still no possibility to edit the metadata which will be exported. I don't why is this missing a metadata tab would fit fine with the other settings on the pdf settings window which pops up whan I export a PDF (from the menu)
Comment 13 Zsolt 2012-08-14 22:25:34 UTC
(In reply to comment #12)
> But for it to appear in the correct order according to my language I have to
> switch  which 

It seems like I didn't finish a sentence. So:

But for it to appear in the correct order according to my language I have to set the my name erroneously (switching the given name and the family name), which is a very ugly workaround...
Comment 14 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-15 11:26:43 UTC
Sorry for that, but you agree, a change was needed.... (Devs are only looking at NEW bugs, not at NEEDINFO...
Comment 15 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-15 11:26:59 UTC Comment hidden (no-value, obsolete)
Comment 16 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-15 11:27:52 UTC Comment hidden (no-value)
Comment 17 Xisco Faulí 2017-06-07 14:00:18 UTC
*** Bug 108390 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 18 sdc.blanco 2020-10-06 19:12:34 UTC
The main issue in this bug is about not being able to "set" or "edit" Author when exporting to PDF.  Therefore marking as Duplicate to bug 117954

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 117954 ***
Comment 19 Zsolt 2020-10-07 08:58:01 UTC
Since we still can't view, change or decide directly what actually is exported, including opting out, I'd say the core problem remains.

Though a title change might make sense. Libreoffice should really bring up the metadata fields to allow us to change them on the save window. And provide a checkbox to don't write any metadata.

The way it is now (doing it shadily in the background) just results in people revealing information they don't want to. Or getting different metadata
Comment 20 BogdanB 2024-08-25 05:27:23 UTC
Also with
Version: 24.8.0.3 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 0bdf1299c94fe897b119f97f3c613e9dca6be583
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: ro-RO (ro_RO.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Tested with Evince 42.3

The Author field is taking on PDF export the first name (Tools-Options), not the Author (File-Properties-Custom Properties).