Adding Metadata to Documents
Version 1.0
Date published: March 2013
This document is supplementary to the Metadata Web Standard, available online at
www.open.ac.uk/about/web-standards.
Adding Metadata to Documents, version 1.0
1.
Introduction
This guide explains how to add metadata to documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint
and pdfs that are to be included on OU websites, both internal and external.
It is important to ensure that documents we publish on our websites contain relevant
metadata for optimum search results.
The Metadata Web Standard (available online from www.open.ac.uk/about/webstandards/editorial-standards/metadata) defines the mandatory metadata that must be
added to each document; this guide explains how to add the metadata.
2.
Adding metadata to Microsoft Office documents
2.1. Adding metadata to Office 2010 documents
1.
Open the file you wish to add metadata to.
2.
Select the File menu and then the Info option. The right-hand side of the screen
displays the document properties:
Figure 1: Office 2010 Document Properties
3.
In the Author field enter the name of the person or team responsible for owning the
document, which can be found in the ‘Related People’ section. This should
automatically display your name in the Author field. If this name is incorrect, right click
on the name and select ‘Remove person’:
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Adding Metadata to Documents, version 1.0
Figure 2: Removing a name from the author property
4.
You can now add the correct name or additional names for collaborative documents by
hovering your mouse to the right of the ‘Add an author’ field and selecting the address
book button:
Figure 3: Adding a new name to the author property
This will open the Outlook address book where you can select names from the Open
University’s active directory. If the author doesn’t have an OU email address, type their
name directly into the Author field.
5.
In the Title field enter a title for the document that is meaningful to users out of
context. Remember that your document will be returned in lists of search results so it
needs to have a title that reflects what the document is about.
6.
In the Tags field enter a comma-separated list of keywords that accurately summarise
the contents of the document. Make sure that you don’t repeat words that are in the
title, although you can choose to expand acronyms if you wish1.
1
For further guidance on adding keywords refer to the Metadata Standard, available at
www.open.ac.uk/about/web-standards.
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Adding Metadata to Documents, version 1.0
2.2. Updating or reusing an Office 2010 document
If a document is reused or copied to create another document, make sure that the
document’s properties are updated. You can make these changes from the Save As dialog
box, without opening the document.2
Figure 4: Document properties on Save As screen
2.3. Adding metadata to Office 2007 documents
1.
Open the file you wish to add metadata to.
2.
Select the Windows symbol and then Prepare and Properties:
Figure 5: Properties option on the Prepare menu
This displays the Document Panel below the document editing ribbon:
2
Other methods of accessing and editing document properties can be found in Microsoft’s help: View
or change the properties for an Office file.
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Adding Metadata to Documents, version 1.0
Figure 6: Document Properties panel
3.
In the Author field enter the name of the person or team responsible for owning the
document.
4.
In the Keywords field enter a comma-separated list of keywords that accurately
summarise the contents of the document. Refer to step 5 in the section “Adding
metadata to Office 2010 documents” above for full details.
5.
In the Title field enter a title for the document that is meaningful to users out of
context. Remember that your document will be returned in lists of search results so it
needs to have a title that explains what the document is about.
2.4. Updating or reusing an Office 2007 document
If a document is reused or copied to create another document, make sure that the
document’s properties are updated. You change the metadata from the Save As dialog box,
without opening the document.
2.5. Add metadata to Office 2003 files
1.
Open the file you wish to add metadata to.
2.
Select the File menu and then the Properties option.
3.
Select the Summary tab:
Figure 7: Summary tab on the Properties panel
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Adding Metadata to Documents, version 1.0
4.
Follow the advice given in steps 3 to 5 above in Adding metadata to Office 2007
documents, to add Title, Author and Keywords.
5.
Click OK to close the document properties.
3.
Adding metadata to PDF documents
Any metadata that has been added to a document’s properties will automatically be
transferred across when it is saved as a PDF.
If you have edit access to a PDF and wish to edit the document properties:
1.
Open the file you wish to add/amend metadata to.
2.
Select the File menu and then the Properties option to open the Document
Properties dialog box and then select the Description tab:
Figure 8: PDF Document Properties screen
3.
Follow steps 3 to 5 above in Adding metadata to Office 2007 documents to add Title,
Author and Keyword metadata.
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