Changing PDF file date to internal PDF publishing date?

[brahman]

Hello,
how can I change the PDF file date to the internal PDF publishing date in an automated way for several PDF files, so that I can sort my PDF magazine downloads of the same day in publishing sequence in TC?

Any ideas?

[nsp]

You should give a look to explorer file properties and find if a field match your document publishing date.
If found, you can install shelldetails ad verify that the matching field is exposed from shelldetails.ini (read documentation)

Once configured, you can add a custom column to just sort yous files from a pdf or review custom columjns definition.
To change date, you have to use "File->change attributes" from selected files. Use plugin with tc.creationdate reciving value of shelldetails."MatchingField" ....

-- Edited --

Add explorer extension

Normally on Document Metadata you have a field like "Content Created" but you need an extension to extract it and view it in details if you did not installed any for the logged user.
You can use https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/download/PdfPropertyExtension_1.16.0.exe or any similar extension.

[Fla$her]

Maybe so?

Plugin:	Propertiy:	Value:
tc	writedate	[=xpdfsearch.Created]

[Dalai]

Yes, xPDFSearch would also be my choice. I suggest to check first whether or not the Created field contains the date you expect.

Regards
Dalai

[Usher]

Plugin xPDFSearch.wdx version 1.3.4.2 in Windows XP can show custom columns, but cannot be used to change date/timestamp. It gives errors like that:

---------------------------
C:\temp\test.pdf
---------------------------
Error setting the following attribute:
creationdate

Continue?

The same for tc.writedate and xpdfsearch.Modified.

[Usher]

You should give a look to explorer file properties and find if a field match your document publishing date.
If found, you can install shelldetails and verify that the matching field is exposed from shelldetails.ini (read documentation)

What properties can shelldetails plugin show - from custom Explorer columns or from PDF tab in file properties? AdobeReader shell extension In Windows XP shows more properties in PDF tab than available as Explorer columns.

[nsp]

What properties can shelldetails plugin show - from custom Explorer columns or from PDF tab in file properties? AdobeReader shell extension In Windows XP shows more properties in PDF tab than available as Explorer columns.

You can get additional fields if you use a explorer properties extension like the coolsoft one. It extract document metadata and expose from property page in details tab view. You can probably have more from SumatraPDF Document properties or Acrobat Reader/DC but do not know they provide extractor to fill ShellDetails.

Using ShellDetails "Content created" field is working great to change TC.creationdate or tc.writedate from the "File -> Change Attribute" dialog.

xPdfSearch is not really maintained but source code is available on github.

[Fla$her]

Plugin xPDFSearch.wdx version 1.3.4.2 in Windows XP can show custom columns, but cannot be used to change date/timestamp.

There is no such problem on Win 7. tc.writedate changes without problems.

[Usher]

What properties can shelldetails plugin show - from custom Explorer columns or from PDF tab in file properties? AdobeReader shell extension In Windows XP shows more properties in PDF tab than available as Explorer columns.

You can get additional fields if you use a explorer properties extension like the coolsoft one. It extract document metadata and expose from property page in details tab view. You can probably have more from SumatraPDF Document properties or Acrobat Reader/DC but do not know they provide extractor to fill ShellDetails.

Using ShellDetails "Content created" field is working great to change TC.creationdate or tc.writedate from the "File -> Change Attribute" dialog.

xPdfSearch is not really maintained but source code is available on github.

Are you really talking about Windows XP?

[brahman]

Thank you all for your comments.

xpdf does the job quite well.

For reference for other users:
Here is the latest version 1.34.2
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p1capi6evdh866t/wdx_xpdfsearch_1.34.2.zip?dl=1

Link Source:
viewtopic.php?p=399403#p399403

[nsp]

You can get additional fields if you use a explorer properties extension like the coolsoft one. ...

Are you really talking about Windows XP?

My bad, this IPropertyHandler stuff is only available from Vista.

[Usher]

Plugin xPDFSearch.wdx version 1.3.4.2 in Windows XP can show custom columns, but cannot be used to change date/timestamp.

There is no such problem on Win 7. tc.writedate changes without problems.

You haven't reported working plugin VERSION. Here's what I've found:
* xPDFsearch version 1.34.2 doesn't work at all with change attributes. I tested 32-bit plugin in Windows XP and Windows 7, and 64-bit plugin in Windows 7. It looks like the new author haven't defined proper data types. There were similar fixes reported by him in the plugin history.txt.
* Old xPDFsearch version 1.11 works OK in both Windows XP and Windows 7.
* Old xPDFsearch version 2.00 beta 1 crashes when used for custom columns and browsing folder with several hundreds of pdf files.

You can probably have more from SumatraPDF Document properties or Acrobat Reader/DC but do not know they provide extractor to fill ShellDetails.

Another wrong guess?
* SumatraPDF for Windows XP seems to have NO shell extension in installable version.
* There is definitely no shell extension installed when using standalone SumatraPDF.exe required by slister plugin.
* Acrobat Reader DC has no 64-bit version for Windows 7.

Using ShellDetails "Content created" field is working great to change TC.creationdate or tc.writedate from the "File -> Change Attribute" dialog.

And one more wrong guess.
* "Content created" in Windows XP works for MS Office documents in old formats - doc, xls. etc. I haven't tested it in Windows 7. And I can't see "Last write" property which is more useful for tc.writedate.

[nsp]

Hi Andrzej,
I only have windows 10 and 11 anymore available to test. I do not have any windows XP as i do not support any user with such OS. (Original question was asked for win 10x64 user).
All the assumption i gave about XP are just assumption as i cannot test it (it could be wrong guess). I also have some issues with xPdfsearch to change date attributes and do not use it anymore. I never had any issues on Windows 7,10,11 (I skipped vista, 8,8.1) using shelldetails and additional property extractors.

[Usher]

2nsp
Thanks for your suggestions.
Once again: For me ShellDetails works, but it does NOT support all shell details available in Explorer. Available details are poorly described (users should guess what file types have such properties or which date is used by which file type) and I don't understand how to add more details manually.
However, I don't want to continue off topic in this thread, I'm going to read older topics about shelldetails plugin now.

[zeeko]

New version of xPDFSearch v1.35 allows changing PDF file attributes with values from plugin.
viewtopic.php?p=415773#p415773