While creating a PDF file is pretty easy to do these days, there’s plenty of ways you can make it a better and more usable file for you and your recipeients. Of course, ‘usable’ can mean different things to different people. For this article, it relates to making files lighter weight, more search friendly, and easier to use onscreen.

Easier-to-find PDF files, including on Google

The PDF metadata or document information fields allow you to embed information inside your PDF files that can help with indexing. Many document management systems that support PDF archiving will let you specify information such as the document title, author, subject and keywords. This information can then be used to help filter and narrow searches so the document can be easily retrieved again.

A similar sort of rule (though more basic) applies when you are publishing your PDF documents on the Web, with the hope that they will be indexed by Google and then bring people to your site or content.

The title field is all important for Google. When PDF files are indexed by Google, the search engine displays the document in its results in one of two ways. Here’s a visual example of the differerce:

In the top search result the title of the book Crime and Punishment is displayed, because this was entered in the title field in the PDF. In the bottom search result, nothing was entered in the title field, so Google reverts to using the PDF file name. Obviously, setting this to something meaningful will greatly increase the chance someone will click on the link to your PDF document.

Most good PDF editors like Nitro Pro and Acrobat will let you set this, as will the free PDF Hammer online PDF editor.

Cleaning files by removing unwanted objects

Removing objects from your files before distribution can reduce the size and discard objects no longer needed, including old comments, links, bookmarks, form fields, JavaScript, and more.

There are several ways you can do this:

1. Remove all objects. You can do this free by recreating the PDF file. See the first tip in our recent 5 Tricks to Reduce PDF File Size post.
2. Remove individual object types. You can do this using the optimization tools in PDF editors such as Nitro Pro and Acrobat.

Customizing the view based on the PDF document

Using initial view settings gives you a simple but powerful way to control how the document and viewing application interface will appear when the PDF file is opened, which can greatly improve the usability of the PDF onscreen. The kind of settings you can control include:

• Navigation panes. Make bookmarks or page thumbnails appear alongside the document. 
• Page layout. Change how pages are handled when viewed.
• Zoom level. Set pages to a specific magnification level or fit the full width and/or height of the page to the available document pane area.
• Open at page. Specify the page at which to to open the document.
• Window sizing. Control the position and size of the application window.
• Hide/show. For older-style interfaces such as Adobe Reader, hide or show parts of the application such as the menu bar and toolbars.

Aiding onscreen reading with navigation

While the in-built navigation tools in most PDF viewers do a reasonable job at letting people work their way through documents onscreen (instead of printing them), incorporating bookmarks and links can greatly aid onscreen reading by allowing you to link between pages, across documents and even to web pages – both links and bookmarks support the same set of actions, so depending on what works best for the document being distributed, either can be used. Bookmarks have the added benefit of allowing you to show the outline or structure of a PDF, much like a table of contents does.

So these are just a few of the many ways to improve your PDF files. If you do other things to your PDF files before distributing, why don’t you post a comment below and let us know what they are.

Related posts:

1. The Easy Way to Sign PDF Files & Forms Without Printing Them
2. Microsoft Word (DOC) and PDF Files Compared
3. Using Your Print Settings to Save Paper
4. 6 Ways to Improve Your PDF Files for the Web
5. Combine Files to PDF, Share Your Information More Reliably