Change displayed author's name for comments

[MSalah]

Hi,

i need to change the author's name of any comments for some privacy

[rakunavi]

Hello MSalah,

The “Author” displayed for new comments depends on the setting in the ‘Name’ field under the "Identity" category in the Preferences dialog. For instance, if this field is left blank, your Windows login name will be used; if you enter a string such as a single space, that space will be used instead. While this has been a frequent topic of discussion on this forum for a long time, the core behavior has remained exactly the same.

• figure.png

For reference, you can check this classic topic:

• anonymous comments possible?
  viewtopic.php?t=7592

Please note that this behavior applies not only to comments but to all internal metadata within the PDF. Since various elements are assigned based on the identity defined here, it is highly recommended not to change these names arbitrarily once they are set.

Additionally, while it is possible to bulk-change the author names of existing comments using JavaScript—and such scripts are frequently shared on this forum—I wanted to share a quick heads-up about the potential risks of this method, especially in mixed environments where multiple different PDF applications are used.

While running scripts to clean up or unify metadata seems efficient, it can inadvertently alter or break the visual appearance (such as fonts, styles, and layouts) of existing annotations.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Joxon]

Long time ago I posted a safe method to edit the name and/or date in comments:

1. Export Comments to Data File...
2. Open the .fdf file in Notepad++
3. Press Ctrl+H. In Search Mode select Regular expression
4. Enter:

Find what: CreationDate \(.*\)
Replace with: CreationDate \(D:20260519160000+02'00'\)

Find what: /M \(.*\)
Replace with: /M \(D:20260519160000+02'00'\)

Please note:
+02'00 = summer time
+01'00 = winter time

5. Switch to: Search Mode: Normal:
6. Enter:

Find what: /T (your name)
Replace with: /T (your new name)

7. Save file.
8. Open original pdf file (or delete all comments in edited pdf).
9. Import new .fdf file and save the file.

That's it! 100% safe!

[lev]

Select the comments, open the Properties pane and change or delete the author.

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Hi all,

Thanks for the input here - hopefully OP can confirm that they can now change the author name.

Kind regards,