Details Pane does not display PDF metadata

[anatolica]

I have been experiencing this problem for some time now - the details pane at the bottom in Windows Explorer does not display PDF metadata - title, authors, no. of pages, etc. as it used to. It only displays Name and Item Type.

I am using Windows 7 x64 and this is a freshly formatted system - I have tried this with several versions of PDF-XChange Viewer from with no luck (ranging from v.309 to v.314, the latest). Could you please advise what I should do to have my PDF metadata back in the Windows Explorer details pane?

Thanks,
Emrea

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Emrea,

Thanks for the post - I'm not seeing the same thing here:

screen-shot.zip

Please make sure that the document has Meta Data, by going to File --> Document Properties --> Description and checking what's listed. If nothing is listed there, then there is nothing for us to show.

If there is metadata listed, then please let me know and we will dig deeper.

Cheers,

[anatolica]

Hi Will,
Here is a screenshot of the issue:

2015-06-04 02_20_25-NoMetadataDisplay.zip

. This is the case with all files, whether they have actual metadata or not, and in my case, they mostly have metadata as it is an essential part of my workflow.
Is there any other information I can provide you with?

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello anatolica,

I noticed the main difference between yours and Will's screenshots - you are using the Viewer, and Will is using the newer PDF XChange Editor. Can you please also try to install the Editor and it's shell extension and see if you will see more meta data?

Regards,
Stefan

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi anatolica,

There should be no difference in the handling of this between the Editor and the Viewer, as they share their Shell Extensions.

Sometimes, when the default application is changed, certain registry entries become invalid because, while they point to the same DLL, they no longer also point to the same application (exe) location.

Please do the following and see if that helps:

1) Open the Windows Start Menu and type "CMD", then right click the CMD and select "Run as administrator".

2) For 64-bit Windows installations, type:
regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\XCShInfo.dll".

For 32-bit installations of Windows, type:
regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\Win32\XCShInfo.dll"

HTH!

[anatolica]

Dear Stefan & Will,

Thank you for your responses. Sorry, this is going to be a long post to provide some more details of the issue.

On PDFX-Change Editor: I had this problem for some time now and I reformatted my notebook mostly due to this issue. I used to have PDFXChange Editor then as well, and it did not matter (I had tried unregistering-reregistering tricks using Nirsoft's shell extension tools, e.g. ShellExView, etc.). I specifically prefer PDFX-Change Viewer, rather than the editor, so it is best if I could find a solution for Vİewer in my Windows 7 x64 setting.

Also, after reformatting, PDFX-Change Viewer latest edition (2.5.313) was the first software I installed, before Acrobat, etc. (even before Office 2010). And I made a system restore before installing it. So, when I couldn't get the metadata in the details pane, I kept on restoring back and reinstalling older versions down to 2.5.214. It did not make any difference.

In my current setting, I have both Acrobat Reader and PDF X-change Viewer installed. I have tried several options with registering - unregistering .dlls :

* I have unregistered Adobe .dlls :

Code: Select all

regsvr32 -u "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroPDF.dll"
regsvr32 -u "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroPDF64.dll"
regsvr32 -u "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\pdfshell.dll"

* I have unregistered and re-registered XCShInfo.dll for both 32 and 64 bit versions:

Code: Select all

regsvr32 -u "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\XCShInfo.dll"
regsvr32 -u "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\Win32\XCShInfo.dll"

As such, the details pane looks like this:

2015-06-04_XCShInfo.dll-unregistered.zip

* Then I have restarted my notebook, and re-registered XCShInfo.dll for 64 bit:

Code: Select all

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\XCShInfo.dll"

I got the registration succeeded sort of pop-up message from command prompt, and the same files look like this in Windows Explorer:

2015-06-04_XCShInfo.dll-reregistered.zip

No metadata in details pane, no metadata info in explorer folder details view (but the preview panel works, as opposed to when it was unregistered). Even the formerly visible "Date Created" and "Date Modified" are not displayed in the epxlorer details pane. I can see the file has metadata both from within PDFXChange viewer and from the Windows explorer file properties:

2015-06-04_PDF-Properties.zip

I have killed and restarted explorer.exe from Task Manager, and reregistered XCShInfo.dll for 32 bit, but did not work either. I am out of options, what should I do now?

Thanks again,
Emrea

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Emrea,

Thanks for getting back to us and no worries for the long post, it was extremely descriptive and that's what we love!

This is very odd and I'm wondering if, perhaps, it's specific to the document(s) that you're using. To test this, can you download and try this PDF file:

Metadata Test.pdf

If that doesn't work, then can you please try deleting the Shell Extensions folder from Program Files, and replacing it with this:

Shell Extensions.zip

You may need to re-register the 64-bit DLL (the one not contained in the Win32 folder).

Keep us posted!

[anatolica]

Hello again, and thanks for the help Here are the steps I followed after the files you sent:

- I have checked with the document you sent, and the result was the same as previous, i.e. my test documents were ok.

- I uninstalled Acrobat Reader with Geek uninstaller, cleaned with CCleaner and restarted my notebook.

- So, I have unregistered PDF shell extensions (both 32 bit and 64 bit), restarted notebook, deleted Shell Extensions folder, moved the sent Shell extensions folder to the same plocation and re-registered 64 bit extension again:

2015-06-05_RegSvr32-cmd.exe.zip

- I opened PDF-XChange, it asked to be the default viewer, I approved, and the metadata in Explorer columns came back. However, Details Pane still does not provide metadata. Here's a screensot:

2015-06-05-Documents.zip

That's all for now. Could it be related to some windows update or anything of that sort?

Thanks again,
Emrea

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hi all,

I am always curious to see these things by myself and test it out.

So, this is my conclusion:
You will only be able to see the metadata in the "Details Pane" if you set PDF-XChange Editor as your default viewer via Windows Explorer. I suppose that you know you can do this via a right mouseclick onto a PDF, then "Open with", "Choose default program...", select PDF-XChange Editor, make sure that "Always use the selected program ..." is checked, and click OK.

If you did it the right way, you will see that the icons besides PDF-files are changing towards the selected program.

You may have to restart the computer to make it really show the content of the metadata fields. At mine, the metadata field-names became present, but did not immediately show their content. After a restart they did (show the content).

Here is a print screen of what I see with three different viewers (PDF-XChange Viewer, PDF-XChange Editor, Adobe Reader).

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Just some additional information.

After continuing testing, I finally arrived that the details pane was just showing the PDF's filename and itemtype, nothing more. I could not get it to work anymore. At that moment the Viewer and the Editor were installed.

After uninstalling the Viewer, there were a few more metadata fields being displayed in the details pane, but without content.

So, I decided to uninstall the Editor too.

After this, I reinstalled the Editor and all was working back correctly. Metadatafields and contents were shown.

Finally, reinstalled the Viewer, and after this I set again the Editor as my default PDF viewer in Windows Explorer.

All is still working correctly.

N.B.: I did my installations on the hand of the ZIP-files, not the MSI ones.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi guys,

Willy - I'm not so sure that will do it, in this case. As I mentioned previously, the Editor and Viewer share their Shell Extensions and this feature is not handled by the application itself, in any sense. Also, Emrea did say that this had been tried already and it didn't seem to help.

Emrea - can you please make sure that Windows Search Indexing is turned on, and see if that helps? It's possible that, if it isn't, Windows may not display the Metadata on Explorer:
http://superuser.com/questions/73204/co ... -windows-7

Thanks,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hi Will,

Emrea did not yet say that he has set PDF-XChange Editor as his default viewer in Windows Explorer.

I myself, must say and admit that my tests were done with the 32-bit versions (I do not have a Windows 7 64-bit).
Maybe the 64-bits versions are behaving differently.

But, if you would like to do me/us a favour, then change your default PDF-viewer in Windows Explorer to PDF-XChange Viewer (instead of PDF-XChange Editor) and then post us a print screen, a proof that all metadatafields are still present in the Details pane. Actually, I have my doubts.

Regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Willy,

Here's what Emrea said earlier:

On PDFX-Change Editor: I had this problem for some time now and I reformatted my notebook mostly due to this issue. I used to have PDFXChange Editor then as well, and it did not matter (I had tried unregistering-reregistering tricks using Nirsoft's shell extension tools, e.g. ShellExView, etc.). I specifically prefer PDFX-Change Viewer, rather than the editor, so it is best if I could find a solution for Vİewer in my Windows 7 x64 setting.

Hopefully I'm not misunderstanding that.

Regarding the screen-shot, see here:

Screenshot_1.zip

The Shell Extensions are completely separate from the Editor and from the Viewer, this is why they are stored in a separate Program Files folder.

Maybe the 64-bits versions are behaving differently.

I'm using the 64-bit extensions here, so I suspect that this wouldn't be the case, though it's still a possibility.

Thanks,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Thanks for that Will.

Let us hope that Emrea comes back soon to make clear if he ever set the PDF-XChange Editor as his default to view PDF's.
Maybe at that time it was Adobe Reader that was set as default ?

What I ment with the different behaviour is indeed that, when setting PDF-XChange Viewer as default in Windows Explorer (in 32-bit environment), this means that not all the metadata are shown anymore (in the Details pane at the bottom).
Maybe when doing the same thing in Windows Explorer 64-bit, it would behave differently.

And it seems that it does, because you did gave us a proof of it, via your last screenshot.

Finally, I do not know if you are willing to check this also on a 32-bits system (if available).
If this also keeps working with the Viewer as default, than I must admit that I am wrong (but then, I should not know the reason why it behaves differently at my side).

Kind regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Willy,

What I ment with the different behaviour is indeed that, when setting PDF-XChange Viewer as default in Windows Explorer (in 32-bit environment), this means that not all the metadata are shown anymore (in the Details pane at the bottom).

Sorry, I'd misunderstood that part. I'll definitely give this a test in a 32-bit environment, as soon as I can. I won't be able to do that until Monday, however. So, until then, let's wait to see what Emrea says and, if necessary, I'll setup the 32-bit test.

Cheers,

[anatolica]

Dear All,

I am sorry I am late - I had to travel back to my home; hence the absence. Now I will read all your posts and respond accordingly. But from a quicklook, I can say that installing PDF-XChange Editor does not help; nor assigning PDF-XChange Viever as the default PDF app from the context menu. Now I will read your posts in detail, and sincerely, thanks to you all for your help,

will be back soon
Emrea

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Emrea,

No worries at all - thanks for clarifying! Let us know if the Indexing suggestion helps, at all.

Cheers,

[anatolica]

Dear all,

Thanks again for all your help and advices. I have tried and restarted my notebook for most of the day, and here are my results.

Beware - (very) long post! But first, an executive summary in case tl;dr
* Indexing suggestion did not apply as indexing service was on at all times (and I have checked it).
* Assigning default app from the context menu only partially worked - and in a weird way: it displays metadata in the preview pane only when Acrobat is set as the default app (no luck with the Viewer or the Editor on that matter). Correction: Editor also worked (see below), but no luck yet with the Viewer, my preferred app.

Here are some notes beforehand for a clearer picture:
* For the purposes of this post, Viewer refers to PDF-XChange Viewer, Editor refers to PDF-XChange Editor, and Acrobat refers to Adobe Acrobat Reader.
* My current setting is: Windows 7 x 64 Home Premium, with Indexing Service enabled. Here is a list of the software installed in the system:

InstalledSoftware.zip

* Please note that I had the same issue even if I installed the latest version of the Viewer, before installing any of these softwares (except for the NVIDIA drivers, may be.)
* Also I have tried installing older Viewer versions until v. 2.5.209 (I took a restore point and when I uninstalled a version, I restored to the state prior to installation via System Restore and kept installing/uninstalling other versions as such). I still have the restore point, so I can keep on restoring to that state, if it is required.
* At all times, I had the Windows Indexing Service enabled.
* All PDF-XChange software I have installed were zipped installer versions (not MSIs).
* Also, after all this, I plan to format my notebook again, as I feel like I messed up with too many settings, and I want to be on the safer side before going further with my day-to-day work on this notebook. - So, please don't hesitate to ask me for more "dare" I can do it

Some answers:

"Let us hope that Emrea comes back soon to make clear if he ever set the PDF-XChange Editor as his default to view PDF's.
Maybe at that time it was Adobe Reader that was set as default ?"

I had PDF-XChange Viewer as the default: I had set Acrobat and PDF-XChange Editor as the default from within the respective apps (not from the Open With... user choice context menu) to see whether it would make any change, but it didn't.

"Emrea - can you please make sure that Windows Search Indexing is turned on, and see if that helps? "

I have checked the Windows Search Indexing and it is turned on -- and I am pretty sure it was on as well, in my previous setting, because I remember checking with the indexing options of the Windows Search Indexing (to see whether PDF file properties and contents were indexed or not):

Here is a long scroll of trials and results:
* On Willy's advice, I have checked to see whether installing the Editor would make any difference; although I know the shell extensions are separate from the editor and the viewer - just to be on the safe side:

2015-06-06_PDF-XChange-Editor_default.zip

* I have assigned the Viewer as the default PDF application from the context menu in Windows Explorer. - no metadata
* I have installed the Editor and assigned it as the default PDF application during installation. - no metadata

2015-06-06-PDFsIndexed.zip

* I have unregistered all shell extensions (Adobe and PDF-XChange Shell Info 32 and 64 bit, in any case) and re-registered the 64 bit shell extension only. Restarted notebook. No change.
* I have assigned the Editor as the default app from the context menu - just as Willy advised. - no metadata:
* I have restarted the notebook, and checked whether any change with the Editor as the default - none. So, I assigned Acrobat as the default from the Open With... context menu: metadata displayed here it is:

2015-06-07_Metadata w Acrobat default.zip

This has never happened before, as I made several trials with Acrobat and setting it as the default from within the application itself. It has been a long time since I have seen any metadata on the details pane:))
* Aaand the metadata is gone when I tried to do the same with the Viewer:

2015-06-07_No Metadata w Viewer default.zip

* I have restarted and checked whether there is any change- none. I assigned the Editor via Willy's method (context menu) and also no metadata. In fact, there are even less data shown than it was with the Viewer:

2015-06-07_No Metadata w Editor default.zip

* I have tried different combinations of context menu assigned defaults: switched from Editor to Acrobat than to Viewer - I have tried using Acrobat default as a buffer zone as it is the only default that displays metadata.
* I tried uninstalling the viewer and see whether the editor can display metadata when set as default, as Willy did to get back some of the metadata in details pane. - no metadata. As Willy said:

"After continuing testing, I finally arrived that the details pane was just showing the PDF's filename and itemtype, nothing more. I could not get it to work anymore. At that moment the Viewer and the Editor were installed. After uninstalling the Viewer, there were a few more metadata fields being displayed in the details pane, but without content."

* I have assigned Acrobat as the default from context menu - metadata sections came back but not the actual metadata and was also gone from columns. Also the PDFs cannot be previewed from the preview panel, and there is no PDF Info tab in File Properties, but Details tab therein displays the metadata. Also, tooltips when hovering over a PDF in the explorer displays only Item Type (Adobe Acrobat Reader) and Rating. Weird.

2015-06-07-Metadata Fields without Data.zip

* I have reinstalled the Editor - used the 'repair' option. It assigned itself as the default without asking. All metadata are displayed and with actual data!

2015-06-07-Editor-Metadata.zip

* I assigned Acrobat as the default from the context menu: metadata are still displayed.
* I installed Viewer, and metadata are gone from the details pane (not from the columns). Assigning Adobe and/or Editor as the default brings them back.

These are the things I tried. I am also attaching the list of software currently installed -- may be it could help. I would be very happy if I could manage to have PDF-XChange Viewer displaying metadata and as as my default application.

Thank you for all your help and patience. Hope this post helps,
Cheers,
Emrea

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hi Emrea,

This was a long, but very clear explanation of your trials. Very well done.

So, it was my final conclusion too, that one must uninstall PDF-XChange Viewer + PDF-XChange Editor, and then fresh install PDF-XChange Editor (actual version 5.5 build 313.0), to make the details pane showing the PDF's metadata correctly again. After that, you may also re-install PDF-XChange Viewer (and re-set the Editor again as default).

At the end, we have to ask Tracker development to take a look if it is possible to set PDF-XChange Viewer as default for opening PDF's, while still leaving the details pane functionality intact.

Actually, to open a PDF in Windows Explorer via PDF-XChange Viewer (when the Editor has been set as default), one could do a right mouseclick onto the PDF and then click Open with > PDF-XChange Viewer. But that is not very handy if you have to do this every time.

EDIT: On the other hand, we may wonder why people still prefer the Viewer as their default PDF viewer?
Can you please tell us Emrea, do you have one or more particular reasons for this?
So, Tracker development could still decide to incorporate the concerning Viewer-functionality into the Editor.

Regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi guys,

Emrea - no worries at all, for the long post. As Willy said, your explanation was extremely clear and I know that I would personally much rather that, than too little information!

Willy and Emrea:

EDIT: On the other hand, we may wonder why people still prefer the Viewer as their default PDF viewer?
Can you please tell us Emrea, do you have one or more particular reasons for this?
So, Tracker development could still decide to incorporate the concerning Viewer-functionality into the Editor.

I hate to say this, but though it shouldn't matter if you use either the Viewer or the Editor (as the Shell Ext. are the same), if it works with the Editor and not the Viewer, there isn't much that I can do, as the Viewer is no longer supported.

I believe that Willy has a point here. If there is something that you don't like about the Editor, or there is something that it doesn't do, we would love to hear it and, if possible, fix the problem.

Thanks,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Sorry, that I am here once again, but may I still count on you (Will) that you are going to check the behaviour of the 32-bits versions?

Besides that, I still have my doubts about the Shell extensions...
If I only install the Viewer, then I am NOT able to see the properties/metadata of a PDF in the Details Pane (I did a test with the 32-bits version).

In fact the Shell Extensions (XCShInfo.dll) installed with the Viewer are - at my opinion - only the Thumbnail handler and the Preview handler, there is no Properties handler in it.

When I install the Editor, then there is an additional file installed in the "Shell Extensions"-folder (PDFProperties.propdesc). I am almost sure that this is the file (it also shows by it's name) that serves for the properties in the Details Pane.

So, you may say that the Viewer and the Editor share their extensions, but for viewing the properties, the Editor needs to be installed besides the Viewer, and the Editor needs to be set as the default viewer (in case of 32-bit).
Viewing the properties via the Details Pane does not work when the Viewer is the only one that is installed.

Regards.

[anatolica]

Hello again,

On the other hand, we may wonder why people still prefer the Viewer as their default PDF viewer?
Can you please tell us Emrea, do you have one or more particular reasons for this?

I understand why you wonder about my preference for Viewer rather than the Editor. Functionality wise, I think the Editor have reached (or may be even surpassed, I don't know as I only used the Editor for testing purposes) the Viewer: especially with the plug-ins (speak aloud, dictionary, etc.).

However -sorry for saying this- the interface is overly crowded - not native-looking, big icons, too much chrome, too much space between menu items, etc. I use a notebook, not a touch enabled monitor or a tablet. It is way too much distractive. Even though there are some solutions (e.g. you can minimize the toolbars, à la Seamonkey, you can set the application background for Solid Colors rather than textures, etc.) I didn't like it. I love the simplicity of the interface in the Viewer - in fact, I liked the interface of the 2.0x versions even better than the 2.5x versions; it was even simpler (I think it did not paint the toolbars with a background gradient back then). Since 2.0x, I have been keeping old versions of the Viewer in case the interface changes for the worse.

The main reason I use a PDF application is for annotation and commenting for academic purposes, and thank you all for providing such a nice set of features even for free versions. But as I said, the interface in 3.x versions is very loud and unnecessarily crowded for my purposes. Comparatively, the Viewer looks much more elegant and gets out of the way as I really want to focus on content. So, I prefer the Viewer if I can help it.

These are my honest (blunt?) thoughts; please know that I really appreciate all your efforts very much. May be it is just that I am too old for (somewhat) radical interface changes

Thank you all PDF-XChange team, and keep up the good work,
Cheers,
Emrea

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi guys,

Willy: The Shell Extensions are definitely a thumbnail handler, file previewer and property handler. We also definitely do not have two versions of the Shell Extensions, all that we do is package the Viewer installers with the same Shell Extensions as the Editor installers. I've just quadruple checked this with the Dev. Team, to make sure that neither one of us has misunderstood the other previously.

Emrea: Please, don't apologize! Your opinions are perfectly valid, politely stated and very much appreciated! I'm afraid that I cannot really answer them as I'd like, all that I can really say is that I will certainly pass them along to the Dev. Team and we will evaluate what we can do to make the Editor more use-able for users like yourself.

As far as the issue with metadata handling goes, I believe that, at this point, the only way for us to really help is to remote in to your computer. If this is possible, please take a look at the following KB article and email support@pdf-xchange.com to arrange a time that works for all.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowled ... e-an-issue

Thanks,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

GOOD NEWS - DO NOT SEARCH ANY LONGER FOR THE PROBLEM
PLEASE TRACKER SOFTWARE - DO RELEASE ANOTHER MINOR UPDATE

Will and people of the Tracker development team,

Not after a 'quadruple check', but after multiple more times, I finally found the problem.

A few moments ago I read that an updated version of PDF-XChange Viewer and Editor was available.

So, I uninstalled both applications from my computer, and started again with PDF-XChange Viewer as the first and only application. So, I did not yet install the Editor.

Before even starting the Viewer, I went verifying the Shell Extensions subfolder.
And what did I see, ... the "PDFProperties.propdesc" file was there !
Immediately checked if the properties of a PDF were available via the Details Pane in Windows Explorer.
Indeed they where !!

And do you know why ? Because this time I used the MSI-installer instead of the ZIP/EXE-installer.

To have a confirmation, I uninstalled again the Viewer, and after that, I did re-install it via the ZIP/EXE-installer.
And what I thought was true, the "PDFProperties.propdesc" was NOT there.

So, that was the reason why it did not work untill now.

Regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Willy,

I'll need to talk that over with the Dev. Team, but I'm not too sure that this is the case, as I've just deleted the PDFProperties.propdesc file from the installation folder and the metadata still shows in Explorer.

I'll speak with them and will get back to you.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Thanks Will for your reply.

The "PDFProperties.propdesc"-file itself seems indeed to not be needed to show the metadata, but it is eventhough a kind of proof that the installation of the required shell extensions has been done succesfully.

Thanks again anyway, and I will wait now for more news from your side.

Regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Willy,

I think that, rather than continuing to try to guess the problem, the best solution would be the remote session if/when Emrea is willing.

Cheers,

[anatolica]

Hi Will,

I have managed to arrange the notebook for remote support and sent an e-mail to tracker support as advised. I am waiting for the reply and will conduct the arrangements via e-mail,

Thank you for your support,
Cheers
Emrea

[Will - Tracker Supp]

For the information of anyone watching the thread, we've found the issue, thanks to Emrea's help and the fix will be released with the next build

Cheers,