Document properties

All documents submitted for publication on West Suffolk Council websites must have their document properties filled in. It is best to do this in a Word, Excel or PowerPoint version of the document, before being converted to PDF. However, it is still possible after conversion.

The document owner, or the agency which produced the document, is responsible for filling the document properties in.

Why document properties are important

The Title is displayed in a list of search results on search engines and the council's website search.

The Author field tells us who to contact if there is ever an issue with a document.

Keywords are not essential but they can help search engines to understand what is in your document. Good keywords raise the profile of your document in search results. This should be a comma-separated list of words.

Adding document properties to a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document

With the document open, click on File.
Click on Info.
Click Show all properties.
Complete the following fields:
- Title (full title of document as it appears on the document) (do not use blocks of capitals, abbreviations, or symbols such as &)
- Subject (a brief description of what the document is about, ideally 140 to 160 characters – this shows up in search results)
- Company (West Suffolk Council)
- Manager (service or team name, not an individual)
- Author (Organisation or service that produced the document - use a generic service, team name, or job title - not a person's name - this could breach the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) unless it is important to publish the individual's name ).
Exit document properties.

These changes will be retained for all future updates of the document.

Adding document properties to a PDF document

With the document open in Adobe Standard or Pro, right click within the text.
Click on document properties.
Complete the following fields:
- Title (actual title of document)
- Author (change to generic service or team name, if possible, not an individual)
- Subject (description of what the document is about of between 140 and 160 characters)
- Keywords are not necessary but can help search engines (alternative words that are not necessarily in the content itself)
Click OK.

If you set the document properties within a PDF, you will have to repeat this action each time you receive an updated version of the document.

Check that your document makes sense to screen readers

In Word and other Office applications, use the speak function. Read instructions on How to add the speak function to Office applications.
In Adobe Reader, select View from the top navigation bar and Read aloud.
For webpages only - in Edge, right click the mouse and select Read aloud.

Check the whole document

Check your document right the way through and, if possible, get someone else to read it - it's easy to see what you think you have written rather than what is actually there.
If a document has been pulled together from previous versions, the formatting may not be consistent.
If you are close to the subject, it is easy to assume that everybody else knows the process or terms that you use. Although a few documents are aimed at a technical audience, don't assume that everybody who reads it knows all about the subject. Try to make sure the document is easy to understand by people who know nothing about the subject.