# Setting the author of an rtf file
**URL:** https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226
**Category:** Tips
**Created:** [November 17, 2016, 6:56am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226 "2016-11-17T06:56:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jmm](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/jmm)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 6:56am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226/1 "2016-11-17T06:56:55Z")
Is it possible to manually set the author of an rtf file inside DT?
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### Author:  [@korm](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/korm)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 10:59am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226/2 "2016-11-17T10:59:38Z")
> [@jmm](#):
>
> Is it possible to manually set the author of an rtf file inside DT?
Tools \> Show Properties
For documents kinds that support properties, this panel is the way to modify them. This is usually RTF and PDF.
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### Author:  [@jmm](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/jmm)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 11:17am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226/3 "2016-11-17T11:17:54Z")
Thank you, I had overlooked this tool. And it is useful, though very laborious if it is not possible to batch process the fields of files. For what I can see, batch processing of fields has not been included in DT but
- has a DEVONthink Applescript been developed for it?
- do you know of any external app that can batch modify rtf metadata, such as the existing ones for pdfs?
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### Author:  [@korm](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/korm)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226/4 "2016-11-17T14:55:53Z")
> [@jmm](#):
>
> - has a DEVONthink Applescript been developed for it?
If I recall this came up last year and the answer was that “author” is a read-only property of PDF and RTF files (as far as DEVONthink is concerned). A script is probably not possible.
> [@](#):
>
> - do you know of any external app that can batch modify rtf metadata, such as the existing ones for pdfs?
You could check with one of the AppleScript forums (like [macscripter.net](http://macscripter.net)) perhaps. I assume something could be done to modify the metadata element “kMDItemAuthors” – it’s just not currently possible with DEVONthink.
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### Author:  [@jmm](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/jmm)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226/5 "2016-11-22T15:13:48Z")
Thanks for your reply.
I was thinking of a script similar to the one included in DT for changing the creation dates of files, which I use often. Creating a script for authors is too advanced for me. I’ll just have to wait to use the Author column, since changing it file by file is far too time consuming.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 11:46am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/setting-the-author-of-an-rtf-file/21226/6 "2022-01-21T11:46:34Z")