Some PDFs do not seem to contain the author. Also when I create one using OpenOffice there is no author. Is there a way to add or change one?

To edit the author (or other metadata) on an existing PDF, you'll need a program like BeCyPDFMetaEdit (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/PDF/BeCyPDFMetaEdit.shtml) (which is free). (Acrobat Pro will also allow this, but it's not remotely close to free.)

OpenOffice should have a way to establish the author when creating the file. In Word (2003), it's under the File-->Properties menu; you can place the document title (different from filename, if desired) and author name. I'd expect OpenOffice to have a similar feature.

OpenOffice does not seem to have a way to add author but I found a program PDF Info that will change it.