Configure the Office Link

• Linked documents that use Office file properties (when the Link to content option is enabled) in the header or footer may open in the editing application in Draft view.

  To prevent this, insert fields instead and the documents will open in the default view. You configure field synchronization the same as file property synchronization.

• The Office link can be configured to prompt PowerWeb users to release a document from a Quick Change workflow when the document has been changed in its native application.

  To enable this feature, set the AskReleaseQuickChangeOnClose setting to 1 in the [Settings] section of the configuration referred to below.

• If you are using the Aspose Rendering Module, you must use one of two options:

  • Add or migrate your mapping to the Custom section of the configuration referred to below.

  • If you already have your configuration set to use OfficeCustomProperties, add AsposeCustom = OfficeCustomProperties to the Settings section of the configuration referred to below.

Complete the following tasks before configuring the settings described in this article:

1. Create a list of the Office property and field names used by your organization in cover pages, headers, footers, and so on.

2. Create a list of the Meridian property names (and property set names) that correspond to each Office property that you want to synchronize.

3. For each Office property, note whether it should be read or written, or both. In effect, determine which application should control the value of that property, Meridian or Office.

   When doing so, consider where the documents will originate from. If the document will be imported from outside the vault, Office properties should be read. If the document will be created inside the vault with the aid of a wizard that prompts the user for document properties, Office properties should be written.

To configure Office property synchronization:

1. In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Application Link Settings.

   The settings for each application link appear in property pages in the right pane.

2. Click the Office tab.

   The Office link's settings page appears in the right pane.

3. Click Edit.

   To export the settings file to your computer, click the Export button. This can be useful if you want to edit the file in another text editor. You can then copy your changes to the Clipboard and paste them into Configurator.

4. Locate the section of the file that contains the document property that you want to synchronize, for example, [SummaryInf].

   The property set section names are defined in the [PropertySets] section using the following syntax:
   <COMPropertySetName>/<FMTID >=<PropertySetName>, <ProgID>

5. For each document property, specify the Meridian property set and property name to which you want it synchronized.

   Under normal circumstances, the definition should not be edited. If necessary, only <PropertySetName> and its corresponding property set section name may be changed. For example, changing both occurrences of Custom to OfficeCustom.

   Note:

   The numbers shown following the document property names are IDs that resolve the property mapping when the application is localized into multiple languages.

   The Office link only synchronizes dates with Microsoft Office properties. The time is not synchronized even if it is stored in the Meridian property. For this reason, a text type property should be used in Meridian instead of a date type and the time value set using scripting.

   You can find the names of property sets and properties on the Properties page of each document type, as described in Create And Edit Document Types.

6. Specify a flag if the property should be read-only (RO) or write-only (WO).

   Use the default lines in the file as examples. By default, document properties are read/write. Use the following format for each line:

   <OfficePropertySet.OfficePropertyName>=<MeridianPropertySet.MeridianPropertyName>,<Flag>

   Note:

   Although Meridian internal properties can be synchronized to document properties, you should never attempt to update internal properties or else Access denied errors can occur. Only write to Meridian properties in the Custom property set. Flag all attributes linked to Meridian internal properties as write-only (WO).

7. If you want to synchronize a document property with a parent folder (routed) property, specify the folder type name from which to get the folder property as in the following example.

   <DocumentPropertyName>=<FolderTypeName:PropertySetName.PropertyName>,<Flag>

8. If you want to synchronize one document property with one of several possible routed properties, specify a unique identifier for each of the properties on the left side of the setting as in the following example.

   <DocumentPropertyName,ID>=<FolderTypeName:PropertySetName.PropertyName>,<Flag>

   The value of ID is insignificant but must be unique among all of the lines in the same section. Using this syntax, you can map the same document property to multiple folder types and the value will depend on the document's actual parent folder. The following example uses three different folder types NewProject, UpgradeProject, and RepairProject.

   PROJECTNUM,new = NewProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO            
   PROJECTNUM,upgrade = UpgradeProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO            
   PROJECTNUM,repair = RepairProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO

9. Click OK.

10. Test the link thoroughly by synchronizing each Office property.

    You can do this by changing the Meridian property values for a document in the vault and Office property values in the same document and confirming that the synchronization occurs the way that you expect. You can manually synchronize properties with the Meridian client applications as described in Synchronize File Properties.

    Property synchronization can significantly increase the time it takes to route a document to a different workflow state. This is due to the execution of the Office update process in the background. When routing multiple documents, the time is multiplied accordingly. This delay can be minimized with the RedrawFieldsOnUpdate setting in the [Settings] section of the Office application link configuration. The setting controls update of the visible fields in Office documents. By default (0), the synchronization is disabled.

    Important!

     When RedrawFieldsOnUpdate is disabled, users must manually synchronize properties with the buttons on the Accruent toolbar in the Office application in order for the document to reflect the values in Meridian. However, they must be careful to not accidentally overwrite more current values in the document with obsolete values from Meridian.