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I have added some advanced properties into my Microsoft Word 2007 document. These were created by doing the following: Click the Office button -> Prepare -> Properties. Under the Document Properties drop-down menu, select Advanced Properties. In the Custom tab, add properties as needed.

My question is how do you insert these custom properties into the Word document so that they are in text form and gets updated when you update the properties in that one spot?

Thank you!

2 Answers 2

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Add a property:

  • Click Office Button > Prepare > Properties
  • Click Document Properties and select Advanced Properties
  • Click the Custom tab
  • Type the property name
  • Select the property type
  • Type the property value
  • Click Add
  • Click OK

To add a field to the document using the property:

  • Move to the place where you want to insert the property
  • Click the Insert tab on the ribbon
  • Click Quick Parts
  • Click Field
  • From the Field Name list select DocProperty
  • From the Property list select the property you created
  • Click OK

To change the value of the property:

  • Click Office Button > Prepare > Properties
  • Click Document Properties and select Advanced Properties
  • Click the Custom tab
  • From the Properties table (at the bottom) select a property
  • Type the new value
  • Click Modify
  • Click OK

To update all the fields in the document (at once):

  • Press Ctrl-A to select all the text
  • Press F9 up update all the fields selected.

Note that this will update the Table of Contents, links, etc. as well. If you want to just update a single field, select it and press F9.

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I think, like the OP, I am looking for a way to add Quick Part Document Properties in a way that allows direct editing from the document itself without needing to go through all the dialog boxes associated with changing the value of a document field.

When add a property, for example Insert > {Text} Quick Parts > Document Property > Title, it displays in the document inside a rounded rectangle with a grip displaying the property name and does not look like a normal field. I can edit any of the references to this quick part in the document and all other reference automatically change.

Unfortunately, it looks like this is currently not yet available (in Microsoft 2010). The closest solution I have found is described in this article, see section 7 - Content Controls.

The article describes some VBA code that can be implemented to achieve what is needed, but if like me, you are looking for a quick and simple solution then a work-around is also provided. For convenience, here is the process:

  1. Make sure you can see the Developers Tab.
  2. Insert a plain text content control into the document.
  3. Open the control properties (select it and then click on Developer > {Controls} Properties.
  4. Give the control a title.
  5. Click on the control grip (showing the title) to select it and copy the control.
  6. Position the cursor where you want a copy of the control.
  7. Click on Paste > Paste Special and select the "Paste link" option button.
  8. Select "Unformatted Text" and click OK.

Now any time the original is updated the other references in the document are also updated.

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