Forum Discussion
Document Library Metadata from file contents automatically
If the metadata is located in the content then the quick parts approach from SvenSieverding is the way forward.
If the metadata is present in the Office file's properties then you can leverage the OOTB property promotion mechanism to extract properties from Office files to SharePoint columns. The main constraint is that the property names need to match the SharePoint column names exactly.
You need to be aware that changing the SharePoint column values will also result in changes to the Office files (works bi-directional).
An alternative approach is to use tools (https://directory.collab365.com/listing/slim-companion-explorer/) that can extract properties from Office files during uploading and capture the values into SharePoint columns. There is a mapping table so the names of the properties and SharePoint columns do not need to match. These tools are typically one-way: from the Office file to SharePoint column only.
It is really helpful to have another contributor concur with another responder - this gives me extra confidence that I am going to be on the right track.
Your extra comments on the bi-directionality between sharepoint metadata and document properties is really helpful - potentially not in this instance, which should be very simple as the documents are static once published, but definitely for some other projects I am considering.
Thank you for your contribution