Working with the Properties Window

The SharePoint Integrator supports viewing and editing document metadata, also known as properties, columns, or fields. Metadata can be used to organize and filter documents, and help you to locate files on the server.

The SharePoint Integrator gives you quick access to all document metadata from the sidebar's Properties window.

To open the Properties window, right-click a folder or a document in the sidebar and select Properties, or press Alt+Enter in the sidebar panel. The Properties window lets you view and edit the SharePoint properties of folders, documents, and document sets. When you select another item from the document list, the data in the Properties window automatically updates.

Note: Metadata is not shown for SharePoint subsites and document libraries in the Properties window.

By default, all editable properties are shown. Click the Filter menu button to switch between Show All Properties, Show Editable Properties, and Show Required Properties.

Required properties are indicated with a red dot. If the value of a required property is empty, you will not be able to check in the document and it will not be available to other SharePoint users.

Read-only properties are dimmed. This is either because you do not have the privileges to change the property’s value, or because the property is defined as read-only. Documents that are checked out to other users have all properties dimmed.

The Properties window categorizes the properties by the content type or by the document library where the properties are defined. This grouping of properties can be enabled from the Properties window’s toolbar by clicking the Categorized button. The grouping can then be disabled by clicking the Alphabetical button.

Editing Properties

You can edit the value of many property types directly in the grid in the Properties window. For more advanced property types, such as Multiple lines of text, Date and Time, Person or Group, or Hyperlink, an edit (…) button is shown next to the property value when you select it. Clicking the edit button opens a dialog from where you can edit the property value. Changes made in the Properties window are automatically saved on SharePoint.

Note: Persons and groups added using the Person or Group dialog are displayed in the Properties window as defined in SharePoint. For example, you can configure the column in SharePoint to show the selected person’s or group’s e-mail address, instead of name.

If the document library requires checking out documents before editing, you are prompted to check out the document upon the first editing attempt. After modifying any properties and leaving the document, you are asked to check-in the document to make the changes available to all users. You can also click the Check in / Check out button in the Properties window’s toolbar to check in or out the document.

Changing the content type

The first listed property in the Properties window is Content Type. Each document on the SharePoint server is of a specific content type. By selecting a different content type you also change which properties are available for the document. To learn more about SharePoint content types, read Introduction to Content Types.

Approval properties

SharePoint document libraries that require content approval contain the additional properties Approval Status and Approver Comments. These properties are always listed as read-only. To learn more about how to approve and reject documents on SharePoint, read Approving documents.