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Use

In Office integration, you can use file-property technology to transfer data from document management in the SAP system to an Office application. In the Office application, choose   File   File Properties   in the menu to add the data from the SAP system.

File properties are the details of a file that are used to identify the file, such as title, description, or author. The system differentiates between four types of document properties:

  • Properties that are updated automatically

    Statistics that are automatically entered by the Office application, such as file size, creation date, and change date.

  • Predefined properties

    Existing properties, such as author and title that must be filled by a value.

  • User-defined properties

    Any properties defined by the user; either predefined properties that the user selects from a list or properties actually defined by the user. You can assign a text, time, numerical value, or values such as "yes" and "no".

  • Properties of the document library

    Files in a document library of a Web page or public folder. When you create a document library, you can define properties and assign rules for entering values. If a user wants to add documents to the library, he or she first has to enter values for the properties of the document library.

Integration

You specify which data you want to be transferred from the SAP system to the Office file in Customizing for Document Management (CA-DMS ), by choosing   General Data   Define Workstation Application   . You can transfer document data, class data, texts, and user-defined file properties and store file information in an Office document for organizational purposes and so that it can be easily found later on.

You can use file-property technology from SAP Release ERP 2005 onwards. See SAP Note 964107.

Note Note

You can only transfer data using link-server technology for original application files that you created with Microsoft Word. Transfer of data from the SAP system to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint is not supported.

End of the note.

Prerequisites

  • You have set up file-property technology ( FORM_INF) in Customizing for Document Management (CA-DMS) under   General Data   Define Workstation Application   .

  • You have selected the Export indicator in this activity.

Features

  • If you set up file-property technology for the data transfer from the SAP system, the system replaces all SAPOLE links with file properties (DOCPROPERTY) in linked original application files for the transferred fields in change mode of a document. The system transfers the file properties with the following syntax:

    {DOCPROPERTY Name}

    Example Example

    {DOCPROPERTY Document.DRAW.DOKNR\* MERGEFORMAT}

    End of the example.

    Note Note

    The system supports the transfer of SAP data in one direction only: If you change from file-property technology back to link-server technology , the system does not replace the file properties (DOCPROPERTY) in the original application file with SAPOLE links.

    End of the note.

  • If you create a new original application file or if the original application file does not contain any SAPOLE links, you can insert a file property from the SAP system or a user-defined file property with the corresponding value in the original application file, by choosing   Insert   Field   in the Office application. The following fields are available for the transfer from the SAP system: List of SAP Fields

    You can assign the values of the user-defined file properties in the Office application, by choosing   File   Properties   Custom   .

    You can also add more file properties in the Office application under   File   Properties   Custom   .

  • Microsoft Word supports the following switches that can be added to the syntax of the transferred file property:

    Switch

    Description

    \a

    Automatic update of fields

    \b

    Insert object as Bitmap file

    \d

    Graphic data is not saved in the document

    \f

    Format type is updated

    \h

    Insert object as HTML file

    \p

    Insert object as picture

    \r

    Insert object as RTF file

    \t

    Insert object as text

    File-property technology only supports the switches \a and \t. You can use the following syntax to connect the switches:

    {DOCPROPERTY Name \a\t}

    Note Note

    The order of the switches is fixed. \a and \t must be used at the same time to ensure that the links are replaced by file properties.

    End of the note.

    See also: Transferring File Properties (FORM_INF)