Mapping Microsoft Office properties to repository properties

You can configure IBM® Content Navigator to automatically populate specific repository properties with values that are set for the properties in Microsoft Office documents when users add or check in documents from IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office. For example, you can configure IBM Content Navigator to use the Author property in Microsoft Word to populate the Author property on your repository.

About this task

This task is optional. However, if you decide to map Microsoft Office properties to your repository properties, complete this task before you deploy IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office to your users to ensure consistent results when users add or check in documents from IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office.

You can map one or more Microsoft Office properties to a property on your repository. For example, if you have the following properties in your Microsoft Office applications, you can map them to the Author property on your repository:

• Author
• Owner
• Writer

Important: If a Microsoft Office document contains more than one property that is specified in a mapping, the first Office property in the list is used to populate the repository property. For example, if a document contained an Author property and an Owner property, IBM Content Navigator would use whichever property came first in the property mapping.

You can also map the same Microsoft Office property to multiple properties on your repository by creating multiple property mappings.

If you use Microsoft Outlook, the way that properties are mapped depends on the repository that you are connecting to:

• On IBM FileNet® Content Manager, you cannot map Microsoft Outlook properties to your repository properties. IBM FileNet Content Manager includes the Email document class. IBM Content Navigator automatically maps Microsoft Outlook properties to the properties in the Email document class.
• On IBM Content Manager, you must specify the class that you want to use when users add email from Microsoft Outlook. For more information, see Configuring IBM Content Manager repositories for IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office.

A property mapping is not specific to any class on the repository. After you map the Microsoft Office property to the repository property, the value of the Microsoft Office property is always populated for that repository property, regardless of the class that is selected. For example, if the Author property on your repository is associated with three classes, the Author property is filled in when users add a document from IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office to any of the three classes that include the Author property.

However, there are some restrictions on how Microsoft Office properties are populated on the repository:

• If the mapped repository property includes a controlled vocabulary list (CVL), the value that is specified for the Microsoft Office property is used only if the value is in the CVL that is associated with the repository property. If the value that is specified for the Microsoft Office property is not in the CVL, the value is ignored.
• If the repository property is a multi-valued property, the value that is specified for the Microsoft Office property is appended to the list of property values for the item. If the multi-valued property includes a CVL, the value that is specified for the Microsoft Office property is appended to the list only if the value is in the CVL that is associated with the repository property.

Tip: Users access IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office from a IBM Content Navigator desktop. If you have multiple repositories that are associated with the desktop, you should complete this task for each of the repositories that is associated with the desktop. If your users access IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office from more than one desktop, you should complete this task for each of the repositories that is associated with those desktops.

To map Microsoft Office properties to your repository properties:

1. Open the administration tool in the web client.
2. Click Repositories and select the repository for which you want to configure Microsoft Office property mapping. The repository that you select must be associated with the desktop from which users access IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office. If the repository is not associated with the desktop, the property mapping is not used when users add or check in documents from IBM Content Navigator for Microsoft Office.
3. Click Office Properties.
4. Click New to create a property mapping.
5. Enter one or more Microsoft Office properties in the Office properties field. Separate entries with a comma and a space. For example, enter: author, owner.
   Important: You must use the actual name of the property, not the display name of the property. Ensure that the values that you enter match the names of the Microsoft Office properties exactly. If the values do not match the properties in Microsoft Office, the mapping will not work.
   
6. Select the appropriate data type for the properties and then select the repository property that you want to map the Microsoft Office properties to. Then, click OK.
7. Repeat steps 1 - 6 for each repository property that you want to map to.
8. Save the changes to the repository.