Saving a document to SharePoint brings up “Web File Properties” dialog with incorrect metadata

content-typedocumentmosssharepoint

Situation:

  • A custom "Master Document" content type inherits from Document
  • The "Master Document" content type has five additional choice fields
  • There are five custom "Document Template" content types that inherit from the "Master Document" content type
  • Each of the "Document Template" content types uses a different Word document template (.dot) file
  • Each of the "Document Template" content types have been added to a document library

Problem:

  1. I click on a document in the library
  2. Document opens up in Word 2003 for me to edit
  3. I make some changes and save
  4. A box pops up called "Web File Properties". The window contains all of my custom metadata properties and the ContentType field. The ContentType field is set correctly to the current content type. The other fields are reset to their default values. This same window can apparently be opened by going to File -> Properties

This window by itself would be fine except for two reasons:

  • It includes the ContentType column
  • All of my custom metadata properties are visible but are reset to their default values instead of whatever values were previously selected. This means, every time the user wants to save the document, they have to remember what properties were tagged and set them back.

Question:

  1. Can I disable this Web File Properties box?
  2. If no… can I get the fields that show up to be populated to their correct values?
  3. If no… is there a way to disable my fields from displaying in this window?
  4. If no… is this a SharePoint page that I can modify?

***Edit with some more information***

It looks like this only happens in Office 2003 and looks like it affects Choice fields. If I create the same column as a Lookup field, it seems to work.

Edit again

Looks like if the lookup field is a multi-select field then it will not show up in the Web File Properties box at all (single select lookups still work).

edit 10/14/2009

Link to the KB Article mentioned below by Brenda:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971500/

Best Answer

This is more of a workaround rather than an answer but I figured I might as well put it here in case it helps someone else.

It seems as if these issues with the Web File Properties box is specific to Office 2003. The issues I reported above seem to be fixed in Office 2007.

If you want to get it working in 2003 and you have choice/lookup fields in your Document content type, here is the summary:

  • Single select Choice fields DO NOT work
  • Multi select Choice fields DO work
  • Single select Lookup fields DO work
  • Multi select Lookup fields DO NOT work
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