Using Excel Custom Property Fields

[sparky2205]

Hi folks,
I am using a document control application which gives me instructions on how to use Named Ranges to populate cells in Excel with data from Custom Property Fields.
I can see the Custom Property Fields in a spreadsheet which is downloaded from the application; File > Info > Properties > Advanced Properties. The docnumber is the one I'm after.
The instructions tell me the Name of the range is to be the same as the custom property name i.e. docnumber and Refers to: is the cell where I want to place the document number in the spreadsheet.
Then save and close the document and the next time the document is opened from the application the actual document number will be displayed in the Refers to: field.
This, however, is not working. The cell remains stubbornly blank.
This may be a real shot in the dark as you obviously don't have the application I am using to test anything.
Just though I'd ask in case anyone has come across this type of thing or indeed if anyone has used custom fields in Excel in this way.

 

[Dan_W]

Hi. As you say, I don't have this application ... (maybe ... you didn't say what it was called)... but I do have experience wrestling with corporate document management systems (and I generally find them all to be useless).

I think it would help to understand how you actually named the range. The approach I took was to select the relevant cell (D3), and then type the name into the box in the top left hand side of screen capture.

You can then confirm that the name has been assigned in the name manager, as below.

Is that basically the approach you took?
Also, does your Document Control system have some kind of addin installed onto Excel? I ask because if the instructions say simply to save and close the workbook, and then open it again, the system must be intercepting the file opening process and checking the document ... which is entirely doable, but as I type this out, I'm thinking about it, and it feels like a slightly odd thing for a doc control system to do. Do you need to 'check the document in' or anything?

 

[sparky2205]

Hi Dan_W,
I'm using a system called Proquis. I check out my document for editing and I can see the custom fields:

I want to use prqdocnumber.
The system instructions say to use a named range, naming it the same as the custom field.
I have done this in the same way as you have above and also directly via the Excel name manager.
Once completed the document is checked back in. But the "Refers to:" cell is always blank when the document is subsequently opened, no matter which way the range is named.