Synchronization of MS Word Document Fields with AGIR Office Web

Modified on Mon, 18 Nov at 9:44 AM

With AGIR, it’s possible to add fields to your editable documents and automatically synchronize them with the document properties in AGIR.

For example: You can insert a field for the document revision number, and as the revision is updated in AGIR, this value will also be updated in the document itself.

This AGIR Office Web functionality is very useful, so below, we’ll explain all the steps to use it to your advantage.

If you haven’t installed AGIR Office Web yet, follow the steps in this tutorial: New AGIR Office Web - How to install?

Field synchronization is performed through the server where AGIR is hosted. If your installation is on-premises, please ensure that the server meets the following requirements:

32 or 64-bit version of Office 2016 or later
Preferably a valid Microsoft 365 subscription for Excel 2016, Outlook 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Word 2016, or later

Authorize metadata synchronization in AGIR Config

To synchronize fields, we need to enable this option in the AGIR Config/Settings. Follow these steps:

1. Click on your username and go to AGIR Config. Or, in case you already have the new dashboard page enabled, go to Settings.

Legacy Dashboard

New Dashboard

2. Select the Documents tab and click on Workflows.

3. Choose the document workflow. In Tab 2 - Steps, select the workflow step where you want metadata synchronization to occur.

4. Select Allow metadata synchronization in this step and click Save to store the changes. Fields will synchronize at this workflow step.

How to set up field synchronization in the document

Follow these steps to set up field synchronization:

1. Open the document with AGIR Office Web by clicking on the pencil icon as shown in the image below. The document will download to your computer. Open the document.

TIP If you’re unsure how to edit the document with AGIR Office Web, or if the pencil icon is missing, refer to this article: How to edit documents with the new AGIR Office Web Add-In.

2. Enable the Developer tab in Office by going to File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Developer (steps may vary slightly based on your Office version).

3. To add a synchronizable field, place the cursor or select the text where you want to insert the field, select the Developer tab, and click on Plain Text Content Control.

4. With the field selected, click on Properties.

5. In the Title field, enter the code for the field you want to sync (e.g., for the document type). The Tag field can have a different designation if desired.

Note: Below, you’ll find a table with the legend of fields you can sync.

Select the first option in the Locking section and click OK.

Below are the customizable fields and corresponding codes. Enter the field code in the Title box to automatically synchronize the field.

Field	Code
Title	agir_title
Code	agir_code
Revision Number	agir_rev
Current Document Status	agir_status
Publication Date	agir_publication
Expiry Date	agir_expirydate
Type	agir_type
Department	agir_department
Process	agir_process

6. The field is now set as the document type. The information in AGIR is now linked to the document.

Note: To apply changes, upload the document to AGIR (see "Apply Changes" chapter below).

Synchronizing custom fields (client-created)

To sync custom document properties (non-native AGIR fields), use the naming format: field_CustomFieldName.

In the example below, we’ll sync the document Authors names.

ATTENTION It is important that, in the "Locking" section, only the first option is selected ("Content control cannot be deleted"). The second option ("Content cannot be edited") must always be disabled. Enabling it will hinder AGIR from depositing/updating the fields in the document.

Synchronizing fields based on status

It’s also possible to sync fields according to the workflow status. For example, you may want to display the document approver’s name in a certain part of your document.

To do this, add <status:Approval> before the code. Here are some examples:

<status:Approval>.user (displays the user in the Approval status)
<status:In Editing>.date (displays the current date in the Editing status)

Apply Changes

After setting up the fields, save the changes made to the document by going to the Home tab, clicking on AGIR Word Add-IN, and selecting Send to AGIR.