How to change custom properties for many Word documents - powershell

Question

I found very helpful informations to get started with the script here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2010/04/06/hey-scripting-guy-how-can-i-add-custom-properties-to-a-microsoft-word-document.aspx
But I just can't do the same for several Word documents - for exemple 3 or 4 word documents in the same folder.
I tried the command ForEach but I always got an error message.
Could someone help me how to modify the following script in order to take into consideration all the word documents in the path folder?
$path = "C:\fso\Test.docx"
$application = New-Object -ComObject word.application
$application.Visible = $false
$document = $application.documents.open($path)
$binding = "System.Reflection.BindingFlags" -as [type]
$customProperties = $document.CustomDocumentProperties
$typeCustomProperties = $customProperties.GetType()
$CustomProperty = "Client"
$Value = "My_WayCool_Client"
[array]$arrayArgs = $CustomProperty,$false, 4, $Value
Try {
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"add", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$customProperties,$arrayArgs) |
out-null
} Catch [system.exception] {
$propertyObject = $typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"Item", $binding::GetProperty, $null, $customProperties, $CustomProperty)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"Delete", $binding::InvokeMethod, $null, $propertyObject, $null)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"add", $binding::InvokeMethod, $null, $customProperties, $arrayArgs) |
Out-Null
}
$document.Saved = $false
$document.save()
$application.quit()
$application = $null
[gc]::collect()
[gc]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()
I also tried this
Get-ChildItem -path $path | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.docx' }
and the ForEach cmdlet.

Answer 1

As Matt suggested, I would put in a ForEach loop after the application is open. I would also add closing the current document within the ForEach loop. Something like:
$path = "C:\fso\*.docx"
$application = New-Object -ComObject word.application
$application.Visible = $false
ForEach($File in (GCI $path|Select -Expand FullName)){
$document = $application.documents.open($file)
$binding = "System.Reflection.BindingFlags" -as [type]
<Other Commands>
$document.Saved = $false
$document.save()
$document.Close()
}
$application.quit()
$application = $null
[gc]::collect()
[gc]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()

Answer 2

Here's how I was able to do it:
#Set the PATH variable to the location where you saved the script and CSV file
$path = "c:\temp\PowerShell Scripts\"
#Set the DOC variable to the location of the document you want to update
$doc = "c:\temp\test.docx"
$application = New-Object -ComObject word.application
$application.Visible = $false
$document = $application.documents.open($doc)
$binding = "System.Reflection.BindingFlags" -as [type]
$customProperties = $document.CustomDocumentProperties
$typeCustomProperties = $customProperties.GetType()
$CustomPropertiesWorklist = Import-Csv $path\args.csv
if($CustomPropertiesWorklist.Count){
for($i = 0; $i -lt $CustomPropertiesWorklist.Count; $i++)
{
$CustomProperty = $CustomPropertiesWorklist[$i].CP
$msoPropertyType = $CustomPropertiesWorklist[$i].Type
$Value = $CustomPropertiesWorklist[$i].Value
[array]$arrayArgs = $CustomProperty,$false,$msoPropertyType,$Value
Try
{
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"add", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$customProperties,$arrayArgs) |
out-null
}
Catch [system.exception]
{
$propertyObject = $typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"Item", $binding::GetProperty,$null,$customProperties,$CustomProperty)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"Delete", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$propertyObject,$null)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"add", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$customProperties,$arrayArgs) |
Out-Null
}
}
}
else
{
$CustomProperty = $CustomPropertiesWorklist.CP
$msoPropertyType = $CustomPropertiesWorklist.Type
$Value = $CustomPropertiesWorklist.Value
[array]$arrayArgs = $CustomProperty,$false,$msoPropertyType,$Value
Try
{
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"add", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$customProperties,$arrayArgs) |
out-null
}
Catch [system.exception]
{
$propertyObject = $typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"Item", $binding::GetProperty,$null,$customProperties,$CustomProperty)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"Delete", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$propertyObject,$null)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember(`
"add", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$customProperties,$arrayArgs) |
Out-Null
}
}
$document.Saved = $false
$document.save()
$application.quit()
$application = $null
[gc]::collect()
[gc]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()

Answer 3

I adapted and combined some of the solutions I found in this thread and others to create what I think is how a script like this should behave, i.e. change multiple custom properties in multiple word documents and automatically update the actual fields in the documents. Hopefully this will help others too!
You just need to change the list of properties that will be added / updated and set the path to the folder where your .docx files are, and it should handle the rest.
#Comment out (or remove, you barbarian) the properties that do not need updating
$propertiesToUpdate = #{
"Product Name" = "Amazing Product"
"Project Name" = "Best Project"
"Revision (Record)" = "01.00"
"Approved By (Record)" = "Me"
"Date Approved (Record)" = "10.03.2016"
}
#Update the path to the documents to update:
$path = "C:\path\*.docx"
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Loading Application..."
$application = New-Object -ComObject word.application
$application.Visible = $false
function AddOrUpdateCustomProperty ($CustomPropertyName, $CustomPropertyValue, $DocumentToChange)
{
$customProperties = $DocumentToChange.CustomDocumentProperties
$typeCustomProperties = $customProperties.GetType()
$binding = "System.Reflection.BindingFlags" -as [type]
[array]$arrayArgs = $CustomPropertyName,$false, 4, $CustomPropertyValue
Try
{
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember("add", $binding::InvokeMethod,$null,$customProperties,$arrayArgs) | out-null
}
Catch [system.exception]
{
$propertyObject = $typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember("Item", $binding::GetProperty, $null, $customProperties, $CustomPropertyName)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember("Delete", $binding::InvokeMethod, $null, $propertyObject, $null)
$typeCustomProperties.InvokeMember("add", $binding::InvokeMethod, $null, $customProperties, $arrayArgs) | Out-Null
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "Success! Custom Property:" $CustomPropertyName "set to value:" $CustomPropertyValue
}
ForEach($File in (GCI $path|Select -Expand FullName))
{
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Opening Document..." $File
$document = $application.documents.open($File)
ForEach($property in $propertiesToUpdate.GetEnumerator())
{
AddOrUpdateCustomProperty $($property.Name) $($property.Value) $document
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Updating document fields."
$document.Fields.Update() | Out-Null
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Saving document."
$document.Saved = $false
$document.save()
$document.close()
}
$application.quit()
$application = $null
[gc]::collect()
[gc]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "Done!"

Answer 4

I couldn't get the above to work. Always object.GetType() failed to retrieve anything, resulting in an error. This is what I got to work for BuiltIn properties; same would apply to custom properties:
#Properties to update (BuiltIn)
$propertyUpdates = #{
"Company" = "Company"
"Manager" = "Manager"
}
#Path to the documents to update:
$path = "C:\FilesToUpdate\*.docx"
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Loading Application..."
$app = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application
$app.Visible = $false
ForEach($file in (GCI $path|Select -Expand FullName))
{
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Opening document: " $file
$doc = $app.Documents.Open($file)
$binding = "System.Reflection.BindingFlags" -as [type]
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Updating document properties..."
ForEach($p in $propertyUpdates.GetEnumerator())
{
Try {
$props = $doc.BuiltInDocumentProperties
$prop = [System.__ComObject].InvokeMember("Item", $binding::GetProperty, $null, $props, $p.Name)
[System.__ComObject].InvokeMember("Value", $binding::SetProperty, $null, $prop, $p.Value)
}
Catch [system.exception] {
write-host -ForegroundColor red "Value not found for $p.Name"
}
}
$doc.Fields.Update() | Out-Null
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan "Saving document."
$doc.Saved = $false
$doc.save()
$doc.close()
}
$app.quit()
$app = $null
[gc]::collect()
[gc]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "Done!"