The problem is I've found the snippet to update a custom property and it works, but, the field in document.xml isn't updated and the only way is to open Word 2007 and right-click and select Update Field.

How would one go about updating the actual fields in the word document?

It can get really confusing, especially if the DOCPROPERTY is formatted to be partially bold as you can see below



If the whole field is bold it is much simpler:



I've been able to get to the w:fldSimple node but that's about it:

Dim nodeValue As String = String.Format(" DOCPROPERTY  {0}  \* MERGEFORMAT ", "Name")
Dim nodeList As XmlNodeList = doc.SelectNodes(String.Format("//w:fldSimple[@w:instr='{0}']", nodeValue), nsManager)

I still haven't managed to update it, can anyone help?

Hi,

I tried replicating what you are trying to do and I could successfully update the field property as well.

Probably you might have missed  a step.

Onec you get the node,

1. update the property by replacing the attribute value,i.e.

foreach (XmlNode node in nodeList)

{

newFormat=String.Format("PAGE \\* {0} \\* MERGEFORMAT", "Arabic")

node.Attributes[0].Value = newFormat;

---

---

}

2. Update the corresponding run with data you want as field data.

   node.SelectSingleNode("w:r[2]//w:t", ns).InnerText = "1";

3. save back the xml document in the package(as part,document.xml)

The word documnet would contain

<<1>>

 

Thanks Vijayeta,

I was so close in getting it right, I'm not that familiar with XPath expressions.

Here is what I did in the end:


                    Dim nodeValue As String = String.Format(" DOCPROPERTY  {0}  \* MERGEFORMAT ", docpropertyName)
                    Dim nodeList As XmlNodeList = doc.SelectNodes(String.Format("//w:fldSimple[@w:instr='{0}']", nodeValue), nsManager)

                    If (nodeList IsNot Nothing) Then
                        If (nodeList.Count > 0) Then

                            Dim textNodeList As XmlNodeList
                            Dim nodeUpdated As Boolean

                            For Each node As XmlNode In nodeList
                                textNodeList = node.SelectNodes("w:r//w:t", nsManager)

                                nodeUpdated = False
                                For Each textNode As XmlNode In textNodeList
                                    If (nodeUpdated) Then
                                        textNode.RemoveAll()
                                    Else
                                        textNode.InnerText = docpropertyValue
                                        nodeUpdated = True
                                    End If
                                Next
                            Next
                        End If
                    End If

The reason I do a RemoveAll is because if some fool half formated the field in the document there will be multiple <w:t> tags. If you update the field using Word 2007 it only uses the first <w:t> tag and removes the rest. This is what I think happens, if you make the first character of a field bold and than right-click update field, Word makes the whole field bold with the field data.

Cheers.