1. IronXL
2. How-Tos
3. Edit Workbook Metadata

How to Edit Workbook Metadata

by Chaknith Bin

Metadata for an Excel spreadsheet includes information about the title, author, subject, keywords, creation date, modification date, and other relevant details. Metadata provides context and helps in organizing and categorizing spreadsheets. It simplifies file search and management, especially when working with multiple spreadsheet files.

The IronXL library offers the capability to edit workbook metadata without the need for Office Interop.

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Edit Workbook Metadata Example

To edit the author name of a spreadsheet file, set the Author property with the desired string of data. For example, workBook.Metadata.Author = "Your Name". The metadata information available in the Metadata property of WorkBook class can be accessed and retrieved.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/edit-workbook-metadata.cs

using IronXL;
using System;

WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx");

// Set author
workBook.Metadata.Author = "Your Name";
// Set comments
workBook.Metadata.Comments = "Monthly report";
// Set title
workBook.Metadata.Title = "July";
// Set keywords
workBook.Metadata.Keywords = "Report";

// Read the creation date of the excel file
DateTime? creationDate = workBook.Metadata.Created;

// Read the last printed date of the excel file
DateTime? printDate = workBook.Metadata.LastPrinted;

workBook.SaveAs("editedMetadata.xlsx");

Imports IronXL
Imports System

Private workBook As WorkBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx")

' Set author
workBook.Metadata.Author = "Your Name"
' Set comments
workBook.Metadata.Comments = "Monthly report"
' Set title
workBook.Metadata.Title = "July"
' Set keywords
workBook.Metadata.Keywords = "Report"

' Read the creation date of the excel file
Dim creationDate? As DateTime = workBook.Metadata.Created

' Read the last printed date of the excel file
Dim printDate? As DateTime = workBook.Metadata.LastPrinted

workBook.SaveAs("editedMetadata.xlsx")

Accessible Metadata Fields

Not all metadata properties can be edited or changed. Some properties can only be retrieved. Below is a list of the available properties:

Set, Modify, and Retrieve

• Author
• Comments
• LastPrinted
• Keywords and Category
• Created and ModifiedDate
• Subject and Title

Retrieve Only

• ApplicationName
• CustomProperties
• Company
• Manager
• Template

Chaknith Bin

Software Engineer

Chaknith is the Sherlock Holmes of developers. It first occurred to him he might have a future in software engineering, when he was doing code challenges for fun. His focus is on IronXL and IronBarcode, but he takes pride in helping customers with every product. Chaknith leverages his knowledge from talking directly with customers, to help further improve the products themselves. His anecdotal feedback goes beyond Jira tickets and supports product development, documentation and marketing, to improve customer’s overall experience.When he isn’t in the office, he can be found learning about machine learning, coding and hiking.