Upload Multiple Documents to SharePoint and Apply Metadata

This is actually my first blog ever, so forgive me if I don't observe any of the traditional blogging protocols!

I have just been doing some research on whether there is any fast and easy way to apply metadata to multiple documents when you're uploading them into a SharePoint library using the "Upload Multiple Documents' feature.

I found Dustin Millers blog; Document Libraries and Subfolders: Why it's a bad idea most useful, in which one of his respondants reccommends upload ing multiple documents and then manually apply the metadata for each record via a document library datasheet view.

This method is fine when you're working with a small number of documents, but if you're migrating a large number, this method obviously becomes very time consuming and tedious, particularly if you have multiple mandatory fields which won't allow you to use the 'Fill Down' feature of the datasheet view.

I figure one way around this is to make all metadata fields non-mandatory initially and then once the metadata is applied, apply mandatory rules later. But this method is still very slow considering that you will only be able to sort documents by file name or type etc. It makes far more sense to the able to classify documents first and then upload them with metadata.

After residing myself to the fact that there wasn't any simple way to accomplish this, I re-jigged my search terms and came across what looks like a very nifty utility. It's called the Document Import Kit for SharePoint 2007 (DocKIT) 1.1 and it claims that it can import documents with a separate CSV file which applies metadata when uploading multiple files. It costs $799 and there's also a free trial. I personally haven't tried it yet, but plan to once I get my dodgy MOSS development box fixed (I installed MOSS 2007 alongside WSS 2.0 on Windows SBS Small Business Server 2003 which seemed to work initially, though now I'm finding several problems I figure I'll only overcome by building my environment correctly!!).

Would appreciate any feedback from other SharePoint aficionados on how well this product works if you get to it before me.