Suppose we upload a word doc to a document library. Is there any way we can pick some data from the document and auto generate the columns of the library?
One way would be to use item added event receiver and parse the word file to pick up necessary data and then update that document library item columns. Is there an ootb way?
Alexander is right, OOTB SharePoint will read/write properties to/from your docs. You can even have these properties visible and accessible in your content of the doc.
You need to first add the doc to the library, so the doc inherits the properties. Open the doc in Word, go to the Insert ribbon, then Quick Part, then Document Property. This will list all of your props from SharePoint. Once you insert one of these values, you can then edit the property values via Word.
For SharePoint foundation the OOTB way is called Document Property Promotion.
