The SharePoint Properties Pane (successor to DIP) is available for SharePoint 2013

Last year at Ignite we were all psyched that Microsoft gave us a replacement for the old Document Information Panel (DIP) in Word which allowed us to set metadata stored in SharePoint columns. DIP disappeared with Office 2016 (and you had to edit properties in the info settings page instead), and finally we got a replacement. However, it only worked for documents stored in SharePoint Online.

I did a proof on concept of this with a colleague last year as well, so it was just a matter of time until it was properly release.

The announcement slipped past me as there has not been a lot of whoo hah around it. Reading the release notes for the December 2017 CU for SharePoint 2013 it states:

• Enables the new Document Information Panel feature that's visible in Word 2013.

Maybe a bit cryptic, and I haven’t tested if Word 2013 shows the SharePoint Property Pane, but at least Word 2016 shows it just fine against a document stored in SharePoint 2013.

So, patch away and enjoy SharePoint properties once again in Word!