Bash function to copy MS Office title metadata to the Finder Comments field

move_word_title_to_comments.sh

# For use on MacOS
# MacOS cannot show the title metadata of MS Office files. This script shows the 
# metadata in the Comment field, which can be made visible in the finder app.
# Script to extract the MS Office word title metadata and excel title metadata
# and copy that text to Comment field, which can be visible in the Finder.app
# This enables you to show the comment in Finder.app
#
#
# Installation
# 
# In the Terminal on MacOS:
# 1) Create a new file: touch move_word_title_to_comments.sh
# 2) Add execute rights: chmod +x move_word_title_to_comments.sh
# 3) Copy in this entire script
#
# 
# Usage:
# move_word_title_to_comments /path/to/input/directory
# # this will update all files in that folder(!)
# # existing comments will be overwritten!
# # no title available? Nothing happens to the comments.

# check if 
if [ ! -d "${1}" ] 
then 
    echo "Directory '$1' DOES NOT exist."
    echo "Usage: move_word_title_to_comments /path/to/input/directory"
    exit
fi

echo "Adding MS Office titles to Finder comments in folder ${1}..."
# step 1: collect files and loop over files

# save and change IFS to avoid issues with spaces in folder names...
OLDIFS=$IFS
IFS=$'\n'

FILES="$1/*"
for f in $FILES
do
    echo "Processing $f"
    # Find meta data title in each file
    meta=$(mdls $f | grep kMDItemTitle | grep -o '".*"' | tr -d '"')
    if [ ${#meta} != "0" ]
    then
        # If the meta data title is present: change it using Applescript
        # We are using Applescript because that also updates the database of Finder.app
        # Other commands to update the metadata do not update the database and result in 
        # the finder app not showing that the metadata of the files were changed
        osascript -e 'set p to "'"$f"'"
        set p2 to POSIX file p as alias
        tell application "Finder" to set comment of p2 to "'"$meta"'"'
        echo "-- Comment added"
    fi
    echo "------"
done

#restore IFS again to avoid issues with other bash scripts...
IFS=$OLDIFS
echo "... finished!"