SharePoint Document Information Panel

An interesting feature in SharePoint called Document Information Panel displays the metadata columns right in the upper part of the Excel or Word document when you open it. This is located when you click on Site Settings, Site Content Types, choose the content type you want this on for, click on Document Information Panel Settings, check the box for 'Always show Document Information Panel on document open and initial save for this content type'.  An interesting observation is that it displays all the metadata columns including the hidden ones too.