how to set part's material, finish and description so used in drawings+BOM's?

Look below for context sensitive answers.
This I believe reads custom properties and would have to be set manualy
Maybe try the custom properties thing below.
Look up custom properties. File>Properties> Custom Properties there are also config specific properties for when different configs need different descriptions.
There are many macros out there that help manage custom properties look a few up and find one that will fit your company and if necessary create one of your own to do what you want. You might be able to extract the material that is set and automatically create the custom property. If you figure out how to use macro features you can make it updatable when the Material of the model is changed. I haven't figured them out just yet but Mike Wilson has one on his site that was mentioned in the last few days.
Corey

This is the thing I have been looking for!
I knew it was somewhere, I'd been trying to get to it from the feature manager etc. Also looking up part numbers (forgot to ask about those) and description in the help files.
Just tried that and everything I wanted to do works.
Many thanks

For part numbers if you RMB the config and select properties from the menu you will see at the bottom of the config props form that there is a field for Part Number used in BOM you can set it to either Part name which i think previews with it's extention but it never shows that way. and you can select configuration name, or you can specify a custom name.
Corey