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Workflow is enabled in the system. All pages in the system are associated with the metadata schema. Adding a new check box field to the metadata schema with a default value results in auto selection of the check box for new pages, but not for the existing pages. If I manually select the check box it is working.
Please suggest me a solution to auto select the check box for the new field for all the existing pages using the metadata schema.
Most answers here already cover the approach to modify the content of the pages - as you probably found out by now, the XML records and their schemas are "disconnected", and to modify them you need to save them again.
An alternative option is to modify your templates to check for the presence of the field, and if the field is not present "pretend" it is present and checked. This will make the behavior identical for pages that have the value checked or pages that don't have the field at all, while not doing something for pages that have the value unchecked.
Obviously, the correct way to deal with this depends on what's best for your editorial team. Talking to editors sometimes saves us from over-engineering :)
You could write a .net Console application that uses the Tridion Core Service to update metadata on the existing pages.
Elena Serghie has written a guide to setting up the Core Service.
There's also this useful article on updating content with Core Service.
The default value supplied in a Schema field, will only be used upon first creation of the item. So as you experienced if you change the default value of a field, or add a new field with a default value to a Schema, your existing items will not be affected by that.
One way to change existing items is to write a program (or script) that will update your content and sets your default values. If the field is non mandatory, then this could easily be done by checking if the field is empty, or if it is a newly added field, then it wouldn't exist.
Options you have for the script/program is as Dave suggested, using the Core Service. If you require something more permanent (for instance setting a default value based on the value of another field, or always set a certain value in a field if that is empty upon save), you could also consider using the event system for that.
