# Managing Documents

# Creating Documents

A "document" in the ZeeBORN Documents module represents a single record in the library that holds one or more document files. In most cases you will manage one document file with one document entry but in some cases you might have a collection of several files that in fact present one document (e.g. multiple graphic files each containing one page of a multi-page document).

After clicking the button New you'll need to enter a title for the document. With the buttons Add, Edit, View, Delete you can manage the document files to be added to the document entry. After creating the new document entry the document will have the version number 1 and status "new" - in a section defined as a container for uncontrolled documents the status of the document will automatically go to "released".

# Assigning Documents to Sites

The distribution of documents to other sites is done by assigning the related library section to one or more sites. As soon as a library section has been assigned to a site, released documents and uncontrolled documents will be distributed automatically with the next data replication.

The assignment of documents to a site on document level is not supported. You will always need to put a document in a library section that matches your distribution needs.

# Distribution List

For each library folder in the system you can define what sites will receive the contained documents and any future updates to these documents. Click the button Assign Sites for choosing the library folders you want to make available for the selected sites.

# Releasing Documents

The release process of documents is only relevant to controlled documents. Uncontrolled documents will be released automatically after creation and after creating a new version of an existing uncontrolled document.

Controlled documents require a 3-step release process: Check, Approve, Release. According to international document management standards these three processes can be assigned to different users by giving the necessary access rights in the user management. The system will track for each step in the approval process when a certain approval was given and who did the approval.

# Check

A newly created document or a new version of an existing document have always the status "new". Click the button Check to set the status of the document to "checked". After setting a document to status "checked" only users with the approval or releasing access right will be able to modify the content of a document.

# Approve

Click the button Approve to set the status of the document to "approved". Only users with the access right for releasing a document will be able to modify the content of a document.

# Release

Click the button Release to set the status of the document to "released". As soon as a document reaches to "released" status it will be automatically distributed to all sites that are assigned to the section that holds the document. A document with state "released" can no longer be modified. If a released document needs to be change, a new version needs to be created with the function New Version. This will create a copy of the existing document and attached document files, the version number will be increased and the status will be set to "new". As long as this new version will not be released, the previous version of the document will still be shown as the current version on connected sites/ships.

There are two more states a document can have.

Outdated: As soon as a new version of a document will be created, previous versions of the same document will get the state "outdated" for indicating that a new version of this document does already exist. Outdated versions of controlled documents will be kept in the database for allowing access to older version of a document.

Archived: In some cases you might want to remove a document from the library. Click the button Archive and the document will be moved to the archive and will no longer be shown as a part of the current document package. Archived documents are not available for creating new versions.

# Document History

Each document has its own history record. The history record shows all stages from the initial creation of a document and the single approval steps. The history is kept per document version. For the history records of older versions of a document see the previous document entries of the document by clicking the History button.

You may also compare the content of the current released version of a document with any previous version of the same document in the archive. Click the button Compare Versions and you can see a special representation of the current versions including highlighted changes compared to the selected previous version. This special view shows you all changes that have been added to the document but also all content that has been removed.