About documents

Documents in a Meridian Enterprise vault are like files in a file system. They are located in folders where you can copy, rename, move, and delete them. However, vault documents differ from files in a file system in some important ways:

• Each document is assigned a document type that is different from its file type. The document type determines what additional intelligence (metadata properties, workflow, and so on) is specified to the document by Meridian.
• Revision history is maintained so that you can retrieve, view, and compare different revisions.
• Document names and locations may be controlled by the vault configuration. This means that when you create a new document, Meridian Enterprise can automatically name it and store it in the correct folder.
• Documents can be linked together to represent various relationships that may exist between them, such as subassemblies to parts, drawings to specifications, floor plans to elevation drawings, and so on.

The fundamental difference between vault documents and ordinary files is that Meridian Enterprise distinguishes between a document and its contents. A document’s contents may be regarded as the file to which you are accustomed. Meridian Enterprise considers a document to be the file and its container (metadata). In Meridian, a document can exist without contents (for example, to represent a hard copy-only document), but contents cannot exist without a container. The contents of a document can be replaced. It is these containers and how to work with them that are described in the following topics.