Understanding revisions

When you process a document through a workflow, Meridian creates a copy of the original document to receive the changes. Meridian may or may not keep the original document depending on the vault configuration. One function of a document type is to determine the revision number of changed documents. Again, whether or not Meridian calculates the revision number is defined by the document type. If the revision number is not calculated automatically, it remains the same after a workflow or may be edited manually.

If the revision number is calculated, the document type determines:

• Whether the number is linear (1, 2, 3, 4, …) or hierarchical (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, …)
• Whether the number is initially blank
• Whether the number includes separator characters (hyphens, underscores, or decimal points)
• When the revision number is incremented

For example, a newly created document may start with no revision number, but when it is revised for the first time later, it might become revision 1. Further revisions may be assigned revision numbers 2, 3, 4, and so on.

Some documents that are for reference only and are not revised, such as photographs, may have no revision number.

Hierarchical revision numbers are often used to indicate changes made in a work area. That is, a document in the Main area may be revision 1 and assigned to a work area for revision. When the document is placed in a workflow, the document may become revision number 1.1 and subsequent workflows inside the work area will produce revisions 1.2, 1.3, and so on, until the completed document is released back to the Main area as revision 2.

Automatic revision numbering ensures that revisions are consistently numbered for accurate tracking, retrieval, and identification.