Document

Key point: In PageSeeder, a document is any file that has been uploaded or created in the system.

In PageSeeder, a document refers to any file that has been uploaded or created within the system. These documents can be:

  • PSML files – PageSeeder’s native format for structured content which can be edited.
  • Office documents – such as Word (DOCX) files.
  • PDF files – for viewing and annotating.
  • Images – JPEG, PNG and other image formats.
  • Archive files – such as ZIP files.
  • Other text files – including XML or HTML files.

When you upload files to PageSeeder, the system processes them according to their media type, with specialized handling enabled for different formats.

Document properties

Title

Every document in PageSeeder has a title that appears in the document header and helps you identify documents in lists and search results. It can include any characters but is limited to 250 characters long.

You can view or change a document’s title in several ways:

Filename

When you create a new document, PageSeeder uses the title to generate the filename of the document and the first heading of the document.

Conversely, when a document title is not specified, it inherits the name of the file. This generally occurs when files are uploaded (for example, images).

See the filename, document title and first heading explanation article for more details.

Identification

Each document has two important identifiers:

  • URI ID – is a unique number that is automatically generated by PageSeeder when the document is created or uploaded.
  • Document ID – is an optional unique name that you can give to a document to identify it, as an alternative to the URI ID or path.

Document description

You can add a brief description to provide context about the document’s purpose without needing to open it.

Dates

PageSeeder automatically maintains these dates:

  • Created date – set when the document is first created or uploaded.
  • Last modified date – updated whenever the document content or metadata change.
  • Last edited date – updated when content is edited (not metadata properties) or structure changes (a fragment or section is added, moved or deleted). This date is only available on the search page.

Updates to the last modified date are not limited to edits, structure and metadata changes but can also include changes to referenced documents or images.

Note that comments, tasks, workflows, and versions don’t affect these dates.

Organizing Documents

Path

Documents in PageSeeder are organized into a folder structure, similar to how you might organize files on your computer. Each document exists at a specific location defined by its path.

A path consists of:

  • The folder location (e.g., /ps/help/basics/)
  • The document’s filename (e.g., document.psml)

For example, a complete path might look like: /ps/help/basics/document.psml

Every folder belongs to a specific group, which helps keep documents organized within that group’s structure. Folders aren’t limited to a single group, they can be shared across multiple groups, making it easier to collaborate and manage documents together.

You can see the document’s path or folder in the document toolbar and the document info and metadata panel. You can navigate the folder structure in the documents page and the folders panel.

When you’re searching for documents, the path can also be used as a filter. This lets you focus your search on particular folders so you can quickly find the content you need.

Labels

Document labels help you organize and find documents in PageSeeder. They act like tags that can be assigned to multiple documents.

View document labels

Add or remove a document label

Filter by document label

Metadata

Metadata consists of properties that are not displayed in the content but can be used for searches and for providing values to placeholders within the document.

Documents can have predefined metadata in their templates for consistency. PSML documents use document templates and other documents use media templates.

Special PSML metadata properties include:

  • original-docid – to track duplicate documents as a variation of an original document.
  • page_id – to associate a help article with a specific page in the user interface.
  • document_type – to associate a help article with a specific document type in the user interface.

You can manage the metadata of a document in the document info and metadata panel.

Working with documents

Comments and tasks

You can interact with documents through:

  • Comments – Add feedback to any document.
  • Tasks – Create actionable items related to document content.

The existing discussions and tasks can be managed from the document discussions panel and document tasks panel.

For PSML documents, you can post comments and create tasks on any fragment from the fragment menu. For PDFs and images, you can add comments and tasks to specific areas.

Workflows

Document workflows let you track the lifecycle of a document.

You can manage the document workflow in the workflow panel.

When working with a collection of documents, you can monitor status across multiple documents using the workflow navigation panel.

You can also use a batch action to attach a workflow to a list of documents selected from search results.

Versions

Document versions let you capture the state of a document at a specific point in time which is useful to compare or revert your document to a previous version.

You can manage the versions of a document in the document versions panel.

To compare with different versions of a document, you can use the compare documents panel.

You can also use a batch action to attach a version to a list of documents selected from search results.

Versions are only available for PSML documents.