Document Management Software Jargon

This Glossary acts as a resource of Document Management Industry Terms. Click on a term to view its definition:

Acrobat
Active Directory
Compound Document
Document Management
Document Profiling / indexing
Document Imaging
Document Usage Logging
Electronic Document Management
Extranets
Full Text Search (FTS) / Retrieval
File Folder Hierarchy
Intranet's
Knowledge Management
Mass Document Import Utility Metadata
Named User Licensing
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Personalization
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Roles Based Security
Records Management
Repository / database / storage
Scanning Integration Subscription(s)
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
Version Control

Acrobat - Acrobat is a program from Adobe that lets you capture a document and then view it in its original format and appearance. Acrobat is ideal for making documents or brochures that were designed for the print medium viewable electronically and capable of being shared with others on the Internet. To view an Acrobat document, which is called a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, you need Acrobat Reader. The Reader is free and can be downloaded from Adobe. You can use it as a standalone reader or as a plug-in in a Web browser.   top

Active Directory - Active Directory is Microsoft's trademarked directory service, an integral part of the Windows 2000 architecture. Like other directory services, such as LDAP or NT Domain, Active Directory is a centralized and standardized system that automates network management of user data, security, and distributed resources, and enables inter operation with other directories. Active Directory is designed especially for distributed networking environments.   top

Compound document - Compound document features provide the ability to create document-to-document relationships that quickly organize documents into logical groups. This allows you to link related documents together that would not be stored in the same folder. top

Document Management - Document management describes the systems and strategies in place for the management of electronic and paper-based documents. Document management resources strive to create systems that can handle paper and electronic documents together, using tools such as document imaging software and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) alongside categorization, indexing, full text search, records management and archival tools.  top

Document Profiling / Indexing - The process by which metadata is associated with a document.   top

Document Usage Logs - Document usage logging is provided by the system to log and track all access and usage of documents stored within a document management system. This allows administrators to track usage for audit purposes, and end users to use it for collaborative purposes. top

Document Scanning/Imaging - Is the process by which print and film documents are fed into a scanner and converted into electronic documents. During the scanning process documents can be OCR'ed and indexed to insure quick retrieval at a later date. In document imaging, the emphasis is on capturing, storing, and retrieving information from the images (which are often mainly images of text). top

Electronic Document Management (EDM)- An EDM system allows an enterprise and its users to create a document or capture a hard copy in electronic form, store, edit, print, process, and otherwise manage documents in image, video, and audio, as well as in text form. An EDM system may include scanners for document capture, printers for creating hard copy, storage devices and computer server and server programs for managing the databases that contains the documents.  top

Extranets - An Intranet that is partially accessible to authorized outsiders. Where an Intranet resides behind a firewall and is accessible only to people who are members of the same company or organization, an extranet provides various levels of accessibility to others outside the company. Extranets are becoming a very popular means for businesses and their partners to exchange corporate information.  top

File Folder Hierarchy - The hierarchy is the file and folder tree structure which a companies documents reside in. Each node / branch (folder) in the tree can contain child objects (files / documents) or other nodes / branches (folders). top

Full Text Search (FTS) / Retrieval - is a capability that enables you to search for documents stored in a database based on the text contained in the documents. It can be used in conjunction with Metadata-based searching which relies on a description of the document entered by a scan operator.   top

Intranet's /Corporate Portals - A network based on TCP/IP protocols belonging to an organization accessible only by the organization's members, employees, or others with authorization.
An intranet site often looks and acts just like an Internet site, but firewall's, virtual private networking access and other secure remote access tools safeguard it from unauthorized access. Intranet's that have developed into large-scale sites, sometimes including knowledge management and Customer Relationship Management tools, are often known as 'corporate portals'.  top

Knowledge Management - Knowledge management is the name of a concept in which an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyses its internal knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills. top

Mass Document Import Utility - Mass Document Import Utilities are able to quickly and easily index (profile) and import legacy files and folders into Synergy. top

Metadata - Meta is a prefix that in most information technology usages means 'an underlying definition or description.' Thus, Document metadata - as it relates to document management - is a definition or description of the document it relates to. When using document management software this information is typically entered by a end user or a scanning operator.

The Metadata Information can include physical location information (e.g., where the document is stored) and document identification information (e.g., date archived, creator, and contents). top

Named User Licensing - Named user licensing provides each individual user with a unique license to a document management system or other software application. top

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - OCR is the recognition of printed or written text characters by a computer. This involves photoscanning of the text character-by-character, analysis of the scanned-in image, and then translation of the character image into character codes, such as ASCII, commonly used in data processing. In OCR processing, the scanned-in image or bitmap is analyzed for light and dark areas in order to identify each alphabetic letter or numeric digit. When a character is recognized, it is converted into an ASCII code.

OCR is being used by libraries to digitize and preserve their holdings. OCR is also used to process checks and credit card slips and sort the mail. top

Personalization - Content can be personalized by country, publication date, subject or even user. Personalization tools can use web registration information, email address of IP to make intelligent choices when serving content to a web page to make the browsing experience more valuable. top

PDF (Portable Document Format) - PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that has captured all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, or forward to someone else. PDF files are created using Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat Capture, or similar products. To view and use the files, you need the free Acrobat Reader, which you can easily download. Once you've downloaded the Reader, it will start automatically whenever you want to look at a PDF file.  top

Records Management - Purchase orders, timesheets and other accounting and HR information is often collected on paper-based media. Records management automates that process, sometimes by the conversion of paper records to digital, often by the use of web forms on intranets and extranets. top

Repository/Database/Storage - Digital data that is being created, converted, syndicated or scanned needs a repository to reside in so it can be accessed by a content management system and served to a user. These database systems must be secure, reliable and expandable to create a stable environment for the storage of content. This can often only be guaranteed through the implementation of a dedicated storage environment. top

Roles Based Security - Users are placed into groups that are then authorized to access to different modules in a document management application. The group provide rights from Read only to Delete privileges. Users can access documents and can do various tasks based on their group memberships and the subsequent authorization, and access control the group membership provides top

Scanning Integration - Scanning Integration allows for the seamless connection of scanning / imaging systems to a document management system. For more information on scanning or imaging see Document Scanning / Imaging above. top

Subscriptions - Within Synergy, you can subscribe to a document or folder to be notified by email when there is an updated document. top

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) - TIFF is a common format for exchanging raster graphics (bitmap) images between application programs, including those used for scanner images. A TIFF file can be identified as a file with a '.tiff' or '.tif' file name suffix. The TIFF format was developed in 1986 by an industry committee chaired by the Aldus Corporation (now part of Adobe Software). Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard were among the contributors to the format. One of the most common graphic image formats, TIFF files are commonly used in desktop publishing, faxing, 3-D applications, and medical imaging applications. top

Version Control - Version control allows you to manage the lifecycle of a document from conception to final copy. With the ability to roll back versions and track usage within all versions. Only one person at a time can check out a document or file from the library, although people can access the current version and get a copy of the latest version if required. However, once the person updates the document and checks it back in, a new version is then created. top