Document Management Jargon & Definition
Acrobat – This program from Adobe allows you acquire a document and then view it in its original format and appearance. Perfect for creating documents or brochures that were designed for the print medium, able to be viewed electronically by many on the Internet. To view an Acrobat document in PDF File (Portable Document Format), , you need Acrobat Reader, which is free and easily be downloaded from Adobe.
Active Directory – This is Microsoft's trademarked directory service, a fundamental element of the Windows 2000 design. Active Directory is a centralized and standardized system, designed especially for distributed networking environments. ††Like other directory services such as LDAP or NT Domain, it enables inter operation with other directories, automating network management of user data, security, and distributed resources.
Compound document - Compound document features offer the ability to produce document-to-document relationships that quickly organize documents into logical groups. This lets you to link interrelated documents together that would not usually be amassed in the same folder.
Document Profiling / Indexing - The method by which metadata is connected to a document.
Document Scanning/Imaging - Is the procedure by which print and film documents are converted into electronic documents by scanning. In this scanning process documents can be OCRed and indexed to ensure immediate retrieval when needed. In document imaging, emphasis is on capturing, storing, and retrieving information, usually from text images.
Electronic Document Management (EDM)- This system lets an organization and its users create a document or capture a hard copy in electronic form, as well as store, edit, print, process, and 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.
Extranets – An increasingly popular means for businesses to exchange corporate information. †Unlike Intranet which is located behind a firewall and is accessible only to those from within a certain company, an extranet provides a range of levels of accessibility to others outside the group.
Full Text Search (FTS) / Retrieval - is a facility that enables one to search for documents stored in a database based on the text within the documents. Typically used in conjunction with Metadata-based searching .
Intranet's /Corporate Portals - A network based on TCP/IP protocols belonging to an organization accessible only by the authorized persons within an organization.
An intranet site is often similar in appearance and performance to an Internet site, but it is protected from unauthorized access through secure remote access tools, firewall and virtual private networking access.
Knowledge Management – This concept describes how an organization
knowingly organizes, gathers, analyses and shares its internal knowledge
in terms of resources, documents, and people skills.†
Metadata – Meta, in information technology practice means 'an
underlying definition or description.’, and so metadata would
mean the definition of the data / information / documents. 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).
Named User Licensing – This provides each distinct user with a unique license to a software application or document management system.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - OCR is the computer’s 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.
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.
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.
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 protected, 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
