A document is a user-defined reference to any information stored on any media, or existing in any form, for example, a model. Document Control manages the following:

• The document's attribute data
• Links to physical or virtual items defined in AssetWise
• Associated user-defined document responsibilities
• Links to other documents
• Physical and/or electronic copy instances with their associated media locations.

In addition, you can manage and control the distribution of hard copy or electronic documents, and notify document holders about changes affecting documents that have previously been distributed.

A status field is associated with each document instance in the AssetWise database. A document approval status may be Approved, or Not Approved. This represents the date on which the document is expected to come into effect, typically the release date. This allows users to monitor the document lifecycle.

As the documents are generated and approved, you change the status of the document to Not Approved or Approved so that you can monitor the progress of document generation from the planning phase through to the approval phase.

Status	Description
Approved	An approved document record is considered validated and verified, and is ready to be used and considered released. Documents that are approved are represented with a checkmark ( ).
Not Approved	This type of document is further along in the creation process, for example, Draft or Validated, but has not yet been released. Documents that are not approved are represented with an X ( ).

Other icons are displayed when a document is the latest approved document but not the latest revision, when in use by another user, and if the object is historic, obsolete, or superseded by another document.

Each status type is depicted as a generic document that may or may not have an associated graphic, allowing the user to quickly identify the document's current status.

Document Control activities can be accessed via the Documents tile, on the AssetWise Launch Pad or from within the object itself, for example, you can add documents to an asset or a disposition order.

The following topics describe actions that can be performed in the AssetWise Document Control capability.