A document is a user-defined reference to any information stored on any media, or existing in any form (such as a model). eB manages the following:

• The document's attribute data
• Links to physical or virtual items defined in eB
• 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 eB database. A document approval status may be Planned, Not Approved, or Approved. A Date Effective date can be assigned to a document. This is 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. In this way, you can monitor the progress of document generation from the planning phase through to the approval phase.

Each status type is depicted on the Explore tree or at the top of the Content pane with a unique document icon color allowing the user to quickly identify the document’s current status. Descriptions of the status types and icon examples are displayed below.

Planned: This status type is often used as a placeholder. If the user knows that a document will be required but little or no information has yet been accumulated, the status is set to Planned. A planned document is depicted as a white book.

Not Approved: This type of document is further along in the creation process (Draft or possibly Validated) but has not yet been released. A document in eB that is not approved is depicted as a red book.

Approved: An approved document record is considered validated and verified, and is fit-for-use (released). An approved document record is depicted as a green book.

Other icons are displayed when a document is the latest approved document but not the latest revision, when under change (checked out) and if the object is historic, obsolete, or superseded by another document.