A work area type is similar in concept to an environment, in that they both let you create custom attributes for your organization, beyond the general properties that ProjectWise provides. The difference is that a work area type lets you define custom attributes for the work area itself, whereas an environment lets you define custom attributes for your documents.

Work area types are created in ProjectWise Administrator, and contain custom work area attributes. Once a work area type is created in ProjectWise Administrator, it can then be assigned to a work area in ProjectWise Explorer, either during work area creation, or later through the Properties tab of the Work Area Properties dialog. Once a work area type is assigned to a work area, you can enter values for those custom work area attributes on the Properties tab. Like environments, you are not required to use work area types.

To be able to change the work area type of a work area, or to edit a custom work area attribute value, the following must be true:

• the work area participant's user setting Folder > Can modify must be on
• the work area participant's user setting Work Area > Can change types and properties must be on
• the work area participant must have their Write work area/folder security permission turned on for the work area (Preview Pane > Access Control tab)