Every document has a Profile associated with it that includes attributes further describing or identifying the document.  These could be attributes such as Client or Matter or Author. With NetDocuments Professional, as the Repository Administrator you can define a set of profile attributes to be used for each document in a cabinet in the Repository. These Profile Attributes are important for effective document management and for added searching capability. A Profile attribute can also have pre-defined Profile Values, (Click link for examples of upload tables) an essential element for controlled profiling and management of firm documents. 

These tables are uploaded using a CSV table, generally using Excel.  NetDocuments provides a connector to connect to most time and billing systems to upload these tables automatically from the source.  With this connector client and matter tables can be automatically uploaded nightly or at regular intervals.  This connector is a billable add-on.  Some organizations create their own automated process to upload the tables.

NOTE: if you are using a Document Type that will be used to automatically create folders do not use any of the invalid folder name characters in the profile table values as follows:

\ / * ? " : < > |

Standard vs Definable Profile Attributes 

As explained above, every document has a Profile, regardless of the account type your firm purchased. Standard and Definable attributes are searchable as seen from the Advanced Search page. The following list of standard profile attributes is created for each document that exists in your account.

Standard Profile Attributes 
 

			Document Name
			Document Creator
			Date Created
			Last User to Modify
			Date Last Modified
			File Extension
			File Size
			Number of Versions
			Document ID
			From (Email only)
			To (Email only)

Definable Profile Attributes are created by a Repository Administrator.  A definable Profile Attribute can be a text, numeric, date, or notes type, and Administrators can choose to require users to enter information for a specific Attribute and can also define a set of Values for a specific Attribute for validation purposes. See Profile Attribute Validation for more information on setting this up.  For a law firm, we generally recommend that you create attributes for Client, Matter, Author, and Document Type.  Each of these would be required.  We also suggest you create a Comment (text type) attribute that is not required to add any other notes for a document.

Defining Profile Attributes 

1. If you are a Repository Administrator, click on the Admin link next to My Account at the top right.

2. Click on Repository Administration

3. Click on Define Profile Attributes.

4. Click Add to create a new attribute, or Edit to modify one created previously.

5. Next, type a Name for your new attribute. Next select a Type.  Generally this will be Text type.  Finally, enter a field character length.  We suggest you use 50 for most attributes.

6. Select the options you need and click OK.
    

   	Link to Parent allows you to connect an attribute to the previous profile attribute created such as a matters with clients.
   	Default from <attribute>Type allows you to define a column in another table to use as a default.  So if you wanted to have an office field associated with an Author field, you could upload an Author Type column and then enter Author into this field.  When a profile is completed the Office value would be entered automatically.
   	Use Table - if validation data for a profile attribute is to be used, click here to learn how to set it up.
   	Hide from External Users if you do not want external users to see the table, select this. We recommend this be checked.

   Base Security on this attribute if you want to use profile based security, this must be checked.

   	Prompt if empty requires Internal Users to enter a value.  If you have a table, we recommend that you check this setting to require a value.  Note that External Users will not be prompted to enter values for required profile fields.
   	Extend table values to X characters can be used when you require leading zeros for client or matter numbers.  This way, you do not need to always ensure you have entered leading zeros into your CSV table values.

Enabling the definable Profile Attributes for Cabinets 

Once a Profile Attribute is defined for the Repository, it remains "dormant" until enabled by a Cabinet Administrator for a specific cabinet. To enable all, or some of these fields for a cabinet, go to the Cabinet Administration page for the cabinet. Each Profile attribute is listed and can be enabled for that cabinet by checking the box next to it to select it.

Identifying Required Attributes 

A required Profile Attribute is indicated with an asterisk(*) on the Edit Profile page.  Note that for folders, the asterisk shows even though a value does not need to be completed for each profile field.
 

See Also
	Using pre-defined Attribute Values for Profile Validation