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Document Titles, Descriptions, and IDs

When you create a document record, you need to define an ID and title that will be used to track the document within TMS. There are also several other fields of data you can complete to further describe the document.

Before you begin to create document records, you should determine a format for your document IDs and consider how document titles are used.

How Document Titles and Descriptions Are Used

In certain TMS reports that contain document information, users can specify document titles as filtering criteria to include only one document or a set of documents in the report.

So, when entering document titles in a document record, use some care with what you enter for a title. Like document IDs, you probably want to enter titles that other TMS users are likely to recognize or be able to search on. Document title is approximately 2,000 alphanumeric characters.

The document description field is normally used to help users narrow in on document selection when many titles are similar.

NOTE: Searching on the title and description fields automatically assumes a wildcard search.

For scientific information, Greek symbols can be added to the document metadata. (Metadata is the data that describes the actual published document, such as: document ID, title, description, review group, type, etc.)

Determining a Format for Document IDs

In TMS, the DOCUMENT ID field is mandatory. We recommend its use because almost all reports reference this field. If you are unable to determine the final document ID at the time of publishing, you can publish the document with a transitional number and change the number at a later date. When using this field, each document will have a unique ID. A document ID can consist of 1 to 50 characters.

You can use any ID scheme you want, but it is strongly recommended that you be consistent in assigning document IDs. You should also incorporate some logic into the ID. For example, the ID can indicate the document content or use. Logic and consistency in the IDs will make it easier for users to search for and infer the contents of a document using the ID. The format of the document number can change based on the type of documents. You may have a completely different format for records (scanned documents) than for Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s).

For example, a sample strategy would be to use an 8 character ID where:

The first two characters identify the function or work group responsible for maintaining or using the document; for example:

  • PR for Production
  • HR for Human Resources
  • CS for Customer Service

The next two characters indicate the type of document; for example:

  • PR for procedures
  • WI for work instructions
  • QU for qualifications
  • CE for certifications

The last four characters are a sequential numeric value, starting with 0001, within each type of document.

So, for example, you could have:

  • PR-PR-0001 and PR-PR-0002 for Production procedures
  • CS-WI-0001 for a Customer Service work instruction
  • EM-CE-0001 and EM-CE-0002 for Engine Maintenance certificates
  • NU-QA-0004 for a Nursing qualification
NOTE: When searching on Document ID, the search does not default to wildcard. If you would like to invoke wildcard search, you must use an asterisk. For example, entering QA will bring up all documents starting with QA. If you would like to retrieve all documents with QA located anywhere in the Document ID, you would need to enter *QA. All other searches default to wildcard.
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