Manage compound documents

A compound document groups together documents with a common theme or subject matter, allowing you to view related documents without needing to know the documents' names and locations.

About compound documents

Grouping and establishing relationships with documents involves associating a parent document with one or more child documents. Parent and child documents are created independently from each other. When you establish how the documents relate to each other in a compound document, the information is stored in a link that is created. This is different from the link you can create to link different kinds of objects such as folders, documents, and custom objects.

The documents included in a compound document can reside in different locations in one object store. You cannot create a compound document using custom objects and folders nor can you create a compound document that includes documents residing in different object stores. If there is no obvious hierarchical relationship between documents, you can create a parent document that has no content (this is an external file) and specify that the related documents are children of that document.

Creating a compound document

You first create the parent and then associate additional documents as children when creating a compound document. You perform similar procedures on parent and child documents as you would with standard documents. For example, you can view information pages for parent and child documents as well as the information for links that associate the documents with each other. Both parent and child documents can be versioned and you can assign a name to the link between parent and child. Special settings when you are adding, modifying or inserting a child document allow you to manage that document during the event its parent document is versioned or deleted.

Modifying and deleting compound documents

In addition, you can modify the order in which child documents appear in the parent's list of child documents, select additional child documents, insert new documents, and remove links connecting the documents.

Helpful hints

Action	Information
Create a parent document	When adding it to the object store (manually or via an entry template). The child documents must already exist in the object store. When checking in a new version. By selecting Change Compound from its pop-up menu. Once the document is converted, it can be associated with child documents and other parent documents. You can also revert a compound document back to a standard document. But you cannot revert a compound document back to a standard document if it has associated child documents. You must first remove the associated child documents. This action is not available when you access: the information page for a document that is a Reservation object. a document from an integrated application, such as Word or Excel.
Associate child documents with a parent document	When adding the parent document to the object store When checking in a new version When viewing its information page (Child Documents view) Use the Show link while adding a document to view a list of child documents associated with a specific parent document. In addition, you can also perform additional actions, such as modifying the order in which the documents appear, when you have more than one child document.
Link Info and compound document link properties	The compound document link properties view on the information page is a read-only page that provides a current snapshot of the component relationship link between a specific child document and its parent document. The information displayed allows you to manage the relationship between a child document and parent document when, for example, a parent document is versioned or deleted. The property information that appears is created when you first associate a child document with a parent document. Change the properties displayed on this page when you modify the child document. System properties are also read-only and cannot be edited. Depending on your User Preference settings, the system properties might be collapsed (hidden). Click Show System Properties or Hide System Properties to toggle displaying the system properties. You can access the compound document link properties view when you open the information page for a parent document or a child document.

Action

Information

Create a parent document

When adding it to the object store (manually or via an entry template). The child documents must already exist in the object store.
When checking in a new version.
By selecting Change Compound from its pop-up menu. Once the document is converted, it can be associated with child documents and other parent documents. You can also revert a compound document back to a standard document. But you cannot revert a compound document back to a standard document if it has associated child documents. You must first remove the associated child documents.

This action is not available when you access:

the information page for a document that is a Reservation object.
a document from an integrated application, such as Word or Excel.

Associate child documents with a parent document

When adding the parent document to the object store
When checking in a new version
When viewing its information page (Child Documents view)
Use the Show link while adding a document to view a list of child documents associated with a specific parent document. In addition, you can also perform additional actions, such as modifying the order in which the documents appear, when you have more than one child document.

Link Info and compound document link properties

The compound document link properties view on the information page is a read-only page that provides a current snapshot of the component relationship link between a specific child document and its parent document. The information displayed allows you to manage the relationship between a child document and parent document when, for example, a parent document is versioned or deleted.

The property information that appears is created when you first associate a child document with a parent document. Change the properties displayed on this page when you modify the child document.

System properties are also read-only and cannot be edited. Depending on your User Preference settings, the system properties might be collapsed (hidden). Click Show System Properties or Hide System Properties to toggle displaying the system properties.

You can access the compound document link properties view when you open the information page for a parent document or a child document.

Procedures for working with compound documents

Parent documents	Procedure
To create a parent document when adding the document	Add a document to an object store and select Yes in the Compound Document field. To add a child now, click Add Child and navigate to the document after clicking Select. (You can add a child later from the information pages.) Choose the appropriate settings. For Keep with new Parent version, select Yes (the default) to maintain the parent-child relationship when the parent document is modified and checked in as a new version. Select No to break this relationship when the parent is checked in as a new version. For Delete when Parent deleted, select Yes to delete the child document when its parent is deleted. Select No to keep the child document in the object store if the parent is deleted. For Prevent Delete, select the appropriate setting, depending on what you want to prevent from being deleted. Optional - Enter a name for the link. This appears in the Link Name column on the parent's information page (Child Documents view). Finish adding the document.
To convert a document into a parent document using the Change Compound action.	Select a document, and then click Get Info to view available actions. Click Change Compound, and then complete the action. Accept the change.
Child documents	Procedure
To show the child documents associated with a parent document	Review the current child documents or click Add Child to add a new child document. If you have more than one child document, you can perform additional actions. Continue to complete the add or modify process.
To add or modify a child document	Locate the parent's information page, Child Documents view, before proceeding to add or modify a child document. Do one of the following actions: If you are adding a new child document, click Add Child. If you are inserting a child document within an existing set of child documents associated with a parent document, click Insert Child from the Actions Menu. If you are modifying an existing child document, select the document, and then click Modify Child from the Actions Menu. Under Child Document, do one of the following actions: Select Document to identify a document you want to add as a child document. Click Select to locate that document. After you locate the document, specify whether to link the released version, current version or version of the child document. For more information on selecting these versions, see Select Object. Depending on the document and version you select, you might need to specify a component binding label and select it. The label is determined by the document class assigned to the child document you are adding. It is a setting that ensures specific documents you are adding or modifying are included in a compound document. In addition to assigning a label, you must also select the box that appears next to the label to activate the setting. Select External File to specify a URL path to a file that resides outside your application environment. Under Settings, do the following actions: For Keep with New Parent version, select Yes to maintain a child and parent document relationship once the parent document is added to an object store. For the Delete when Parent Deleted setting, select Yes to specify deleting the child document when its associated parent document is also deleted. For the Prevent Delete setting, select the appropriate setting to prevent a specific child or parent document from being deleted. None and Of Parent are the available options for external files. Click Change Class to select a link class for the parent document you are adding or enter property values for the link class.
To modify child settings later	Click the parent document's Get Info icon, and then select the Child Documents view. Select the child you want to modify. From the Actions Menu, select Modify Child. Change the appropriate fields.
To view the content of related documents	Starting from the Child Documents view of a parent document, click the title of any child document in the list. Click Select Child to display a hierarchy of relationships. To display the content of a child at a lower level, select its parent document. The child will then be listed and you can click its title. After selecting a child from the Select Child hierarchy, you can back up in the Children for path to another parent. This displays its children and you can click a title to display its content. NOTE If you use IBM Enterprise Records, use care in selecting the Setting options. A setting that prevents any document from being deleted can interfere with the normal schedule of deleting documents when they are due to be deleted. Similarly, specifying that a child document is to be deleted when its parent is deleted can interfere with the normal disposition process of the child document. See IBM Enterprise Records configuration overview for more information.
To modify the order of child documents	Select a child document from a Child Document's view or when you are viewing the related child documents to a specific parent document using the Show link during an add or modify process. From the Actions Menu, click Modify Order. Do one of the following actions: Click Move First to move the specified document to the top of the child document list. Click Move Up to move the specified document up one in the child document list. Click Move Down to move the specified document down on in the child document list. Click Move Last to move the specified document to the end of the child document list.
To remove a child document	Access the Child Documents view. Select a document you want to remove, and then click Actions Menu to view available actions. Click Remove Child, and then click Remove to complete the action. The link between a specific parent and child document is removed; however, the child document remains in an object store after you complete this process.
To manage compound document link properties	To access the link properties for a parent document or child document, do the following actions: Select the child document, then click the related parent document link. Next to the value of the link properties, for example in the Link Name column, click the Info button to access the Link information page. Select the parent document, then click the related child document link. Select the child document with link info properties you want to view. From the Actions Menu, click Link Info to access the Link information page. Review the current link information that defines the relationship between specific parent and child documents.