What are documents?

A document is a page of shared writing that everyone in your workspace can open, and members can edit. Fairgreen Golf Co. keeps its fabric care guide, its returns policy and every shoot brief in them.

Documents live at Work › Documents.

Documents are made of prose rather than fields. That is what separates them from What is an Object?, where each entry is a set of answers you fill in.

What can go in one?

Rich text: headings, bold and italic, bulleted and numbered lists, to-do lists, quotes, code blocks, dividers and images. You can also tag tasks, other documents, channels and more with @, so a shoot brief can point at the work it belongs to.

Writing and formatting are covered in How to create and format a document.

Why not write it in a task or a chat message?

Because those are for work and conversation, and a document is for the thing itself.

A task is a job somebody does and then finishes. A chat message is read by whoever is in the channel that hour and then scrolls away. Neither is where you want the fabric care guide, because in six months nobody will find it.

The test is whether somebody will need to read it again next quarter. If they will, it is a document.

When would you write one?

Three examples from Fairgreen:

• A policy the team works to, like the returns policy. Everyone reads the same version, and whoever updates it updates it for everyone.
• A brief for a piece of work, like the spring shoot brief. It tags the shoot task, so the task shows the brief in its Related section.
• Reference the whole team looks up, like the fabric care guide. Filed in a Product folder, it sits with its neighbours.

Who can see a document?

Everyone in your workspace can open every document. Write with that in mind: a document is the right home for anything the team should be able to find.

Members can create and edit documents by default, through the Create documents and Edit documents rows on Settings › Permissions. Deleting one uses the Delete documents row, which leads have by default. See How to set who can do what.

What sits under every document?

Two sections, below the writing. Related lists what the document is linked to and what links to it, with a Link something button to add more. That is covered in How to find a document and link it to your work.

Activity is where people comment on the document, and it also notes when the document was created. Type in the comment box at the foot of it, using @ to tag people and things. Hover your own comment to edit or delete it.

How do you keep documents organised?

File them in folders. The Documents list shows your folders first, then the documents that sit in no folder.

Fairgreen has one folder for Policies and one for Shoot briefs. Folders are covered in How to file documents in folders.

When is something else the better fit?

• A file somebody sent you, like a supplier's PDF spec sheet: attach it to the task it belongs to instead, per How to add files and comments to a task.
• A supplier's signed agreement, price list or certificates: use the Documents section on that supplier's page under Buying › Suppliers, and press Add a document to upload the file. That section holds uploaded files, not written documents. See How to add and set up a supplier.
• A note about one specific record: comment on that record, where it stays next to the thing it is about. See How to comment on a record and see its history.
• Information with the same shape every time, like a repair with a date, a customer and a fault: use an Object instead. See What is an Object?.

Where to go next

Read the section in this order:

• How to create and format a document covers creating a document and formatting it with the slash menu, the toolbar and markdown shortcuts.
• How to file documents in folders covers folders and moving documents between them.
• How to find a document and link it to your work covers finding a document again and linking it to the work it belongs to.

The Agent can find and read documents for you too. See How to ask the Agent about your tasks, chat and documents.