M-Files software The M-Files document management software consists of the following

components: Explore M-Files, M-Files Server Administrator, M-Files

Client Settings, Show Status, and M-Files Server. You can also use M-
Files with a web browser or a mobile device.
File and document An example of a file is a memo created using Microsoft Word and saved
(and their on the C:\ drive. The file becomes a document only after you have
differences) associated metadata with it. When you have implemented M-Files and
start transferring existing files to M-Files, you add metadata to the files to
make them documents.

M-Files can also store customer and project data.

Multi-file A multi-file document is a special M-Files document type that can contain
documents more than one files. The files share one set of metadata.

Typical uses include linking of an electronic document with its signed and
scanned counterpart, an email and all its attachments, or any such case
where files need to be linked together and treated as one unit.
Temporary local For example, Microsoft Word creates temporary files during the work.
file These are so-called temporary local files. Some programs cannot remove
these temporary files, and they remain as temporary local files in M-Files.
As temporary local files have no associated metadata, they are not saved
on the server.

The temporary local files can be converted to documents, refer to Convert

to Document, and removed, refer to Clear Local Cache.
Metadata Metadata consists of information about the document's properties, such as
the parties of a contract or the recipient of a letter. Metadata is used to, for
example, search for and organize documents.
Document / object Each document can be assigned permissions to specify the access rights of
permissions a user or user group. The permissions can be either allowed or denied
separately. One user can have allowed or denied permissions in two
different ways: the permissions have been specified for that particular user,
or the user belongs to a user group for which the permissions have been
specified. If no permissions have been specified for a user, the user cannot
view the document or handle it in any way. If certain permissions have
been allowed, the user can perform the procedures determined by these
permissions.
Vault A vault is a centralized storage location for documents and other objects.
Its physical location is on the server running M-Files Server. Regardless of
the physical location, all users see the document vault as a directory on
their local computer's M-Files drive. This means that using a document
vault is similar to using a local hard drive.
View Views are locations in which the documents and other objects are listed
based on the metadata they contain.
Virtual folder The objects and documents in the views include virtual folders (property
folders). Virtual folders enable sorting documents in the view into
categories.
Traditional folder You can also create traditional folders in M-Files. These do not have the
additional properties provided by views. Traditional folders compare, for
example, to C:/ folders and can be used for importing files to M-Files.
Client A client is the regular M-Files user's computer and the software installed
on it. The regular user performs operations like creating documents and
exploring the document vault.
Object type By defining object types, you can create different types of objects.
Document is one of such object types, one that every vault contains. In
addition, the M-Files administrator can create other object types for the
vault, such as customer, contact, and project. This way, you can use M-
Files to, for example, store the company's customer and project databases.
Object The term object refers to instances of various object types – that is,
individual objects created using object types. For example, one contact
person in the document vault is an object.

Most functions are identical for documents and for other objects. This
manual often represents operations as being performed on documents, but
the same operations are available for, e.g., document sets and other
objects. An individual document can therefore also be thought of as an
object.
Document Document collections are collections of individual documents in the
collection document vault. Each collection member document has its own metadata.
In addition, the document collection has a collective set of metadata
independently of member documents (cf. multi-file document).

Each document in the collection can still be accessed as an individual

document but also through the document collection.
Relationships You can also define the relationships between objects. Using relationships
you can, for example, indicate that two documents are related.
Relationships enable easy tracking of all documents related to an issue.
Template You can use another object as a template for creating a new object. When
you select a template from the list, the metadata card adjusts itself to the
specifications of the template object. You can edit and add metadata.

Specify an object as a template by setting its Is template property to Yes.

Workflow The M-Files Workflow feature enables modeling object lifecycles
according to real world processes. The workflow is grouped into states that
correspond to the working stages of the document or other object. The M-
Files administrator can easily define workflows to meet company
requirements. For more information about workflows, refer to Workflows.
Server M-Files Server runs on the server. Clients connect to the server and
retrieve data so that the contents of the document can be viewed on the
clients. The server is the physical location of the document vault.