Creating New Objects and Saving Documents to M-Files

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Creating new documents or other objects in M-Files, or saving documents from other applications to M-Files, is very simple and straightforward. This quick tutorial shows you how it is done.

Video: Saving Information with Metadata

Creating New Objects in M-Files

You can create new objects by clicking the Create button, or by clicking the desired button under the Create section in the task area:

  1. Either:
    • Click the Create () button and select the desired object type from the context menu.
      or
    • In the task area, under the Create section, click the desired object type.
    Result:If you chose to create a new document, the New Document dialog is opened. Otherwise the metadata card for the new object is opened.
  2. Optional: If you are creating a new document, select a class and a template, and then click Next.
  3. Fill in the necessary metadata and then click Create.
The object is added to the vault with the metadata details that you have provided.

Saving Documents to M-Files from Other Applications

M-Files supports all file types and you can save documents from any application to M-Files. Documents are saved to a document vault and then described with metadata. You do not have to save documents into a particular folder or location as M-Files organizes content automatically into relevant views based on document metadata.

Certain applications, such as AutoCAD, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint, have an M-Files ribbon that you can use to easily save new documents to M-Files. If the application you are using does not have the ribbon, you can still use the Save As... function of the application to save your document to M-Files.

Complete the following steps to save a document to M-Files from another application:

  1. Either:
    • If you are using an application that is equipped with the M-Files ribbon, open it and then click Save to M-Files. If you have more than one vault connection, select the appropriate vault from the context menu.
      or
    • If the application does not have the Save to M-Files feature, select File > Save As... from the menu bar, select M-Files as the location, and if necessary, select the appropriate vault. Finally click Save.
    Result:The metadata card for the new document is opened.
  2. Fill in the appropriate metadata and then click Create.
The selected document is saved to the vault with the metadata that you have provided.

For more information on creating objects and saving documents in M-Files, see Adding Content to Vault.

Now that you are up to speed with the ways documents are created and saved to M-Files, proceed to Using Document Templates for a tutorial on how to take advantage of document templates when creating new documents.