Library Columns
The facts a document is described by, beyond its title. Which contract, which site, which insurer, what it is worth, when it renews.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data → Library Columns defines them. On a record, the Details panel of the Documents pane is where they are filled in.
The problem it solves
Without columns, every one of those facts has to live in the title. That is why document titles in systems that lack this eventually become 2024-118 Riverside - Aviva - 42000 - RENEWED.pdf.
A column belongs to a document type
“Insurer” is a fact about an insurance certificate and noise on a board minute. Columns are defined per type, with Every type available for the handful — “Department”, “Site” — that genuinely apply to everything.
A document gets its type’s own columns plus the global ones.
Five kinds, and a number behaves like a number
Text, number, date, choice and yes/no. The type is not cosmetic: a number column compares numerically and a date column compares as a date, so “worth more than 1000” and “renews before March” mean what they say.
Were values compared as text, a £900 policy would count as worth more than a £10,000 one, and every report built on it would be quietly false.
A choice column keeps one spelling
Values are matched however they are typed and stored as the definition spells them, so a column does not end up holding “Aviva”, “aviva” and “AVIVA” as three different answers.
Required does not block anything
It is reported, not enforced. A document arrives before anybody knows its details, and refusing the upload until somebody does would simply mean the details are invented. Unanswered required columns are listed by name on the Details panel.
Three things you cannot change afterwards
- The key. It is what filters and saved links name; the label beside it is free to change at any time. An editable key means renaming a column silently breaks every link anybody kept.
- The type, once there are values. Text to number on a column holding “about £40k” cannot produce a number.
- Removal, while values exist. The refusal counts them. What people almost always mean is “stop showing it”, which is the Enabled switch and loses nothing.
Worked example
A facilities team adds Site, Contractor and Next inspection to their certificate type, marks all three filterable and the first two as list columns. “Everything at Riverside due before April” becomes two dropdowns, and the titles go back to being titles.
Recommendations
- Get the type right first — it is the one thing you cannot revisit.
- Few columns, filled in. Twelve columns nobody completes is worse than three that are.
- Turn off rather than remove.
- Use "Every type" sparingly, for facts that genuinely apply to everything.