What is M-Files?

This lesson introduces you to what M-Files is and how it approaches information management.

If you’re used to saving your files and documents to folders on your local, shared, or cloud drive, then the M-Files way of doing things will be new for you.

What is M-Files?

M-Files is a configurable, metadata-driven information management platform.

When people talk about information management, they’re talking about how an organization stores, manages, and retrieves information. For decades, folders have been the main way people manage information – you take a file, give it a name, and put it in a folder that’s located somewhere. This is the legacy way of managing information and it simply doesn’t keep up with the demands of modern business.

M-Files is the modern answer to an old problem – how to store and manage information efficiently and securely, so that it’s instantly accessible to those who need it.

How is M-Files different? 

In legacy systems, when you want to find a file, you have to know where it is. Well, M-Files doesn’t use folders or location to manage information, so you never have to know where it is. It’s always in M-Files.

Rather, what’s more important is what it is. As long as you know something about what it is, then you’ll find what you’re looking for instantly. This is done through metadata.

Dive Into M-Files

Intro to the M-Files Interface

A tutorial lesson guiding you through the M-Files Desktop interface

How to Save Documents

When saving documents into M-Files, they are being saved based on what they are, or metadata, instead of location.

What will M-Files do for me?

People around the world know the pain of spending their precious work time rummaging in digital folders, trying to find the information they need to do the work that matters most to them.

M-Files eliminates this pain because it gets you the information need instantly, no matter where you are or where your information is.

Is M-Files configurable?

Yes. Every organization, every customer has a customized version of M-Files, tailor-fit to their organization. What this means is that your version of M-Files will be specific to your organization. So don’t worry if your M-Files looks different than the ones you see in our tutorial videos or guides.

Commonly used M-Files Terminology

Here you can find a list of the most commonly used terms you would encounter when using M-Files

Vault

An M-Files vault is where documents and other objects are stored.

When you open M-Files, you might have several vaults that you can access. Each vault is configured to manage specific types of information.

For instance, an organization might have a vault to manage their customer project documentation and another to manage HR related documents. It all depends on your organization’s information management needs. It’s important to get to know what sort of vaults your organization has and what sort of information each vault manages.

Another important thing to note is that information can also reside in external repositories or databases like folder drives, but it’s all managed in the vault.

Object

Every item in M-Files is an object. And every object has a metadata card, no matter whether it’s a document, PowerPoint presentation, JPG, PDF, or a project.

Everything in M-Files with a metadata card is an object.

Object Types

Object types are used to define what sort of objects are stored in M-Files. The object types in your vault will depend on how your vault is configured for your organization.

For example, an organization might have object types for customer, project, and document.

In M-Files, objects can either have a document attached or they can just be metadata. This might be tricky to understand at first. Please refer to the examples below for more clarification.

Document Objects

Document objects in M-Files are attached to a document. For instance, the metadata card for this project plan below has an actual Word document attached to it.

Document objects can contain all sorts of files – images, PowerPoint presentations, documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, videos and so much more.

Non-Document Objects

However, the project object below is just metadata. It’s just describing the project. It doesn’t have a document attached to it. This is an example of a non-document object and it’s also how M-Files can serve as a database.

Metadata

Everything in M-Files is driven by metadata. This is the most important term in M-Files.

Metadata is descriptive information that you use to define the objects in M-Files. This metadata describes what the object is, what it relates to, and how it ought to be managed. All of this metadata is recorded on the object’s metadata card.

File vs. Document

A file is anything that is saved to your local computer (or your C: drive). Whenever you save a file to M-Files and give it appropriate metadata, it becomes a document, no matter if it’s a Word document, PowerPoint presentation, Excel spreadsheet, image, PDF, or any other file.
Once it is saved with metadata, it’s called a “document”.

For example, let’s say you have a sales presentation saved on your desktop. This is a file.

When you add it to M-Files, it becomes an M-Files document and it is saved under the Document object type.

Views

Views are saved searches based on metadata. Every time you open a view, M-Files will search for all the objects that match the view metadata search criteria.

Built-in Views

M-Files comes with three built-in views: Recent, Assigned, and Checked Out. These are also called tabs in the M-Files interface.

Common vs. Personal Views

When working with views, you’ll most likely work with the common views or your own personal views. Both types of views are accessible in your All tab.

Common views that are created by your organization for you and your colleagues to use.

You can create your own personal views if you wish.

Relationships

Every object in M-Files has metadata and when multiple objects share common metadata, that’s called an object relationship.

For example, two documents, a project plan and a contract, are both tagged to the same customer: ESTT Corporation. Those two documents then have a relationship.

Relationships are helpful because it makes browsing information by context easy.

Workflows

Workflows represent document lifecycles according to real-life processes. They ensure that documents and other objects are managed as they should be throughout their lifecycle.

For example, documents that need to be reviewed and approved could be managed by a review and approval workflow.

In such a workflow, the draft of the document is first sent to designated reviewers for approval or rejection. If approved, the document is officially active. If not, it goes back to the author for more edits and rounds of approval. This is all controlled by workflow states that control the document step by step.

Permissions

Every object in the M-Files vault has its own permission settings. These settings determine, who can read, edit and delete objects in M-Files. Sometimes, your organization might establish automatic permissions for specific object types.