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Document modelling looks at the inherent structure in
document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...
s. Rather than the structure in formatting which is the classic realm of
word-processing A word processor is an electronic device (later a computer software application) for text, composing, editing, formatting, and printing. The word processor was a stand-alone office machine in the 1960s, combining the keyboard text-entry and pri ...
tools, it is concerned with the structure in content. Because document content is typically viewed as the ''ad hoc'' result of a creative process, the art of document modelling is still in its infancy. Most document modelling comes in the form of document
template Template may refer to: Tools * Die (manufacturing), used to cut or shape material * Mold, in a molding process * Stencil, a pattern or overlay used in graphic arts (drawing, painting, etc.) and sewing to replicate letters, shapes or designs ...
s evidenced most often as word-processing documents, fillable
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
forms, and
XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
templates. The particular strength of XML in this context is its ability to model document components in a tree-like structure, and its separation of content and style. Document modelling goes beyond mere form-filling and mail-merge to look at the structure of information in, for example, a legal document, a contract, an inspection report, or some form of analysis. Document modelling therefore looks at the structures and patterns of the written work, and breaks it down into different options or branches. It then labels the branches and the results. Without effective document modelling, it is difficult to get full value from a
document automation Document automation (also known as document assembly or document management) is the design of systems and workflows that assist in the creation of electronic documents. These include logic-based systems that use segments of pre-existing text and/or ...
initiative, for example, using document assembly software. But by using a model that contains hundreds and thousands of branches, a user can create close to infinite structured variations almost to the point that such systems can rival the unstructured drafting of a specialist. In fact, the results of a sophisticated document model can surpass those of the specialist in terms of lack of error and consistency of prose.


See also

* DTD *
Document processing Document processing is a field of research and a set of production processes aimed at making an analog document digital. Document processing does not simply aim to photograph or scan a document to obtain a digital image, but also to make it digi ...
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Template processor A template processor (also known as a template engine or template parser) is software designed to combine templates with a data model to produce result documents. The language that the templates are written in is known as a template language ...
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XML schema An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. These constra ...
Technical communication