AdemeroHelp

Folder and file building

Make Content Central name files and build folder paths from field values automatically — the item-by-item pattern builder, the live example that shows what you'll get, and the truth about already-filed documents.

Catalog administratorsContent Central 7.x20 minutesVerified 2026-09-05

At the end of this guide, every captured document files itself into a folder path built from its field values and gets a file name that means something — \Acme Corp\PO 8001.pdf instead of scan_00423.pdf — from a pattern you assemble once per document type.

Where it lives

Administration > Catalogs & Document Types > catalog and document type > Folder & File Building.

The Folder & File Building page
The demo pattern reads like a sentence: folder from the Vendor field, then a new subfolder, then a file named "PO" plus the PO number. The Example block below each list shows exactly what you'll get.

Build the pattern

  1. Check Enable Folder Building and/or Enable File Building — they're independent.

  1. Under Folder Building Items, add pieces in order. Each is a Type:

    • Field — a field's value becomes part of the path (Date fields can contribute Full Date, Year, Month, or Day — a \2026\09\ structure is two Field items)
    • Text — literal text you type
    • Document Type — the type's name
    • New Folder — starts the next subfolder level

    A field item can also take just a prefix: Use only left portion of field with a character count — the classic A–Z folder trick.

  1. File Building Items works the same, minus New Folder. The extension stays what it was; you're naming, not converting.

  1. Watch the Example: block under each list update as you build — it renders your pattern with <FieldName> tokens exactly as documents will be placed. Drag items to reorder.

  1. Set the two safety valves at the top:

    • Invalid folder/file substitution character: — what replaces characters Windows won't allow in names (default _)
    • Folder name when field is empty: — where documents land when the pattern's field has no value. Name it something findable, like Empty — it's where strays collect.

  1. Click Apply.

The two bypass switches

  • Allow users to bypass folder and file building when editing document properties. — lets a person keep a hand-placed location when they edit fields, instead of the pattern yanking the document back.
  • The clipboard variant does the same for Paste after a Cut moves.

Leave both off until someone has a real reason — every bypass is an exception your structure no longer explains.

The truth about already-filed documents

Changing the pattern affects only documents captured afterward. Nothing already on the shelf moves or renames. Refiling an existing catalog to a new pattern is a deliberate, support-assisted maintenance operation — it runs from the server with the system stopped and backups taken first, and it requires an authorization code from Ademero support. If you need it, that's a support conversation, not a settings change.

Success check: capture one test document with fields filled. It should land at the path the Example block predicted, named accordingly. A document in your "empty field" folder means the pattern references a field capture didn't fill — make that field required, or reorder your capture flow.