# 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.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: catalog-administrator · Time: 20 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/folder-and-file-building

**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**.

*[Screenshot: 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.

2. 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.

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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

## What's next

- [Set up your first catalog, fields, and document types](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/set-up-catalogs-fields-and-document-types)
- [Change a document's type, catalog, or fields after filing](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/documents/change-a-document-after-filing)