# Set up your first catalog, fields, and document types

Build the structure documents file into — a catalog, its document types, and the fields that describe them — including global fields you define once and reuse everywhere.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: catalog-administrator · Time: 30 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/set-up-catalogs-fields-and-document-types

**At the end of this guide you'll have the three-layer structure everything else builds on: a catalog (the filing cabinet), document types (the kinds of paper in it), and fields (what you'll search and sort by) — with the reuse trick that saves future-you hours: global fields.**

## The three layers, in one breath

A **catalog** groups related documents — Accounts Payable, Human Resources. Each catalog holds **document types** — Purchase Order, Check, W-4. Each type carries **fields** — Vendor, PO Number, Date — and those fields are what capture fills in, search matches on, and folder-building organizes by.

## Step 1: Create the catalog

1. Go to **Administration** > **Catalogs & Document Types** and click **New Catalog**.

2. Give it a **Name** and a short **Description**. (Later catalogs can start as a copy: **Clone from existing catalog** brings settings along.)

3. Click **Create**.

## Step 2: Create a document type

1. With the catalog selected, click **New Document Type** — same shape: **Name**, **Description**, optional **Clone from existing document type** ("including all fields and settings," which is exactly how you'll make your second type in thirty seconds).

2. Click **Create**. Use **Set as Default** on the type that captures should assume when nobody chooses.

## Step 3: Add the fields

Select the document type and open the **Fields** tile.

*[Screenshot: Each row is a field with its type and options; drag the handles to set the order capture and edit screens use.]*

Click **Add Field** for each one. In the field editor (**Manage Field Details**):

1. **Name** it, and pick the **Type** — **Text**, **Numeric**, or **Date**.

2. Pick a **Format** where it helps: Text offers ready-made masks (phone, SSN, zip codes) or **Custom**; Date offers two dozen patterns; Numeric can **Auto Increment Value** — how PO numbers hand themselves out.

3. Decide the behavior under **Field Options**: **Require entry.** for must-fill fields (it can even be conditional on another field having a value), and **Disallow duplicate value.** to catch double-entered invoices.

4. For pick-lists: **Create drop-down from choices.** and type the values into **Field Entry Choices** *(one per line)*. Two switches control growth: **Allow new entries.** lets users type values not on the list, and **Add new entries to choice list.** saves what they type for next time. Lists can also come from an external data source or cascade from a parent field (**Choice list depends on field**).

5. **Save**, then drag the rows on the Fields page into the order people should see.

## The reuse trick: global fields

A field like *Vendor* belongs on purchase orders, checks, and invoices — and searching across all three only works well when it's literally the same field. That's a **global field**:

1. Define it once at **Administration** > **Global Fields** (**Add Field** — same editor).

2. On each document type, add a field and switch on **Use Global Field**, then pick it. The editor locks the inherited settings and says why: *"Field properties are inherited from the selected global field. Only dependency settings can be overridden locally."*

*[Screenshot: The PO field inheriting from the global "PO (Numeric)": settings come from one definition, with only local overrides editable.]*

> **IMPORTANT:** Editing a global field updates every document type that uses it — the editor lists the dependents before you save. That's the feature, and the caution, in one.

## Prove the structure

Capture one test document into the new type. **Success check:** the capture page presents your fields in your order, required ones enforce themselves, and the drop-downs offer your choices.

## What's next

- [Folder and file building](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/folder-and-file-building)
- [Document type permissions, explained](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/document-type-permissions)
- [Duplicate a catalog or workflow](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/duplicate-a-catalog-or-workflow)