Contextualise documents

Contextualisation works out what your documents are, how they relate, and what a set amounts to — and it runs through matters: once documents are in a matter, the system keeps their context current by itself. There is no button to press; adding documents to a matter is the whole instruction. This guide covers setting a matter up and the controls you have over it; for the concepts, see About contextualisation.

Put documents into a matter

Putting a document into a matter is ordinary organising — there is no separate contextualise step. Any of these has the same effect, because membership is what triggers the run:

• Create the matter as you upload. In the New document window, choose a matter in Add to collection (matters carry a Matter tag) — or select + Create new collection, tick This collection is a matter, and name it.
• Add an existing selection. On the Documents page, select the rows you want, then select Manage collection membership in the floating bar. Tick a matter — or create one with Create new collection, ticking This collection is a matter — and save.
• Drag documents into a matter's folder in the documents table.
• Promote a collection. Turn an existing collection into a matter with Convert this collection into a matter — its documents are contextualised as a set.

That is the whole job. Contextualisation then runs on its own: the system waits a short moment for the batch to settle (and for any newly uploaded document to finish processing), then reads the set and writes the results back. You are notified as each new document is worked in.

Keep a matter evolving

Nothing further is asked of you. Documents added to the matter later — uploaded into it, dragged in, or added through Manage collection membership — are contextualised automatically and woven into the existing picture without disturbing what is already settled. Documents removed from the matter have their machine-drawn links to it tidied away at once. Links you draw yourself are never touched.

The matter controls

In the Manage collections window (opened with Collections in the Documents page toolbar), a matter carries a Matter tag on its row and its own controls:

• Matter journal — the matter's history, newest first: a note for each review (what it did, which documents it worked in, and anything it revised) interleaved with the membership changes — documents added, removed, deleted, or restored.
• Make matter dormant / Reactivate matter — pause a concluded matter. A dormant matter keeps everything it has but stops watching for changes; documents added while it is dormant wait. Reactivate it and one catch-up run brings the context up to date if anything changed.
• Re-contextualise matter documents de novo — a fresh opinion of the whole set. After you confirm, every document is re-read and the picture converges on the new answer, superseding what the machine drew before.
• Convert this collection into a matter — on ordinary collections: promote it, and its documents are contextualised. A collection that sits inside a matter, or contains one, cannot be promoted — the app explains why (a matter can never sit inside another matter).

See the results

• Each document's role and description show in the documents table's Type and Description columns and in the details panel; the Collections column names each matter a document belongs to.
• Open the navigator to see the relationships the runs have drawn.
• Each run appears in Activity with its narrative, and in the matter's journal.
• Until a run finishes, the matter's folder in the documents table carries a Linking… tag, and sending its documents to a discussion shows a note that the discussion may not yet see how they relate.