The Categories feature existed in Worldox GX3, but was not very robust. In Worldox GX4 it is fully integrated into the profile screen when you save a document. I have had several clients ask me “what good is this feature?” “how can I use it?”
Worldox only lets you assign a single document type to a document. Thus you cannot have a file that is listed BOTH as email and correspondence for example. Many firms want to be able to add additional metatags to further describe a given document. Of course, you can add keywords to the description or comments but this depends on the discipline of your users and proper data entry. Neither of these elements are reliable.
Categories allow you to attach one or more metatags or keywords to a document. Litigators frequently make extensive use of this functionality. Thus they can add Categories such as privileged, needs bates number, partially discoverable, question about discovery status, reviewed for expert discovery, key document, helps other side, hurts other side, and so on.
Other firms might use categories such as draft, final and executed copy, although this might be better accomplished through Worldox’s version control feature.
If a firm has gone paperless, and the receptionist scans all incoming mail, how is an attorney to know he has received a letter? You might use categories such as JH_to_review; HC_to_review and so on. The attorney searches for documents she needs to review and removes the category when the documents have been processed.
There are three levels of Categories: Public, Personal and Folder. Thus the firm can decide on and implement public categories: similar to document types but with additional functionality. Individuals can implement their own personal categories that no one else sees. Lastly, you can implement categories specific to a particular Folder, generally equivalent to a specific Matter. Combined with the ability to attach multiple Categories (or metatags) to a particular document, this significantly expands your ability to keep track of your documents in a very detailed way. Firms should seriously consider implementing this feature.