What is an electronic document?

Thus, document management processes allow managing them independently of their medium, but in this case an electronic document is the record of the information generated, received, stored, communicated, manipulated or preserved in an electronic information processing medium that remains in them during their life cycle. It is produced by a person or entity by reason of its activities and must be treated in accordance with archival principles and processes.

Consequently, it is important to keep in mind that electronic documents are not always born electronic, some of them are converted in the course of their management, likewise not all electronic documents are electronic records, since they must have certain components and comply with characteristics that guarantee their conservation and preservation in the long term. An electronic file is a set of ordered and classified electronic documents generated by a person or entity in the course of its activities, with an institutional, administrative or private purpose, which is kept in electronic format.

The electronic document also known as digital document, is a representation of information, whether graphic, numeric or alphanumeric, which is stored, received or transmitted in electronic means of information processing, electronic documents can be generated by natural or legal persons, and according to their content they can be:

• Personal documents: Correspond to the personal activities of natural persons that may or may not be related to activities of an institutional nature.
• Institutional documents: Correspond to the activities of legal entities that perform the function of generating, receiving, storing, communicating, manipulating or conserving information.

Electronic documents are digital in nature, meaning that they consist of a set of encoded data that can be manipulated by a computer. The main characteristic of electronic documents is that their format allows them to be stored, transmitted and manipulated electronically. Other characteristics of electronic documents are:

• They can be generated, stored, transmitted and manipulated electronically.
• They can be of any type of content: text, images, audio, video, etc.
• They can be of any size.
• They can be in any format.
• They can easily be copied and modified.
• They can be protected by electronic means of security.

The main characteristic of electronic documents is that their format allows them to be stored, transmitted and manipulated electronically, and they are unique components of each electronic document:

• Metadata: A set of data that describes and facilitates access, management and administration of electronic documents. Metadata can be generated automatically or manually, and its purpose is to describe the content and structure of an electronic document, as well as its context and relationship with other documents.
• Access Control List: It is the list that specifies the levels of access allowed to an electronic document and the conditions of access, the ACL can be generated automatically or manually, and its purpose is to protect the information contained in an electronic document, the list specifies the permissions of the users at the level of roles, groups and accesses, it is directly related to the levels of security to the information that are established in each one of the organizations.
• Events history: It is a sequential record of the events or actions that have modified the status of an electronic document throughout its life cycle: events, functions, users or actions, this is part of the chain of custody and is useful to define the context on which each document is managed. The event history can be generated automatically or manually, and its purpose is to allow the control of the changes made to an electronic document, as well as the traceability of the actions performed on it.