Please note : This help page is not for the latest version of Enterprise Architect. The latest help can be found here.

Linked Documents

When you are developing elements in your model, you might want to provide extensive documentation on an element, to provide more structured text than you can create in the element Notes field. In this case, you can create a formatted RTF document that is linked to the element. You can create a linked document from scratch, or from one of a range of Linked Document Templates that you define with the Linked Document Template Editor. The linked documents are held within the model.

Working with Linked Documents

Task

Detail

See also

Create linked documents

You can create a linked document either:

•	Within a Document Artifact element attached to your model element, or

•	Directly on the UML element

The advantages of using a Document Artifact to host the linked document include:

•	Visibility of the Document Artifact and hence linked document in the Project Browser

•	As you can only have one linked document in an element, hosting each of several documents in its own Document Artifact and connecting the several Document Artifacts to one model element means that you have broader scope for providing information

•	Similarly, associating several elements with one document by connecting them to the host Document Artifact element means that you can share information rather than duplicating it

The advantages of using a linked document directly on an element include:

•	More tightly binding the content of the document to the element, so there is less ambiguity in what the information refers to

•	More tightly binding the document itself to the element, so there is less risk of the document being changed, moved or deleted without reference to the element it belongs to

Create Document Artifact

Create Linked Document on UML Element

Create linked document templates

You can base your linked document on one of a range of system-provided templates, each of which represents a project document type.

You can also create and use your own linked document templates in the Resources window, within the Templates > Linked Document Templates folder.

Create Linked Document Templates

Edit linked documents

You can define the style, format and layout of your linked RTF document both in the template from which you create the document and in the document itself.

Edit Linked Document Templates

Edit Linked Documents

Create hyperlinks in linked documents

Linked documents are intimately associated with specific elements, but you can also create hyperlinks in the document directly to other elements in the model. Having followed the link, you can perform any normal operation on that element.

Similarly, you can create new elements or diagrams to link to.

You can also create hyperlinks to other forms of documentation.

Hyperlink From Linked Document

Create Element From Document

Include linked documents in RTF reports

Linked documents, however they are created, are rendered into RTF reports when you select the Linked Document checkbox in the Document Template Designer.

Reporting Linked Documents

Delete linked documents

You can completely remove a linked document from an element, or you can remove the contents of the document and replace them with the contents of an external file.

Replace or Delete Documents

Notes

•	You can create a Document Artifact element to contain a linked document in all editions of Enterprise Architect

•	You can create and link an RTF document to any UML element in the model, in the Corporate, Business and Software Engineering, Systems Engineering and Ultimate editions of Enterprise Architect