About Native Documents

A native document is a document created in a third-party application, like Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. The document is intended to be viewed and edited in the application that was used to create it (its "native application"). It is not usually viewable as a web page.

Site Studio Contributor assigns the native document to a contribution region just like it does a contributor data file. However, whereas a contributor data file can be viewed instantly on a web page (because it is written in XML), a native document must be converted into HTML and then pulled into the web page.

Site Studio uses a conversion engine (Dynamic Converter) to convert the document into a web-viewable rendition. As such, any rules or templates set up in Dynamic Converter are automatically applied on the Site Studio Web site.

There are several reasons why you may want to use native documents on your site. For one, you can add documents that you may be using for another purpose in your organization. For example, you could add a policy document from your HR department or a product specification from your development department and make those documents part of the Web site without having to create two versions of the documents.

You may also be familiar with a certain application, like Microsoft Word, and prefer to edit the contents of your site in that application. When you have finished, you simply save and close the document. The document is converted into HTML and appears on the site right away.