A content item is a single piece of information available for display on your Web site, such as a press release, a mutual fund prospectus, or an image of a product. Each content item has certain properties, usually determined by the author or content administrator, that describe its characteristics. For example, a mutual fund prospectus might have a content property called LastModified with a value of “04/16/2000.”

All the content items for your site are stored in searchable content repositories. These repositories are typically set up by the application developers working on your Web site. (For more information on how content repositories work, see the Repository Guide.) Your site may also be set up to access content stored in a third-party content management system from another commercial vendor.

As stated above, the properties for your content items are usually specified by the content administrator or the person who initially adds each content item to its repository. In some cases, however, you might want to edit one or more properties, for example in preparation for putting similar content items into groups (explained in the next chapter, Creating Content Groups). The process of editing content properties, sometimes called “tagging” content, is explained in this chapter, along with other basic procedures for managing content repositories.

Note: If your installation uses ATG Content Administration, you can also use the Business Control Center to create and manage content items. For more information, refer to the Content Administration Guide for Business Users.