---
title: "Customizing documents"
source: https://dev.pageseeder.com/guide/documents/customizing_documents.html
last_updated: 2026-08-07T17:09:54+10:00
tokens: ~830
---

# Customizing documents

The PageSeeder [PSML](../../reference/glossary/psml.md) format has two built-in [document types](../configuration/psml.md):

- **default –** is a `<document>` element with no `@type` attribute and two `<section>` elements, one with an `@id` attribute value of `"title"` and one with an `@id` attribute value of `"content"`.
- **[references](../../reference/glossary/references_document.md) –** is a `<document>` element with a `@type` attribute value of `"references"` and two  \<section\> elements, the first with an `@id` attribute value of `"front"` and the second with a value of `"xrefs"`. In the second section is an `<xref-fragment id="content">` element, which invokes a link editor instead of a rich text editor. The documents linked into this section provide the Table of Contents (TOC).

Each [project](../../reference/glossary/project.md) on a PageSeeder server can have their own custom document types available to any group in the project. 

Document types provide for customizing of the metadata and content structure, creation and editing, importing and publishing, display and validation. All these document facets are configurable through various [PSML configuration files](../configuration/psml.md) that are stored in the [folder structure](../../reference/folders_and_files.md) under a given document type.

## Document type example

Following is an example that illustrates some of the features available through customization using the document type and document configuration.

![Document type – Book example](/content/guide/documents/../../images/guide/document_type-book_example_v60000.webp)

- It consists of `<section>` elements with `@title`, `@metadata` and `@overview` attributes respectively on each.
- The fragment in the `@metadata` section invokes the [PSML Properties Editor](../configuration/psml/psml_properties_editor.md) and the list of valid categories can be customized with a [PSML editor config](../configuration/psml/psml_editor_config.md) file.
- Using a configuration defined in the `<creation>` element, the location of the document files could be constrained to a predefined path and naming pattern such as:

```
books/00/B001-book.psml
```

The [PSML](../../reference/glossary/psml.md) for this document follows:

```xml
<document type="book" level="portable" >
  <section id="title">
    <fragment id="1">
      <heading level="1">Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</heading>
    </fragment>
  </section>
  <section id="metadata">
    <properties-fragment id="2">
      <property title="ISBN"
                name="isbn"
                value="9781451606270"/>
      <property title="Author"
                name="author"
                multiple="true">
        <value>Lewis Caroll</value>
      </property>
      <property title="Category"
                name="category"
                multiple="true">
        <value>Fantasy</value>
        <value>Science Fiction</value>
      </property>
      <property title="Publisher"
                name="publisher"
                value="Looking Glass Books"/>
    </properties-fragment>
  </section>
  <section id="overview">
    <title>Overview</title>
    <fragment id="3">
      <para>Alice chases a white rabbit into a magical
        world.</para>
    </fragment>
  </section>
</document>
```