Understanding global content, local content, and content blocks

Pergamon’s Editor uses different content types to help you maintain consistency and control across your documents. This article explains the key concepts behind content blocks, global content, and local content, and how they behave when you assemble and edit documents.

About content blocks

Content blocks are the editable containers in the Editor. Each block holds text, images, lists, tables, or other elements. Blocks help you structure and organize the document, and they determine:

• Whether the content is editable
• Whether the block is locked or unlocked
• How the content behaves when modified

A block always contains either Global content or Local content.

Global content in Pergamon

Global content is created automatically during Pergamon’s Document Assembly workflow. When a document is assembled, Pergamon inserts global content into the Editor inside Global content blocks.

Global blocks:

• Show a globe icon
• Have a grey background
• Are locked for editing
• Preserve consistency across manuals
• Prevent accidental changes to standardized text

Global content ensures that recurring sections (Safety, Warranty, Legal, Product Specs, etc.) remain reliable and controlled.

Global content restrictions

All global content is locked for editing by default. To edit it, you must convert it to Local content.

Depending on how the content is configured, additional restrictions may apply. These restrictions control whether a block can be converted to Local or deleted.

Global content restrictions

Global content (no restrictions)

• Cannot be edited directly
• Can be converted to Local for editing
• Can be deleted

This is the default behavior.

Global content (conversion restricted)

• Cannot be edited
• Cannot be converted to Local
• Can be deleted

Use this when content must remain unchanged, but can still be removed if needed.

Global content (fully restricted)

• Cannot be edited
• Cannot be converted to Local
• Cannot be deleted

This content is fully restricted and cannot be modified or removed.

Local content in Pergamon

Local content is content that you create or edit freely inside the Editor.

Local blocks:

• Have no globe icon
• Appear with a white background
• Are fully editable
• Are unique to the specific document
• Are not tied to templates or assembly rules

Local content is ideal for:

• Adding product-specific details
• Filling in gaps that assembly cannot generate
• Custom instructions
• Edits that apply only to one document

Why global content is locked

Global blocks are locked to:

• Preserve editorial consistency
• Prevent accidental changes to standardized content
• Protect text sourced from templates or assembly rules
• Maintain reliability across multiple assembled documents

Restrictions may further limit whether content can be converted or deleted, depending on how it is configured.

What happens when you convert a global block to local

Converting a global block changes the block from Global to Local. This is a one-way conversion.

Once converted:

• The block becomes editable
• The globe icon disappears
• The background changes to white
• The content is no longer linked to the assembled source
• The content behaves like any other Local block

This allows editors to customize or revise the content as needed.

When to convert a block

Convert a Global block when you must:

• Correct or revise assembled content
• Add clarifications or product-specific details
• Update text that is outdated or incomplete
• Customize content for a unique version of the manual

Do not convert a Global block if the content should remain standardized across products or document versions.