Hi everyone,
I’m prototyping a plain-text workflow for drafting ISO 9001 documented information in Zettlr.
I’m deliberately not treating Zettlr as a complete document-management or approval system. The boundary that currently makes sense to me is:
- Zettlr: authoring, linking, tags, metadata and local search
- Git or a normal peer-review process: revision history and review
- An approved document repository: controlled release, access, retention and obsolete versions
My draft workspace looks like this:
qms/
00-document-register.md
policies/
procedures/
forms/
records/
Each controlled draft starts with YAML front matter:
---
title: Document Control Procedure
document_id: QP-07-01
version: "0.3-draft"
owner: Quality
status: draft
approved_by: ""
effective_date: ""
review_due: 2027-07-01
tags:
- qms
- documented-information
- clause-7-5
---
Zettlr already supports YAML front matter, and the recognised tags make it convenient to navigate related procedures, policies and records.
For the document register, I currently use a Markdown table containing the document ID, owner, version, status and review date, with links back to the individual files.
The proposed release workflow is:
- Draft and cross-link the document in Zettlr.
- Review the Markdown changes separately.
- Update the approval and effective-date metadata.
- Export the approved release copy.
- Publish it to the controlled repository rather than treating the working Zettlr folder as the released QMS.
When deciding which metadata and controls mattered, I found a plain-language overview of ISO 9001 Clause 7, particularly section 7.5 on documented information useful. It highlights identification, review, approval, availability, protection, change control and preventing obsolete documents from being used.
Has anyone here used Zettlr for controlled procedures, laboratory or measurement reports, or other regulated technical documentation?
I’m particularly interested in two questions:
- Would you generate the document register from YAML using Python, Pandoc or a Lua filter?
- Would one Zettlr Project per process be useful, or would that become too cumbersome?
Full disclosure: I’m involved with the ISO Checklist resource. I’m sharing it as one practical reference, not as an official interpretation or certification advice.
