During editorial process, workstates are assigned to editorial elements either automatically or manually.

The current workstates for is displayed either by name or by color, or both.

In GN4, the assignment of a workstate to an editorial element may be:

•Automatic: such assignment of a workstate is available for folder objects such as articles, images and multimedia, residing in folders. As soon such content get sent in any folder, it automatically attains the workstate of that folder. For example, if an article moves to a private folder, and a workstate 'not ready' is assigned to a that folder, the workstate of the article will be 'not ready'.

•Manual assignment is available for pages and editions. Workstates for pages and editions change on user's request. This is typically used for copy flow of pages and editions, and also as an archiving marker. However, it is possible to combine a workstate change with scripting, and to tie it to certain operations, e.g. printing to final output may set a page workstate as "to be archived".