Patent ID: 8209304

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a repository residing in the memory that includes a plurality of documents that each include a plurality of elements; and a content management system residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the content management system managing the plurality of documents in the repository, the content management system comprising: a stale content indication mechanism that provides at least one indication in a document editor that displays a document in the repository of staleness of at least one element in the document according to a stale content policy that specifies at least one threshold that is used to determine whether elements in the document are more outdated than other elements in the repository, wherein the stale content policy includes a plurality of thresholds relating to: number of references to an element in the repository; percent of documents in the repository that use the element; and timestamp of when the element was last updated; wherein the stale content policy specifies a plurality of staleness levels according to the plurality of thresholds, and further specifies whether an auto suggest mechanism may be triggered for each staleness level to present to a user possible alternatives for at least one stale element in the document.