1. A computer-implemented method for automatically associating data with a document, wherein the data is based on a prescribed type of the document, comprising: determining, at a document management system, that a first document is of a prescribed type, wherein the document management system comprises at least one document server having a processor, wherein the at least one document server stores a plurality of documents and the plurality of documents are of a plurality of document types; creating, by the processor, a dependency between a type template and the first document, wherein the type template defines content type information and wherein the content type information includes at least generic type information; retrieving the type template for the prescribed type; retrieving instance-specific information for the first document; retrieving the generic type information for the prescribed type from the type template, wherein the generic type information includes policies applicable to all of the plurality of documents that are of the prescribed type; associating the instance-specific information and the generic type information with the first document; receiving a change to the content type information of the type template; in response to receiving the change to the content type information of the type template, marking the first document as dirty; after receiving the change to the content type information, receiving a request for the first document; and only in response to receiving the request for the first document associating the changed content type information with the first document.