Intellectual Arrangement: discerning the organization of corporate records viz. function, or a pre-determined original order. Or, in the case of personal records, the activities of a person's life (arranged intellectually by personal correspondence, financial matters, photographs, etc.)  THE GOAL IS TO RE-ESTABLISH THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS.

Physical Arrangement: the process by which the archivist actually puts the pieces of the collection into the order of the intellectual arrangement. This step is called PROCESSING: when the intellectual and physical are brought together. Not only that, but it is also at this stage that archivists tend to the physical preservation (ie. Photographs may require special needs, rusty paper clips/staples should be removed, etc. Records are placed in acid free folders and boxes and labeled accordingly.