Disclosed are various embodiments for maintaining a collection of documents and user-defined messages made in conversations such that the collection may be accessed in a secure and manageable manner. A user-defined message may be stored by a collection control application in at least one data store according to a message storage policy and a portion of the user-defined message may be associated with at least one file in a collection of files. A manifest may be generated that enables access to the portion of the user-defined message and the at least one file. The manifest may comprise a location reference for each of the plurality of files in the collection of files and the user-defined message and an indication that the portion of the user-defined message is associated with the at least one file in the collection of files.