Upload a file

Uploaded files live in Documents, alongside folders and documents you write in SafetyDocs. A file is private to you until you share it.

1. Sign in.
2. Choose Documents in the sidebar. Open a folder first if the file belongs there.
3. Choose New, then Upload files.
4. Drop your files in, or choose click to browse. PDF, DOCX, PNG, JPG and GIF files up to 100 MB each are accepted. You can also drop files anywhere on Documents.
5. For a Word or PDF file, SafetyDocs asks whether to convert a copy to edit online. Choose Don't convert to keep it as a file, or see Convert a Word or PDF file.

Uploads count towards your plan's file storage. On Free, new uploads stop when it's full. On a paid plan, storage past what's included is a usage charge. Nothing you've stored is deleted either way. See your plan.

Every upload is scanned for known viruses first. While that happens the file shows Checking this file for viruses, and no one can open or download it from SafetyDocs. If you uploaded a PDF or picture, you see the copy on your computer in the meantime, in the same browser tab: nobody else sees it until the check is done. This usually takes a moment, and the page updates by itself.

Once it's checked, open the file to see its status. It moves through pending and processing, then completed, failed, or unsupported.

If a file doesn't pass the check

A file flagged as unsafe can't be opened or downloaded, and its stored copies are deleted by a daily cleanup. If the scanner can't read a file after 6 tries, it can't be opened and is deleted the same way, once it's at least a day old, so upload it again. A file the check finds is bigger than 100 MB is deleted straight away and can't be opened, whatever size it seemed when it was uploaded. If our scanner is down, your file just waits and is checked when it's back. The file's name stays in Documents and its version history, with a note saying why, and your organisation's audit log records it.

If processing fails

Open the file and choose Retry conversion. The status returns to pending while SafetyDocs tries again. You need to be able to edit the file to retry it.

What happens next

A file's page is laid out like a document you write in SafetyDocs: back and the title row at the top, the file in the middle under its name, and the same tools on the right. A completed PDF or image shows on the page; anything else offers Download original. Download is under …. Share documents to let others open it.

Versions

The version under the file's name, such as Version 1.2, lists every version with who uploaded it and what changed. Choose one to see it on the page; from there, Create new version from this makes it the current version again, if you manage the file.

To upload a new version:

1. Choose the version under the file's name, then Upload new version. You need to be able to edit the file.
2. Choose the new file.
3. Pick Minor change for small fixes (1.0 becomes 1.1) or Major change for a new issue (1.0 becomes 2.0). On a job, a major change asks everyone to sign or acknowledge again.
4. Say what changed if you like, then choose Upload as.

Comment on a file

Open Comments on the right. Its number is how many comments are still open.

• On words in a PDF, or a Word file once it shows its preview: select them, then choose Comment.
• On part of a page or a picture: choose Mark an area, then drag a box over it. Esc stops marking.
• On the whole file: write in Add comment without selecting anything.

Type @ and a name to tag someone in your organisation. What you commented on stays highlighted on the file: choose a highlight to open its comment, or a comment to go to its highlight. Reply, resolve and delete as on a written document. A scanned page is a picture of text, so mark an area on it instead.

Comments belong to the version of the file they were made on: once a new version is uploaded, choose the earlier version under the file's name to see them.

Add a sign-on register

A file can have a sign-on register under it, as a written document can. It's what the people asked to sign the file on a job fill in.

1. Open the file and choose Add sign-on register under it. You need to be able to edit the file.
2. It starts with each person's name and signature. Choose Set up to ask for more: their company, their job role or position, and the licences everyone must give or may add. You can also change what they agree to, the register's title and note, and how many empty rows it prints.
3. Changes save as you make them. Remove takes the register away, with Undo in the message that follows.

Add the file to a job and its register comes with it. The job's managers can change the job's copy; the file in Documents keeps its own. A change applies to the next person who signs. Everyone who already signed keeps the register as it was when they signed, with what they gave, and their signed record shows it.

Ask for approval, and sign-off on a job

Approvals on the right asks someone to approve the file, as for a written document: see Ask for approval. Uploading a new version after it's approved shows Changed since approval.

On a job, a file has the same Sign-off under it as a written document, and Signed on and Issues on the right. Choose who has to sign or acknowledge it; the crew do it on their phone. Before they sign, they fill in what its sign-on register asks, and the register under the file lists them as they sign. Each signature opens as a signed record: the file of the version they signed, with the register. See Ask the crew to sign a document.

Turn it into a document you can edit

Choose Convert to a document to have SafetyDocs AI write a PDF or Word file as a document for its next version. Convert a Word or PDF file has the details.