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Uploading a document

How to get a file into CecurSign, and what happens to it once it is there.

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There are two ways to upload a document. Open Documents and press Upload at the top of the page to add one or several files to your library. Or upload it at the moment you need it, inside the thing you are building: on step one of the envelope wizard, press Choose documents and then Upload in the panel that opens, and the file goes into your library and is ticked for this envelope in the same action. The template wizard and Self sign have the same Upload button in the same place.

An envelope is the document you sent for signature, together with everyone who has to act on it.

Where the file goes

Every file you upload is kept in Documents, your company's library, whichever screen you uploaded it from. A document is reusable: the same terms of business can go out in fifty different envelopes without being uploaded fifty times, and each of those envelopes keeps its own fields, its own recipients and its own record.

A file uploaded from Documents has no signature fields yet, because fields belong to an envelope or a template rather than to the file. When you are ready, use the menu at the end of its row to send it for signature or turn it into a template. If a category chip is selected when you upload, the file is filed under that category.

What happens after the file lands

You will see a progress bar with the file name and the bytes as they go, then a Processing bar while we prepare the document for signing. For a large file the second part takes a moment longer.

Each document then carries a status badge in the library:

  • PROCESSING: still being prepared. Wait a few seconds and refresh.
  • READY: usable. The wizard can place fields on it.
  • ERROR: it could not be prepared. Upload it again, and if it happens a second time raise a ticket from Support and tell us the document name.

Only a document reading READY can have fields placed on it, which is why a freshly uploaded file occasionally needs a second to catch up before the wizard will let you continue.

Starting from a document you already have

Open Documents and use the menu at the end of the row:

  • Send for signature opens the envelope wizard with that document already chosen.
  • Create template opens the template wizard with it already chosen, so you can set the roles and fields once and send from the template after that.
  • Self sign takes you straight to adding your own signature, with nobody else involved.
  • View opens it in the viewer without downloading it.
  • Move to changes its category, if your company has set categories up.
  • Archive takes it out of the everyday list without deleting it. The row menu then offers Restore to library.
  • Delete removes it permanently.

Deleting or archiving a document does not touch the envelopes that already used it. Anything already signed stays exactly as it was signed.

Working with several documents at once

Tick the box at the start of each row you want. A bar appears above the list with Move to, to file them all under one category, and Archive, to take them all out of the everyday list. With Show archived on, the same bar offers Restore to library for archived documents you have ticked. Select all in the bar ticks every document on the page. If one of the documents cannot be archived, for example because a colleague has just deleted it, the rest are still archived and you are told which one was left.

Finding it again

Use Search documents... above the list, and the sort box beside it for Newest first, Oldest first, Name (A-Z) or Name (Z-A). Archived documents are held separately, so if something is missing from the list, check whether it was archived. The category chips under the search box narrow the list to one shelf.

Setting up categories

Categories are the shelves your library is filed into, and everyone in the company sees the same list. An administrator sets them up with Manage categories, at the end of the chip row. Add a name, pick a colour, and it becomes both a chip here and a destination in every row's Move to menu.

Renaming one updates it everywhere at once, which is the reason they are a managed list rather than something each person types. Deleting one never deletes a document: anything filed there returns to Uncategorised.

If an upload will not go through

Check the file type and the size first. CecurSign accepts PDF and Word documents, and the message under a refused file tells you the largest your plan allows. See Which files you can upload, and how large.

If the file is the right type and comfortably within the limit and the upload still fails, try it once in a different browser. If it still fails, raise a ticket from Support and say what the file is and roughly how big.