Reference Guide

This reference guide describes all functionalities and settings in Visiodocs. For guidance on how to get started, see videos. For advanced product information and troubleshooting, see the FAQ.

Project Dashboard

When you log in to Visiodocs, you start out in the Project Dashboard, and have the options:

  • Create a new project.
  • Open a project in the Main Workspace.
  • Sort the project list by names, creation dates or view dates (in the list header).
  • Delete, rename and copy a project (in each project line).
  • Share a project to collaborate with others, see more in Project Share (in each project line).

In the top of the dashboard you can access your account information (), see more about User Settings in the Main Workspace.

Project Share

You can share your project with others, including all the documents, annotations, categories etc. You find the share option in either the Project Dashboard or Main Workspace. By sharing your project you can facilitate the whole work process of sharing documents, reading and having a collaboration about the content, creating result PDF files, all done in one single tool.

To share a project, you enter the email of one or more project members. When pressing OK, an invitation will be prepared in your own mail program (feel free to add relevant information in the mail). You can also manually share the project simply by it’s web address. You can input several emails in one input by separating with commas.
You can invite anyone, they do not need to have an existing account with Visiodocs (they must eventually sign up to access the project). To invite existing Visiodocs users, you should use the same email they have already registered in their Visiodocs account.

When sharing a project you allow others to read your documents, and add their own annotations. Project members without the ‘can edit’ privilige are restricted from adding, deleting and moving documents, and they can only delete their own annotation and comments. Only you, as the project owner, can change the sharing settings. All project members can make a copy of a project, so that they can work privately with the documents.

Main Workspace

The Main Workspace consist of 3 major panes (left, middle, right) – 

Document List … Document Workspace … Annotation List

 In the toolbar’s Main Menu () you manage projects, folders and documents, and have the options:

  • Switch to the Project Dashboard.
  • Projects (equal to options in the Project Dashboard).
    • Select the project to view.
    • Sort the project list by name, creation date or view date.
    • Create new, copy, rename, delete the selected project.
    • Share the viewed project.
  • Folders.
    • Select the folder to view.
    • Create new, copy, rename, delete the selected folder.
  • Documents (equal toin the Document List).
    • Add (upload) documents.
    • Select/unselect all documents.
    • Sort documents by name or dates.
    • Delete the selected documents.
    • Download the selected documents (including annotations, both markups and comments).
    • Move or copy the selected documents to another folder.
  • Download a Bundle of the document list (merge documents to form a legal court document bundle).
  • Download an Annotation List (or print).

Options for individual documents are available in the Document List.
You can also change the displayed project, folder or document by selecting the respective titles in the status bar in the bottom of the screen.

Document List

In the Document List (left side of the Main Workspace) you have the central navigation point for your documents. Here you select a document to view it in the  center Document Workspace, and you can work with the contents in several ways: 

List Header:

    • Edit document properties
      • Edit in-list name, date, reference titles, and document tags: color, categories.
      • Toggle the edit mode here, or edit properties by double-click in document list, exit with Esc. Jump field by Tab/Shift+Tab.
    • Tag all selected documents (set color and add/remove categories).
    • Search and filter the list by document properties. One or more criteria can be set.
      • Name text content.
      • Date range.
        Enter dates by numbers in the order matching the selected date format in         User Settings , separate numbers by spaces (or . – /).
        E.g. “2023 12 31” (Y M D), “31 12 2023” (D M Y), “12 31 2023” (M D Y).
      • Reference titles text content.
      • Tags: color and categories.
    • List options – For all or selected documents ().
      • Add new documents.
      • Select/unselect all documents.
      • Sort by name or dates.
      • Show/hide list columns.
      • For selected documents.
        • Download the selected documents (including annotations, both markups and comments).
        • Delete selected documents.
        • Move/copy to another folder.

In the Document List:

    • Add and reorder documents. 
      • Add documents using drag-and-drop from the computer, or press the plus-sign in the bottom of the list. See details on different file formats below.
      • Reorder single documents by drag-and-drop, or by selecting () multiple documents and use the ‘insert selected documents’ option mentioned below.
      • On touchscreens, hold down on the item for a second before starting dragging.
    • Document options – For a single document position. (Press icon or right-click a document):
      • At the document’s position.
        • Insert new documents.
        • Insert section header (use this to separate the documents into groups).
        • Insert selected documents.
      • Copy. Make a duplicate with/without annotations. Having more than one copy of the same document allows you to have direct access to multiple locations in the same document.
      • Rename.
        The document title is by default the file name, but you can modify this for clarity. You can also revert back to the original file name. Also the document’s date (originally the file date) can be modified, and document’s reference texts can be edited (e.g. used by the Document Bundle).
      • Delete.
      • Properties. View document size, dates etc.
    • To select () a range of documents, select the first, then hold the shift-key when selecting the last in the range. 
 
The Document List can be shown/hidden by selecting the “<<< handle”.

In the status bar below the list, you can change the displayed project and folder. When the project is shared, you can access the sharing settings next to the project name ( , blue background indicates the project is shared between multiple email domains.  indicate you have not edit privileges). In the status bar you can also see the number of documents in the list, and jump to the selected/highlighted document ().

Visiodocs supports PDF as well as many office and image file formats. Internally documents are handled in PDF format, and other file formats are converted automatically. Password protected PDF files are also supported.

Document Workspace

In the Document Workspace (middle part of the Main Workspace) you basically read documents, and annotate the important information in the documents. You browse the document using the mouse wheel, on touchscreens by swiping, or you can use the controls in the status bar below the document, as well as use various Keyboard Shortcuts. See the separate section on Annotation below.

You can control the display of the document by using these options in the toolbar at the top of the screen:

  • Page orientation rotates pages right, left or upside down or resets all orientations. In the orientation menu you can specify whether changes should affect the current page, or the whole document.
  • Page zoom resizes the page so either the full page or page width fits the screen size. You can also zoom to another size using Ctrl/Cmd + mouse wheel or pinch zoom on touchscreens.
  • Page layout can be set to show one or two pages horizontally. The ‘cover page’ layout shows page 1 by itself, and the other pages in pairs.
  •  Document split allows you to divide the document’s pages into two or more new documents. In the split menu you can choose to whether discard or keep the original document, and to include the original document’s annotations in the new documents.
  • Search viewed document for text, and also continue search across all documents in the document list. Options are:
    •  Continue search across all documents in the document list.
    • Match letter case of the search text.
    • Match only whole words in the search text.

In the status bar below the Document Workspace you switch displayed document by selecting the document title. You can also list and browse the history of displayed documents with.

Note that to copy text content or follow links (e.g. web links) in documents, the annotation tool should be set to ‘copy content’ .

Annotation

While reading documents you can add annotations to the important locations in the documents. An annotation consists of a markup in the document and optional comments. The markups can be either a graphical rectangle you place in the document, or a text selection.

To annotate, enable the tool in the toolbar. Note that in the ‘annotation tool menu’ you can control whether the tool should remain enabled after use (‘Keep tool on’). This can be convenient if you plan to make frequent annotations (to follow links in the document or copy contents, the tool must be disabled).

  •  The rectangle annotation tool allows you to mark any area on the page.
  •  A   A   A  The text annotation tools allows you to mark text in the page. Text markup can be either a highlight, an underline or a strikeout. Note that these tools require the text in the document to be selectable (some scanned documents does not include this). 
  • Copy Content allow to access document content (text, link etc.).
  • 6 different colors can be used, and you can give the colors titles, allowing you to differentiate your individual annotations. In the Annotation List you can also filter the list to one or more of these colors.
  • Categories (text labels or tags) can be created and applied on individual annotations. More than one category can be used for the individual annotation. In the Annotation List you can also filter the list to one or more categories.

Annotation Comment Input
When you have created (or selected) an annotation, you can add/edit a comment to the annotation.
Depending on whether you have the Annotation List shown (right side of the Main Workspace), you enter the comment either in the list or in the comment box shown in the bottom of the Document Workspace. You show/hide the Annotation List by selecting the “>>> handle”.

Include line breaks in your comments by using shift+enter.
Annotation properties can later be modified, see the Annotation List section below.

Annotation List

The Annotation List (right side of the Main Workspace) is shown/hidden by selecting the “>>> handle”. This list gives you the complete overview of all annotations you have made throughout all the documents in the project. By selecting one of the annotations in the list, the Document Workspace will take you to the related location in any of the documents in the project.
The list can be exported as a PDF report.

Filters

You can control the contents of the list in several ways:

  • Filter annotation properties by
    • Color. Show all, or annotations with one or more specific colors.
    • Category. Show all, or annotations with one or more specific categories, or without any category.
    • Creator. Show all, or annotations created by one or more users.
    • Scope. Show annotations in the selected document, in the folder or in the entire project.
    • All filters can be reset using ‘Reset all’.
    • Sort by. Arrange the annotations by their position in the document list, or by their categories. When sorting by category, you can manually arrange the order of the annotations to optimal presentation.
  • Search annotation comments text search.
  • Tag all selected annotations (set color and add/remove categories).
  • List options.
    • Select/Unselect all annotations.
    • Delete selected annotations.

Annotation settings
For each of the annotations in the list you have these options:

  • Add an extra comment to the annotation.
  • Delete a single comment, or delete the complete annotation (both markup and comments). To delete multiple annotations see the ‘edit selected annotations’ above.
  • Add/remove the annotation’s categories. You can apply one or more categories to an annotation and later filter the report by a category (see Filters below).
  • Format the annotation markup. Change markup color and change text markup type,  A   A   A  (if the markup is one of these types).
  • / Reorder annotations. When listing and sorting annotations by categories (see ‘sort by’ above), you can arrange the order of the annotations in the list.
  • Select the annotation (see ‘edit selected annotations’ above).
  •  View the markup’s document snapshot. Hover the option with the mouse or select it to lock/unlock the view of the snapshot.

In the status bar below the report, you can see number of annotations and comments, and jump to the selected/highlighted annotation ().

User Settings

Selecting  in the toolbar will show the User Menu containing a number of options specific for your account and the appearance of Visiodocs.

  • User account dialog (menu shows your name).
    • See and modify your authentication credentials (login settings) required to access you private data in Visiodocs. You can set up Visiodocs so that you can log in with more than one login-method, which also allows you to change from using one method to another. If authenticated (logged in) by email and password, you can also change your display name, email or password.
    • Restore a project or the user account from any of the automatic daily backups.
    • Delete your Visiodocs account and all related data.
    • Opt-in to receive the Visiodocs Newsletter. This option is only shown if you did not select it during account creation. The newsletter can be cancelled later via a link in the newsletter.
  • Subscription dialog. You can use Visiodocs for free with limitations, for more storage and features see details in the dialog.
  • Options.
    • Color theme. Choose between several dark and light themes.
    • Text size in document list and annotation list.
    • Annotation list color mode.
    • Annotation list PDF report options.
      • Layout mode (comment’s text-block width).
      • Content options (cover page, annotation colors, snapshots, footer page numbers, simplified pdf conversion friendly layout).
    • Date and time display format.
    • Reload Visiodocs app. Restarts the Visiodocs web app.
    • Reset display options. These are stored locally in your web browser (option will reload Visiodocs).
    • Fullscreen. Switch Visiodocs in and out of fullscreen mode.
  • Help.
    • Guided Tour, Videos and Reference Guide.
  • Log out. Terminates your authenticated state. Note that if you chose “keep me logged in” when you logged in, your private data is still accessible when you open a new browser tab, unless you use this explicit log out option.

Document Bundle

With the Document Bundle (Main Menu ) you can merge all the documents in the list into a single PDF document, including Table of Contents and optionally with annotations. Options are:

  • Table of contents.
    • The header’s menu
      • Table presets, titles, columns, layout.
    • The individual document’s menu
      • Edit document’s data (name, date, reference text).
      • Exclude in table (document and document data).
      • Layout options (stamp documents with reference text, force page breaks in table).
    • Right-side settings panel
      • Include table in bundle.
      • Date language. Apply language in the below format.
      • Date format (date, month, year).
        • Combine numbers D, DD, M, MM,  YY, YYYY and text MMM, MMMM, with ‘space and ./-‘.
        • E.g. YY-MM-DD (23-12-31), DD.MMM.YYYY (31.Dec.2023), MMMM D. YYYY (December 31. 2023).
      • Document date update tool. Update all the documents date with their creation date, modified date, file date, or extract from document name.
  • Pages.
    • Consecutive page numbers for the whole bundle with options (starting position, duplex layout, placement).
    • Watermark text with options (color, size).
  • Font (typeface).
  • Annotations.
    • Filter by annotation colors.
    • Include comments in inserts.
    • Markup graphical options (show highlights, margin lines/brackets, margin left/right/duplex side and margin markup color).
  • Bundle properties info (number of documents, pages, sections, annotations, and file size).

Annotation Report

The onscreen Annotation List can be exported as a PDF Report file in the toolbar’s Main Menu ().

The report layout can be configured in the User Settings .

Keyboard Shortcuts

On devices with keyboards you can use keyboard shortcuts to speed up using features in Visiodocs.

On Apple devices use the Options key (⌥) instead of the Alt key, and the Command key (⌘) instead of the Ctrl key. On Windows keyboards, the AltGr key can be used instead of the Alt key.

The letters in the shortcuts refer to key positions on US QWERTY keyboard layout, i.e. some letters will differ on e.g. French keyboards.

 

Document List   
  Function Key
  Document List Alt(⌥) + F
  Document select  
     Prev. Shift + ←
     Next Shift + →
     First Shift + Home
     Last Shift + End
Document Workspace    
  Function Key
  Page switch  
     Prev. Page Up
     Next Page Down
     First Home
     Last End
  Panning view ←, ↑, →, ↓
  Zoom  
     In "+"
     Out "-"
     In/out Ctrl(⌘) + Mouse wheel
(Touchscreen pinch)
  Annotation tool, on/off Alt(⌥) + A
  Page layouts Alt(⌥) + L
  Zoom modes Alt(⌥) + Z
  Orientation  
     Right Alt(⌥) + O
     Left Alt(⌥) + Shift + O
  Document Split  
     Split mark on/off Alt(⌥) + M
     Split document Alt(⌥) + N
  Search  Alt(⌥) + S
     
Annotation List  
  Function Key
  Annotation List download Alt(⌥) + R
  Annotation select  
     Prev. Shift + ↑
     Next Shift + ↓
     
More   
  Function Key
  Project List Alt(⌥) + P
  Color theme  
     Next Alt(⌥) + T
     Prev. Alt(⌥) + Shift + T
  Reference guide Alt(⌥) + U