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Getting started

This module gets you from opening DocuFlow for the first time to finding the right tool for a file. It is for anyone in your organisation who needs to work with a document — no training required.

Everything here applies to the web app; where the desktop app works differently, this module says so and points you to Desktop app for the rest.

Before you start​

On the web, you need your organisation's usual account — the one your IT department or administrator set up for you. Nothing else: no separate DocuFlow password, no sign-up form. The desktop app does not need an account at all to start working; signing in there only adds syncing (see Desktop app).

You don't need a particular kind of file to get started. DocuFlow recognises PDFs, images and several other document kinds; whatever you drop or pick, it either opens straight into the right place or shows you the tools built for it.

Finding your way around​

Once you're in, the sidebar on the left has three links: Tools (the page this module covers), Editor (where PDF and image work actually happens once a file is open) and File Library (files you've uploaded or that others have shared with you — see Files). Your account menu, in the top right, has Your activity (see Activity) and, if you administer DocuFlow for your organisation, an Admin link.

You won't usually open Editor directly from the sidebar — it's normally reached by opening a tool or dropping a file, which lands you there already set up for what you asked for. The link exists mainly so you can get back to it if you've navigated away.

What happens to your files​

Three short promises sit at the bottom of the Tools page:

  • Private by default — "Files are checked on your device before anything is uploaded."
  • Fast and focused — "Make your changes on screen and see progress while your files are processed."
  • Ready for work — "Dependable tools for everyday documents."

In practice this means: DocuFlow looks at your file on your own device first, and only sends it onward when a tool needs to do the actual work. That work — converting, compressing, watermarking, and so on — is done by your organisation's own document-processing engine, not by an outside company's servers. Some tools (marked as such where they matter, for example on the desktop app when you're offline) can do their work entirely on your device without sending the file anywhere. See Desktop app for exactly which tools those are.

The sidebar carries the same point in its own words, under the heading "Your files stay private": "Files are only uploaded when you process them or save them to your library." Nothing you drop onto the Tools page leaves your device just for being dropped — it's only sent onward once you actually run a tool on it, or choose to save it to your library.

The desktop app, briefly​

If you're using the desktop app rather than a browser, two things are different from what's described above: you can open the app and start working on the Tools page without signing in at all, and several tools keep working even with no internet connection. Signing in there only adds syncing your work to your account — it is never required to use a tool. The full details, including which tools work offline and how your offline work reaches your account, are in Desktop app.

Tips​

  • You don't need to know which tool you want before you drop a file — DocuFlow works that out from the file itself.
  • Dropping a PDF or a supported image always jumps straight to the editor; anything else always shows you a choice of tools first, so you can pick the right one.
  • The "Pick up where you left off" row is a shortcut back to a tool you've already used — it's empty until you've used one, then saves you a search the second time.
  • On the web you must be signed in to reach the Tools page at all; on desktop the page opens whether or not you've signed in.
  • Signing out on desktop is more than logging out of the website — it also clears the app's memory of your offline work for that account, so only sign out there once anything queued has finished syncing (see Desktop app).
  • If you drop several files at once and DocuFlow can't find one tool that handles all of them together, try them one at a time instead — most tools are built around a single file or a single kind of file.