Documents
The document detail view
What you see when you open a document from the library, the actions on each row, and how to change who can see a document.
Opening a document
Click anywhere on a document row in the library, or press Enter when it is selected. The document opens in a panel over the library.
Close it with the Close button or the Escape key. There is no X in the corner.
What the panel shows
At the top: the file name, the file Size, the document Type as a coloured chip, and the Linked entity, meaning the company the document belongs to, with its RCS number.
Underneath, the document itself.
- Word files render properly, with their fonts, tables and page layout.
- PDFs render page by page, laid out like paper.
- Spreadsheets open in a basic viewer.
Spreadsheets preview poorly. You get the values as a plain table, without formatting, formulas or usable sheet tabs. For anything you need to read carefully, download the file and open it in Excel.
Other messages you may see in the panel:
- "Still working, large document detected" while a big file loads. Give it a moment.
- "We couldn't render this document. Try refreshing the page." if the display fails.
- "Preview not available for this file type", with a link to download it instead.
- A message telling you that you do not have permission to preview the document. Ask your administrator for access.
Buttons in the panel
- Edit in Spyral appears for Word files only, and opens the editor. See Editing a document with AI.
- Open in new tab opens the raw file in a browser tab.
- Download saves the file under its original name.
- Close.
The actions on a document row
Hover a row in the library and a set of icons appears on the right.
- Star. Marks the document in your own browser only. See Finding a document.
- Pencil. Opens the editor. It only appears on Word files.
- Eye. Opens the raw file in a new browser tab.
- Down arrow. Downloads the file.
- Circular arrow. Rescans the document, running the whole analysis again.
- Shield. Manage access. See below.
- Red bin. Deletes the document.
The eye icon and clicking the row do different things. Clicking the row opens Spyral's own viewer, with the type, the company and the Edit button. The eye icon dumps the raw file into a new browser tab, where you get your browser's PDF viewer or, for a Word file, a download.
When you want to see what Spyral knows about a document, click the row.
These icons only appear when you hover the row with a mouse. On a tablet they are hard to reach.
What the row itself tells you
Reading left to right you get a selection box, the file name, then any of the following:
- A Sample badge if the document is one of the specimens Spyral seeded your workspace with.
- A visibility icon. Blue people means the document is limited to a project, an amber padlock means it is limited to named people. Documents everyone can see show nothing.
- A status label of Pending, Processing or Failed. A finished document shows no status label at all, which is the normal state.
- The document type chip.
- Up to three company chips, plus a count if there are more.
Underneath: the file size and when it was added.
Changing who can see a document
The shield icon opens Manage Access. It shows who owns the document and who currently has access, and lets you set one of four levels:
- Global. Everyone in the firm.
- Project. Everyone who is a member of the project you choose.
- Restricted. Only the people you tick.
- Role. Everyone holding a particular role.
To change several documents at once, tick their boxes in the library and use Manage Access in the header. This is the only bulk action. There is no bulk delete, bulk download or bulk rescan.
The shield only appears on documents you uploaded yourself. Even a manager who is allowed to change access on anything will not see the icon on a colleague's document.
To change access on someone else's document, ask them to do it, or contact us.
Deleting a document
The red bin asks you to confirm, then removes the document.
Deleting is permanent and immediate. There is no trash, no undo and no recovery. The file, everything Spyral learned from it, and the full edit history of a Word document all go at the same time.
The person who uploaded a document can always delete it. Others need permission to do so. Deletions are recorded in your firm's activity log.
What you cannot do from here
- You cannot correct the document type or the company link. See How Spyral classifies documents.
- You cannot add or remove labels.
- You cannot export the list, or download several documents at once. Downloads are one file at a time.
- You cannot share a document outside your firm. There are no public links and no email sending. Sharing in Spyral means giving colleagues access.