Managing Documents
Uploading Documents
Section titled “Uploading Documents”Thea supports uploading various document formats to extract chronological information and build timelines.
Supported Formats
Section titled “Supported Formats”- PDF (.pdf) - Including scanned documents with OCR text
- Microsoft Word (.docx) - Modern Word documents
- Plain Text (.txt) - Simple text files
How to Upload
Section titled “How to Upload”- Navigate to your project
- Click the Documents tab
- Click Upload Documents or drag and drop files into the upload area
- Select one or more documents from your computer
- Wait for the upload to complete
You can upload multiple documents at once. Drag-and-drop works for batch uploads.
Document Processing
Section titled “Document Processing”After uploading, Thea automatically processes each document through several stages:
1. Text Extraction
Section titled “1. Text Extraction”- Extracts all readable text from the document
- Preserves structure (paragraphs, headings) where possible
- Handles multi-column layouts in PDFs
2. Intelligent Analysis
Section titled “2. Intelligent Analysis”- Identifies chronological content (dates, events, sequences)
- Detects mentioned parties and organizations
- Recognizes legal terminology and document types
- Creates searchable representations (embeddings) for smart retrieval
3. Availability
Section titled “3. Availability”Once processing completes, the document content becomes available for:
- Timeline suggestions: Thea can propose timeline structures based on document patterns
- Event extraction: Pull chronological events directly into timelines
- Conversational creation: Reference document content when building timelines through chat
- Source citations: Link events back to source documents for verification
Processing time: Typically 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on document length and complexity.
Viewing Your Documents
Section titled “Viewing Your Documents”The document list shows all files in your project:
- Filename: Original document name
- Upload Date: When added to the project
- Status Indicator:
- Processing: Document is being analyzed
- Completed: Ready for use
- Failed: Processing encountered an error
- Actions: Download, view, or delete
Click on a document name to preview its content (if supported).
Document Organization
Section titled “Document Organization”Projects as Containers
Section titled “Projects as Containers”Documents are organized within projects (folders):
- Each project contains its own set of documents
- Timeline suggestions are specific to that project’s documents
- Keeps different cases separate
Best Practices for Organization
Section titled “Best Practices for Organization”- One project per case: Keep documents for each case in separate projects
- Descriptive filenames: Name files clearly before uploading (e.g., “Complaint_2024-03-15.pdf”)
- Upload in batches: Add all related documents at once so Thea can see the full context
- Check for duplicates: Avoid uploading the same document multiple times
Document Features
Section titled “Document Features”Viewing and Downloading
Section titled “Viewing and Downloading”- Click a document name to open a preview (PDF viewer or text preview)
- Use the Download button to save a copy locally
- Preview shows the processed text for verification
Deleting Documents
Section titled “Deleting Documents”To remove a document from your project:
- Click the delete icon next to the document
- Confirm the deletion
Warning: Deleting a document:
- Removes it from the project permanently
- Removes any timeline suggestions based on that document
- Does NOT delete events already created from that document (events remain but lose source citations)
Source Citations
Section titled “Source Citations”Documents remain linked to extracted events:
- Events show which document they came from
- Click Show Source in an event to see the original text
- Useful for verification and court citations
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”Document Won’t Upload
Section titled “Document Won’t Upload”Possible causes:
- File format not supported (only PDF, DOCX, TXT)
- File is corrupted or damaged
- File size is too large (typically 50MB limit)
- Network connection interrupted
Solutions:
- Verify file format and try converting if needed
- Try uploading a smaller test file first
- Check your internet connection
Processing Failed
Section titled “Processing Failed”Common reasons:
- Password-protected or encrypted PDF: Remove password protection before uploading
- Scanned image-only PDF without OCR text: Requires OCR preprocessing
- Corrupted file: Try opening the file locally to verify it’s not damaged
- Unsupported character encoding: Some legacy text files may have encoding issues
What to do:
- Check the file can be opened normally on your computer
- For image PDFs, use OCR software to create a searchable PDF first
- Try re-saving the document in a standard format
- Contact support if issues persist
Processing is Taking Too Long
Section titled “Processing is Taking Too Long”- Documents over 100 pages may take 3-5 minutes
- Complex PDFs with many images process slower
- Check the status—if it’s stuck for more than 10 minutes, try deleting and re-uploading
- Page refresh does not interrupt processing
Privacy and Security
Section titled “Privacy and Security”- Documents are securely stored and encrypted
- Only you can access documents in your projects
- Text extraction happens securely in the cloud
- Documents can be permanently deleted at any time from project settings
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”- Creating Timelines - Use your documents to build timelines
- Working with Events - Extract events from processed documents
- Projects - Learn more about organizing documents and timelines