Help · Documents

Documents and sharing

A document is a finished PDF. It is kept in Documents to download again, and it can be shared with a link that works without an account.

Making documents

Press Make the document in the designer. BroadPaper saves the design first, so the file matches what is on your screen, then produces the PDF and downloads it. Every document is also kept, and Documents lists the 200 most recently made, where each can be downloaded again at any time — it stays downloadable whatever your plan does next.

A design split into several documents asks what you want before it makes anything:

• [The number of documents] separate files — one per document, each named after it. This is what you send, and each one counts against your month.
• All in one file — every document in a single PDF, for printing or filing. It counts once, and each document keeps its own page numbers.
• Just “[the document on screen]” — only the document you are looking at.

Very long documents

One file holds at most 250 pages, on either plan. A document that would run longer — a table of thousands of rows, say — is produced as several files of up to 250 pages each, and they are all in Documents. Your plan's rows in one set of data are about what you can keep; this is about how much goes into one PDF.

When several files are made, the first downloads and the rest are in Documents, named “part 1 of 3” and so on. Each page still carries its number in the whole document. A document split this way counts once against the month, however many files it comes out as. A very long document takes minutes rather than seconds, and the page you pressed the button on says how many files are coming as soon as BroadPaper knows. If a document could not be produced, its row in Documents says why, with a link back to the design.

On the Free plan, every page carries a small BroadPaper line along its foot. Nothing else about the document is different.

The monthly count

Your plan includes a number of documents a month, and every PDF produced counts once: separate files count one each, and all-in-one counts once. The count resets on the first of the month, and upgrading raises it straight away.

Deleting a document does not give it back. The count is of documents produced, not documents kept, so clearing out Documents will not make room this month. When the month's documents are used, the designer says so and its button is switched off until the count resets or the plan changes.

Share links

In Documents, press Share on a document that is ready. BroadPaper creates a link to that PDF which anyone can open, view and download, without an account.

The link is to the file that was produced, not to the design. If you change the design afterwards, the link still shows the document as it was made. To share a changed version, make the document again and share the new one.

• A document can have several links — one per person you send it to, say — and each has its own settings and its own record of views.
• Each link can be labelled with who it is for, so you can tell them apart later.
• An expiry and a password are both optional, and both can be changed while the link is working.

Expiry

A link can last for ever, for 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days, or until a date you choose. After that, anyone opening it is told This link has expired. An expired link offers Give it a new expiry — including Never stops working — and once that is saved the same link works again, so there is nothing new to send.

A link you stopped is different: it cannot be given a new expiry or started again, and only offers Delete link. To share the document again, make a new link.

Passwords

A link can require a password of at least 6 characters. Send the password separately from the link — a text message for a link sent by email — so that a forwarded email does not carry both.

Wrong passwords are limited: after several wrong attempts in a short time, the link makes the person wait before trying again, which is what stops a password being guessed. Every wrong password is recorded on the link, except attempts made while the link is already making that person wait.

If somebody cannot open a link you sent, check in order:

1. whether the link has expired, or was stopped;
2. whether it needs a password, and they have the right one — you can set a new password on the link;
3. whether they have the whole link, since some email programs break a long address across two lines.

Who has looked

Each link shows:

• how many times it has been viewed, and how many times the PDF has been downloaded;
• how many distinct visitors there have been;
• when it was last opened;
• how many wrong-password attempts there have been;
• its recent activity.

Distinct visitors are counted from a one-way hash of the visitor's network address and browser. The address itself is not stored with the link, and the hash cannot be turned back into it; it is only good for telling one visitor from another. A person opening the link on a phone and then on a laptop counts as two. BroadPaper's service logs are a separate record: they note the network address of each request with the address requested, including the link, and are kept for up to ninety days — see the privacy policy.

Stopping sharing

• Stop sharing makes the link stop working immediately and keeps its history. Anyone opening it is told it is no longer available.
• Delete link removes the link and its history together.

Stopping a link cannot take back a copy somebody has already downloaded. It stops the link, not the file they saved.

Deleting a shared document

Deleting a document that has links still working warns you first, because every one of them stops working at once and the people you sent them to will see that the document is no longer available. If you only want to stop one person's access, stop that link instead and keep the document.

Deleting a document removes the file, its links and their history. The design it came from is not affected, so you can make it again — which counts against your month.