Unitization Tool

Everlaw’s unitization tool allows you to break a compound file into separate documents.  For example, you can take a 1000-page, scanned pdf and unitize it into 30 separate documents.  This is useful if you happen to receive large, disorganized productions and need to break apart documents into more manageable and logical units.

Table of Contents

• Required permissions
• Manage user group unitization permissions
• Unitize a document
• Batch unitize documents
• Manage unitized documents
• Undo unitization

Required permissions

• To use the unitization tool, you must be a Project Admin or be a member of a user group with Unitization permissions assigned. Permissions are assigned by Project Admins.
• All members of the project can see the resulting unitized documents

Manage user group unitization permissions

Required permissions: Project Admin

To edit a user group Unitization permissions:

1. Go to Project Management > Project Settings.
2. Open the Permissions tab.
3. Select a user group from the user group list. 
4. In the list of Review permissions, select (or deselect) Unitization.

Unitize a document

Required permissions: Project Admin or Unitization permissions

Once unitization is turned on, you can go to your search results and select a multiple-page document that you wish to split. If you have Unitization permissions, the unitization tool will be turned on in the context panel of the review window (indicated by the unitization button). You can toggle the unitization tool on and off by pressing "u" on your keyboard, making the unitization button appear or disappear in the context panel.

You can unitize documents by bookmarks, specific page numbers, page intervals, and scroll-to-select. 

To unitize a document from the review window: 

1. Open the document you want to unitize in the review window.
2. Select the unitization button from the review window’s context panel.
   
   Everlaw automatically detects top-level bookmarks and lists the pages on which they appear in the unitization panel. Everlaw can detect these bookmarks if the PDF was uploaded natively, or if itis a native file included in a processed upload with a load file.
3. [Optional if PDF breakpoints exist] To add the bookmark break points to the panel, select Create breakpoints.
4. [Optional] If you would like to add additional breakpoints, if the document has no bookmarks, or if you would prefer to split the document manually, you can choose one of the other options from the Split by dropdown:
   • Custom selection: Allows you to scroll through the document and select the page at which you want to split the document. Each selected page will add a breakpoint to the list. You can also press "shift+u" on your keyboard to set the breakpoint.
     

     Note

     Custom break points can only be set from the PDF (or Image) view, or from the Text view if the image and text files share the same pagination. This means the sequence of words on one page of the image file matches the sequence on the same page of the text file, which is indicated by a link between the PDF (or Image) and Text view buttons.

     

   • Manual input: Allows users to type in individual page numbers, separated by commas
   • Number of pages: Allows you to split the document every N pages
      
   
   

   Note

   Breakpoints are not deleted if users select a different unitization option from the dropdown, so users can use multiple selection options to add breakpoints. This means that users can choose to split a document every N pages, at bookmarks, and at any other pages selected by scrolling or manual input. To remove a breakpoint, click the remove button to the right of the breakpoint in the panel. To clear all your breakpoints select  Start over. 

5. Once the break points have been created, select Unitize.
   This opens the Confirm unitization dialog.
   

5. You will be asked to determine two final configurations:
   • Copy the metadata: The metadata of the original document will be applied to the new, unitized documents. Please note that hash type metadata fields, such as SHA1 or MD5 Hash, will never be applied to resulting documents.
   • Transfer Bates range to the new documents (available for documents with an existing Bates stamp): If selected, the original Bates range will be applied to the new, unitized documents.  Your original document will be assigned a new ID number, EVERSPLIT.  If the checkbox is unselected, then your new documents will receive the EVERSPLIT number. In either case, EVERSPLIT documents are searchable using the Bates search term. Note that if your documents were processed on Everlaw, you cannot transfer the Bates number to unitized documents.
6. Click Unitize.

Here is some additional information about unitizing:

• If the image and text files share the same pagination, the text file will be unitized along with the image file when the document is unitized. If not, the resulting unitized documents will not have accompanying text files.
• Break points can only be added from the Image (PDF) and Text view; they cannot be added from the Native view.
• Documents created by unitization (those with an EVERSPLIT prefix) do not have a native file. The Native view is still accessible in the original document (if it was present originally).
• Documents over 2 GB cannot be unitized in Everlaw. If you need to split a document that is over 2 GB, please split the document outside of Everlaw and upload it as two or more documents for further unitization in Everlaw. If the size limitation is a regular issue for you, please contact support@everlaw.com.
• You can check the status of the unitization by looking at the progress bar on the context panel.  You can also check the home page, under “Batches and Exports," where a new task card will be created. The original document will not be deleted or modified in your database. If the image and text files are linked (ie. the text on each page corresponds between the two formats), the unitized documents will also have correctly unitized text files.
• Unitizing creates new documents on your database, while leaving the original document intact. This adds data to your database and increases the billable size.

Batch unitize documents

Required permissions: Project Admin or Unitization permissions

You can also batch unitize documents from the results table. To do this: 

1. Select the documents you want to unitize.
2. Select Batch > Unitize.
   
   This opens the Batch unitize dialog.
3. For Create breakpoints at, select whether you want to unitize by bookmarks and/or every N pages.
   
4. Select Next.
5. For Metadata options, you can choose whether you want to copy the metadata and transfer the Bates range to the new documents.
   
6. Click Next
7. Click Unitize.

If some documents fail the unitization process — because they have already been unitized, because the document is not long enough to unitize, or for any other reason — all other documents in the batch will still be unitized. You will see a task card on the homepage displaying the results of the unitization. To see which documents were not unitized and why, click See details.

Manage unitized documents

Unitized documents are given the 'EVERSPLIT' prefix. You can search for documents with this prefix using the Bates search term.

If you chose to transfer the Bates range from your original document, then you can search for unitized documents with the Bates prefix you transferred.

You can also see the original document, and its unitized documents, in the review window’s context panel. You can navigate between these documents, just like you would between email threads or duplicates.

Undo unitization

Undoing a previous unitization will remove the unitized documents and discard any review work (ratings, redactions, highlights, codes, etc.) on unitized documents. In addition, only the user who has unitized a document can undo unitization.

To undo unitization for an individual document:

1. Select the Undo button at the bottom of the context panel in the original document's review window.
2. Select Confirm. 

The original breakpoints will be saved. This allows you to easily undo an existing unitization and make changes to your breakpoint settings without having to completely redo your original work.

To undo batch unitization, select the undo arrow on the task card.

The undo action will generate a new task card on the homepage and, when completed, will return all the documents to their former state. However, if any of the documents in the batch unitization have had edits made to their unitization after the batch unitization, those documents will not be affected by the undo action. These documents will also be listed in the See details section of the new task card.