Upload Produced PDFs without a Load File

If your processed data set consists only of PDFs and doesn't include a load file, you can upload these documents to Everlaw using the PDFs without a load file option in the processed data uploader. This allows you to retain Bates numbering (if present) of your documents, even without a load file.  

This article covers how your data should be formatted for a smooth upload, and offers step-by-step instructions for how to load the data onto Everlaw using the PDFs without a load file tool.

To learn how to upload document sets with a load file, check out this article on loading processed data with a load file.

Permissions

To upload data to Everlaw, you must have Database upload permissions and/or Organization Administrator permissions.
Note: This functionality is also available to all Storybuilder by Everlaw users.

Standard format for PDFs without a load file 

Before you upload your PDFs to Everlaw, we recommend that you review Everlaw’s standard format for PDF file and folder organization:

• Files can be loose or in an unzipped folder
  • If you have more than 50 loose PDFs, they must be stored in a folder
  • If your files are organized in a folder structure of nested folders, that folder structure is retained on Everlaw as the document's file path. Note that none of the folders can be compressed/zipped.
• All documents must be PDFs. If you include a file that is not a PDF in your upload, you will receive an error report at the end of the upload notifying you of any non-PDF documents that were not uploaded.
• PDFs and folders containing PDFs cannot be encrypted or password-protected
• The maximum number of PDFs in a single upload is 5,000
• The maximum file size for a single PDF is 2GB

File naming and Bates numbers

Everlaw detects a processed PDF's Bates number from its filename, though the uploader is able to upload these documents whether their filenames contain a Bates number or not. This section describes some common naming conventions and how they are handled on Everlaw, as well as some naming conventions that can require additional steps to prepare for upload.

The following naming conventions do not typically require additional manipulation to upload to Everlaw:

• Filename is the Bates number
  If the document is named after its Bates number, the uploader detects the Bates number from its filename, and the document is assigned that Bates number when it is uploaded to Everlaw. This is considered the standard format for processed PDFs without a load file.
  

  

• Filename includes the Bates number and additional text
  Extraneous text included in the filename, or a filename that includes a document's entire Bates range, is typically ok. The uploader is able to identify the Begin Bates from the string of text and and assigns it to the document on Everlaw. The original, complete filename is preserved in the document's "Filename" metadata field.
  

  

• Filename does not include a Bates number
  If there is no Bates number detected in the filename, the document is assigned the default Everlaw Bates prefix EVER, followed by the next available number in the database. The original filename is preserved in the document's "Filename" metadata field.
  

  
  

• Filename is a number with no Bates prefix
  You can upload PDFs with filenames that are just a number. On Everlaw these documents will have a Bates number without a prefix. In the Bates numbering step of the upload, you will need to confirm that your documents do not have a prefix. Otherwise, Everlaw will assign the EVER prefix.
  

You may be working with PDFs that do not fall within the file naming conventions listed above. The bullet points below describe potential scenarios and possible next steps:

• The Bates number in the filename does not match the Bates stamp on the PDF
  In this case, the Bates stamp on the image will not match the Begin Bates on Everlaw. On Everlaw, documents are identified with the Bates number from the filename.
  

  
  

  Next step: This scenario may be caught during the upload through an overlap error. When possible, rename the document to match its intended Bates number.
• The filename contains Bates numbers with suffixes (e.g. ABC001.01 and ABC002.01)
   This document cannot be uploaded using the PDFs without a load file option. However, these documents can be uploaded using a load file.
  Next step: You will need to generate a load file. To learn more about uploading processed documents with a load file, visit Upload Processed Data with a Load File. 
  
• The filename has extraneous text or suffixes to differentiate Bates numbers
  For example, ABC001.PDF, ABC001.001, ABC001_A.PDF and ABC001_CONFIDENTIAL.PDF will all be recognized as ABC001.
  Next step: To upload these PDFs, you must rename them using unique Bates numbers.
• The filename uses the “#” prefix
  The “#” prefix is reserved for natively uploaded documents.  If you attempt to upload processed PDFs with this “#” prefix, Everlaw will reassign the prefix of these files to the default EVER prefix.
  Next step: If  you do not want the EVER prefix, you can modify the “# ( e.g. change “#” to "#_") at the prefix step of the upload.
  

  Important

  If your PDF contains a Bates number with the “#” prefix, you should confirm whether this document set is an overlay of existing documents or not. If this upload is an overlay, follow the steps for performing an overlay with a load file.

If your file’s filename format is not covered in this article, and you want to how your files will be assigned Bates numbers on Everlaw, please contact support@everlaw.com

Metadata for PDFs of emails

When PDFs of emails are uploaded without a load file, Everlaw can extract email metadata from the text of the document. The To, From, Bcc, Cc, Subject, and Date Sent metadata are extracted from the text of the PDF and populated into the relevant metadata fields. You can search for this information just like any other metadata. 

This setting is toggled on by default, meaning that Everlaw will extract any metadata that it can.

To edit this setting:

1. Select Project Management > Project Settings.
2. Select Metadata.
3. In the Database metadata settings > Email metadata extraction from text section, switch the Display text-extracted metadata toggle on or off,
   

If this setting is toggled on and PDFs of emails that you upload do not have standard email metadata extracted and viewable on Everlaw, please contact support@everlaw.com. 

Upload processed PDFs without a load file

Step 1: Go to the upload page

When you're ready to begin your processed upload, you can navigate to the uploader. To do this:

1. Go to Data Transfer > Uploads.
   
   This opens the Start a new upload page.
2. Select Processed.
   
3. Select PDFs without a load file.
   
   
4. Select Start upload.
5. Select Browse to choose the files or folders, or drag and drop your data.  
   This creates an upload card with information about your upload in the In Progress tab. The card stays in this tab as you move through the upload steps. When the upload is complete, the card moves into the Complete tab.
   • The upload card saves your upload if you need to pause and resume at a later time. You can resume a paused upload by selecting the upload card when you return to it.
6. [Organization Administrators only]: For Authorized by, select the person authorizing the upload.
   This can be used as an audit trail to see who has provided and/or approved the upload For Visibility, select the visibility configuration you prefer:
   Visible: Upload is visible on the homepage. 
   Hidden: Upload is not visible on the homepage.
   Merge: Merge the new upload with an existing upload.
   

Step 2: Bates numbering

At this step, Everlaw detects the Bates prefixes from your document's filenames. Here, you can confirm that it has detected them correctly, or you can edit them.

A table shows a preview of the detected and assigned prefixes your documents will be assigned on Everlaw, as well as the number of documents with each prefix and sample filenames.

 Any Bates prefixes that don’t already exist in your database are marked with a preceding (!). You will be asked to confirm the addition of these prefixes in a dialog box when you proceed to the next step of the upload.  

If the prefixes have been detected correctly, you can select Next to move on. If you need to modify prefixes, follow the steps below.

To edit prefixes:

1. Select Edit prefixes.
   This opens a dialog where you can enter the expected Bates prefixes.
2. Enter the prefixes, one per line, in the Bates prefixes field. 
3. If your documents have numbers but not prefixes, select Allow Bates with empty prefix.
4. Select Reanalyze.
   Any prefixes you add are prioritized over Everlaw detected ones.

Check the prefixes in the table. If they are correct, select Next.
If the uploader is having trouble detecting your Bates prefix(es), reach out to support@everlaw.com.

Overlapping Bates

By default, Everlaw does not upload documents that overlap any other Bates range in your upload or in your database, unless the Overlapping Bates setting (located on the Database Settings page within the General tab) is enabled. 

For example, if a folder contains ABC001.pdf (2 pages) and ABC002.pdf, ABC002 cannot be uploaded because the processed uploader reserves Bates numbers ABC001 and ABC002 for ABC001.pdf. To upload ABC002.pdf, you need to either rename the file so it no longer has an overlapping Bates range or enable the Overlapping Bates setting for the database. To learn more about overlapping Bates, visit Database Administration and Permissions.

Step 3: Additional Options

This step allows you to apply work product (e.g. ratings, codes, binders, notes, etc.) and custom metadata values to documents in your upload. For more information about how to apply work product, visit Applying Custom Values and Work Product During Upload. Here are some considerations to be aware of: 

• If you initiate a processed upload from the Org Admin page, you will not see this step
• If you choose to apply custom metadata values for fields that get extracted from the text  during upload, the value you enter will overwrite the extracted values

When you are done, select Next. Otherwise, select Reconfigure Bates prefixes to return to the previous step.

Step 4: Projects

In this step, you can choose to upload documents into the projects you have access to. If you only have one project, you are not taken to the Projects page and you go straight to the Summary page.

To add the documents in your upload into additional projects:

1. Select the checkbox next to the project name.
2. Select Next.

 When you add documents to multiple projects:

• Documents are always added to all complete projects within the database
• Documents are always added to the project from which you have accessed the uploader
• There are no billing implications for adding data to multiple projects within the database

Step 5: Summary

This page is a summary of selections you have made so far. It includes:

• The name of the upload folder
• The Bates prefixes of the documents being uploaded
•  File details such as count and size of files
• The project(s) the data is being added to
• Custom metadata fields and work product

If you are happy with the summary, select Upload. Otherwise, select Reconfigure work product to go back. 

Once you select Upload, Everlaw starts uploading your documents.

Your completed upload 

Once you start an upload, Everlaw:

• Uploads the documents to make them accessible for review
• Extracts text so it is searchable
• Generates a load file that you can download from the Upload card
• [For PDFs of emails] Extracts metadata and populates the relevant metadata fields

If you are uploading PDFs that do not have embedded text:

• Everlaw applies Object Character Recognition (OCR) to these documents upon upload to generate a text file and extract any present metadata
• Everlaw does not generate a PDF with embedded text from these documents.
  Hit highlights and other text-based tools in the review window do not work on the image view of these documents.
  Database Admins, users with Database Upload permissions, and Organization Administrators can reprocess documents from the results table to embed this text in their images. To learn more about reprocessing Non-Everlaw processed documents, check out this article on reprocessing.

Upload card summary

Once the upload has completed, the upload card moves from the In Progress tab to the Complete tab of the Processed Data Uploads page.

You can do several things from the upload card:

• To open a results table of the documents, select the number on the upload card
  Note: the number of documents displayed on the upload card reflects the number of documents from this upload currently in the project, not the total number of documents that was first uploaded. If you delete documents from the upload, the number will be updated accordingly. 
• To see a summary report of your upload, select View results 
  • Organization Administrators can add a link to a file transfer card from here. See the section Associate upload with source card for more information.
• Select the three-dot menu for additional information and functionality:
  • View configuration is a summary of the choices you made during the upload process
  • Download generated load files downloads the load file(s) created by Everlaw during upload to configure this upload
  • Download error report, if present, downloads a summary/explanation of any errors that occurred during the upload
  • Delete upload and its documents deletes the documents and the upload card
    Note: Deleting the upload will remove the documents from the database and all its associated projects, not just delete the uploads table entry. Deleting a mixed upload will only delete the new documents that were created by that upload. Modifications to documents will remain.
• To rename the upload, first select the existing upload name. Then type in the text box to edit it. 
  
  

[Organization Admins] Associate upload with source card

When users transfer zip files of processed documents to the platform via the File Transfers page, a file transfer card is created for the source. After an Organization Administrator has completed the upload of these transferred files, they can associate processed data cards with their original file transfer source(s). 

To do this:

1. Go to Processed Data Uploads > Complete tab.
2. From the completed upload card, select View results.
3. Select Add a link.
   
   
4. Select the file transfer source(s) from the dropdown.
5. Select Save.

6. Uploads associated with their file transfer source are automatically marked as complete on the file transfer card. Additionally, the card will have a document button linking users to the uploaded documents.