Documents — CogniVenue-Legal Help | LexiCogni Technologies

The Documents section is where you upload, open, rename, process, and review files. It is also where Canvas and PenPad files appear alongside legal documents.

For an open PDF or image, see Document View for reading, selection, page ink, bookmarks, tags, comments, annotation export, and PDF-with-ink export. That guide also identifies the annotation differences for text-preview documents.

For Open Canvas / Open PenPad, see the Canvas/PenPad guide, including creating files and page series, switching and renaming, and exporting artwork.

Screenshot placeholder: Documents section showing Upload Docs/Images, the document list, OCR status, and a selected file.

Upload documents

Open a Case.
Select Documents.
Under Upload Docs/Images, select Upload to Case.
Pick one or more supported files. Supported files are imported together; unsupported or unreadable selections are skipped and named in the upload summary.
Confirm overwrite if a document with the same name already exists.
Watch the center-pane document list for processing status.

Supported extensions are txt, text, md, markdown, rtf, odt, html, htm, eml, msg, ics, vcs, csv, docx, pdf, png, jpg, jpeg, tif, tiff, and webp. Recorder audio is created with Rec audio inside CogniVenue-Legal; it cannot be imported through Upload Docs/Images.

TXT/TEXT, Markdown, RTF, ODT, HTML/HTM, EML/MSG email files, ICS/VCS calendar files, CSV, and DOCX files open as text previews. They support text selection, document search after extraction, read-aloud where text is available, bookmarks, tags, comments, annotation summary export, and Copy to Canvas for selected text. They do not have a PDF/image page-ink surface.

After upload, CogniVenue-Legal copies the file into its managed local storage, assigns it an internal document ID, and queues background processing.

The upload button is disabled while importing. The notice beneath it explains the local working copy and background indexing; the result beneath that notice reports the uploaded file, overwrite, or error. Cancelling the system picker adds no file. See the center-pane upload guide for the controls and destination checks.

Upload to Global Library

Use Global Library upload when the document should be reusable across matters.

Select Global Lib. or a subhead in the left pane.
Check the destination in the center pane, then use Upload to Global Lib. or the button naming your subhead, such as Upload to Bare Acts.
Choose the files and monitor their processing status in that location’s Documents list.

The library root and each subhead have separate file lists. The upload destination follows the selected library location even if a Case’s Canvas/PenPad is still open in the right pane.

Examples:

Common statutes.
Frequently used judgments.
Research material.
Form templates.
Reference documents.

Use Case upload when the file belongs to one matter.

Document processing status

After upload, Processing appears in red after the document name in the center-pane document list while OCR or text extraction is running. When OCR finishes, Search Text becomes available and local AI Related suggestions can begin to appear.

The Related semantic processing continues in the background and can take longer than OCR. Its completion time depends on the length of the uploaded document and the number and size of documents across the app’s document collection.

The upload notice recommends keeping CogniVenue-Legal open in the foreground and, on a portable device, connected to power for 30 minutes to 1 hour for large libraries. This is guidance rather than a completion guarantee: smaller jobs may finish sooner, and large documents or collections may need longer. You can continue working while this processing runs.

A document may move through these stages:

Saved locally.
OCR or text extraction queued.
OCR or text extraction running.
Search index and semantic index queued.
Ready for document search, source links, and local AI analysis.
Failed, if the file could not be processed.

If Processing remains visible, or if Search Text or Related results are not yet available, the relevant background work may still be running. Text search and local AI suggestions can be incomplete until their processing stages finish. For structured text files such as Markdown, HTML, RTF, ODT, EML/MSG email, ICS/VCS calendar, and CSV, the app extracts readable text into the search/index pipeline while preserving the original imported file as the local source document.

Documents list

The center-pane document list combines uploaded documents/images, recordings, and Canvas/PenPad files in the selected Case, Global Library root, or Global Library subhead. It is ordered newest first by document import time or Canvas/PenPad update time.

Click or tap the name/row to highlight a file for Rename. To open it, use the right-hand action icon: Open document, Open Canvas, Open PenPad, or Play audio. The left-hand file-type icon only identifies the file kind. Row selection and opening are separate actions here; the left-pane document browser opens a document directly when you select its name.

The file list scrolls independently of the outer overview containing the Case tiles and upload area. See Center-pane file browsing for scrolling, file subtitles, empty-list messages, and status labels.

When no document occupies the center pane, selecting a document from the left pane opens it there. While the center document remains open, selecting other documents opens or replaces the document in the right pane. This supports continuous review against one center-pane reference document. Opening a Canvas/PenPad from the list makes it the receiving workspace until another Canvas/PenPad is explicitly opened.

Common actions:

Open a document.
Rename the selected file.
Check OCR status.
Open a Canvas/PenPad file.
Remove files through Delete Items.

Rename a file

Click or tap the file’s name/row in the center-pane Documents list to highlight it; do not use its Open/Play action.
Select Rename above the list. It is disabled until a file is selected.
Edit File name, Audio name, Canvas name, or PenPad name, depending on the item.
Select Rename to save, or Cancel to discard changes. A Renamed to … message confirms success.

For documents/images, the existing extension is preserved. For example, renaming scan.pdf to Witness statement produces Witness statement.pdf; entering a different extension does not convert the file. The document’s stored identity and location remain unchanged. The rename changes its name in the app, not the original file selected from external storage.

Audio uses a display name. Canvas/PenPad renames reject an existing name of the same kind and report the conflict. Empty names or an unchanged name do not perform a rename. Long names shortened in the list can be read in this dialog; choose Cancel if you only wanted to inspect the full name.

Renaming helps when the original file names are scans, downloads, or unclear exports.

Document already exists

If a document with the same name already exists in the destination, Document Already Exists offers Overwrite Existing Doc or Cancel Upload. Cancel keeps the existing file unchanged.

Choose overwrite only when you are sure the new file should replace the old one. Overwriting queues OCR and indexing again.

Record audio

Audio recordings are created inside CogniVenue-Legal with Rec audio; recorder audio cannot be added with the document upload action.

Find the microphone button at the top of the left pane; its tooltip is Record audio. During recording it changes to a stop icon with a pulsing red halo, and its tooltip shows the elapsed recording time. A busy indicator briefly replaces the icon while recording starts or stops.

Select Rec audio.
Review the Record Audio? confirmation dialog. It shows whether the recording will be stored under the active Case, Global Lib., or the active Global Library subhead.
Select Cancel to close the dialog without recording, or select Record to begin.
When finished, select Rec audio again to stop and save the recording.

Recording does not start until Record is selected. After it starts, you are responsible for selecting the same control again to stop it.

When a Case is active, the recording is stored under that Case.
When the Global Library root is active, the recording is stored under Global Lib.
When a Global Library subhead is active, the recording is stored under that subhead.
If no Case is available, the recording is saved under Global Lib. by default.

The destination is captured when recording starts. Switching to another Case or library location while recording does not move that recording; it is saved to its original destination. Stop recording before backup or restore.

Saved recordings appear in the same Documents list as other local files, using names such as recorded_audio_1. Select the audio item and use its play/open control to open the in-app audio player. The player can play, pause, stop, seek through the recording, close the player, and, on desktop platforms, open the audio file externally.

The underlying audio file is stored locally in the app’s recordings folder under Documents/CogniVenue-Legal/Recordings, while the Documents list entry records whether it belongs to a Case, Global Lib., or a Global Library subhead.

Screenshot placeholder: Record Audio confirmation dialog showing the active storage destination and Cancel and Record buttons.

Use recordings for dictation, conference notes, oral briefing notes, or hearing preparation.

If recording does not start, check system microphone permission and platform audio support. See Audio troubleshooting.

Generated document indexes

While Documents is selected, the left-pane index follows the active/focused document. Its Structure tab presents a grounded document outline; its AI Legal tab presents generated, source-linked legal signals for review. Click or tap an entry to move the document to the source passage and highlight it.

Use Filter index to narrow existing entries by title, body, category, source snippet, or page number. Group entries by page, category, confidence, or chronology, and use the index arrows to move between entries. Generated items remain marked so you can distinguish them from your own notes.

Generated document indexes can help you locate legally important passages, but you should review source pages before relying on them.