Documents and spaces
Documents and the three-space model
What are docivault’s three document spaces?
The problem
A folder with permissions cannot tell you whether a document is ready to be seen
One folder, one permission list
A shared drive folder gives everyone in it the same view. Loosening it for one person loosens it for all of them; there is no middle ground between "in" and "out".
A draft becomes visible by accident
Move a working file into the wrong folder, or forget it was ever shared, and the contact sees something that was never meant for them yet.
No answer to "is this ready?"
Whether a document is fit for the other side to see is a judgement call someone has to remember to make, every single time, with no structure enforcing it.
Three spaces
One question, answered in one click, instead of an audit
Each contact gets all three. A document lives in exactly one until you move it.
Private
You and your admins only. For drafts, internal notes and anything not yet fit for the contact or the wider team to see.
Shared
Your whole assigned team. For work in progress that colleagues need, but that the contact should not see yet.
Client
What the contact themselves can see. Nothing lands here until someone deliberately moves it in.
Categories
A label that cuts across all three spaces
Categories
Available nowLabel documents so both sides find them later. Start from a template set or build your own.
Not built yet
What this page does not promise
Previewing every format on the server, and a complete record of every view and download, are both still to come.
Server-side previews for every format
On the roadmapPowerPoint, video and archives previewed in place rather than downloaded, converted on the server instead of in your browser.
Full audit trail
Coming soonA complete record of every view and every download against a document, whoever opened it and however they reached it.
Questions
What people ask about documents and spaces
What are docivault’s three document spaces?
Private, Shared and Client. Private is you and your admins only. Shared is your whole assigned team. Client is exactly what the contact themselves can see. A document sits in one space at a time, and moving it between spaces is a deliberate action rather than a permissions change.
Why three spaces instead of folders with permissions?
A permissions list answers "who can technically open this". A space answers "is this ready for them to see" — which is the question that actually matters day to day, and it gets a one-click answer instead of an audit of who is in which folder.
Is the documents feature built yet?
Yes. The three spaces, uploading a document into one of them, and moving a document between them are all built and available now. Previewing is built too, in your browser, for PDFs, images, text and CSV, Word and Excel files — PowerPoint, video and archives you download rather than preview in place.
What can I do with documents in docivault today?
Upload a document into a contact’s Private, Shared or Client space, move it between those spaces, label it with a category, preview most common formats in the browser, comment on it, and share it as a link that expires. What is not built is previewing PowerPoint and video in place, importing in bulk from Drive or OneDrive, and a complete record of every view and download.
Put your first document somewhere it belongs
Workspaces, contacts, the three spaces, upload, preview and categories are all built today. You can add a contact and move a document into their Client space in the next few minutes.
- No credit card
- Free plan, no expiry
- The people you exchange with are free