Exports
Produce yellow-highlighted PDF copies and an exhibit index for the attorney, with real names or sanitized, without ever touching the original files.
#What the attorney gets
The Exports screen turns your approved highlights into the two things the attorney asked for:
- Highlighted PDFs: a copy of every document that has approved highlights, with each passage marked in yellow and the reason attached as a note.
- The exhibit index: a spreadsheet listing those documents (XLSX, with a CSV copy).
Your original files are never changed. Every export is a new set of copies.
#Ready
The Ready section says what will be exported, for example 14 approved highlights in 9 documents are ready to export. Only documents with approved highlights are exported. If proposals are still waiting, it says how many, with a link to review them.
If nothing is approved yet, you'll see No highlights are approved yet and a Review highlights button.
#Export, step by step
- Under What to export, choose one:
- Highlighted PDFs and the exhibit index: everything the attorney asked for. The index lists exactly the PDFs written.
- Only the highlighted PDFs
- Only the exhibit index
- Choose the Export folder. It can't be inside the case's own folder: the originals are only ever read. The app remembers your choice for this case.
- Decide on Use real names (below).
- Click Export. A large case can take a few minutes.
#Real names or sanitized
The Use real names switch is on by default.
| Real names (on) | Sanitized (off) | |
|---|---|---|
| For | The attorney's copy. Give it only to the attorney. | Anyone else who should not see personal details. |
| Names, accounts, addresses | As the files have them. | Shown as stand-ins (PERSON A, ACCOUNT 1). |
| PDF and picture pages | The original pages with yellow highlight annotations. | Turned into images with the personal details blacked out, with no text left under the boxes. |
| Exhibit index | Titles, and each document's original path in the case folder. | Sanitized titles; the document ID in place of the path. |
| Folder name | Highlighted PDFs 2026-10-22 14.03 | Highlighted PDFs (sanitized) 2026-10-22 14.03 |
#What gets written
Each export goes into a new folder of its own inside the export folder, named for the export and its time, so nothing from an earlier export is ever replaced:
Exports/
Highlighted PDFs 2026-10-22 14.03/
DOC-0095 - Wire request form.pdf
EMAIL-0046 - Re: Retainer.pdf
...
Exhibit index.xlsx
Exhibit index.csv(The index alone goes in a folder named Exhibit index …; sanitized names add (sanitized).)
#The highlighted PDFs
- Named
<ID> - <title>.pdf. - PDFs are copies of the originals with highlight annotations. Each highlight's note is its reason.
- Pictures become PDFs.
- Word files, e-mails, spreadsheets and transcripts are laid out as PDFs, with each passage's citation in the margin.
#The exhibit index
One row per exported document, in ID order:
| Column | Holds |
|---|---|
| ID/Bates | The document's ID, or its Bates number in a production |
| Date | The document's date |
| Type | PDF, Word document, Email, … |
| Title | The title, or the file's name |
| Categories | The document's categories and those of its approved highlights |
| Importance | The document's importance |
| Summary | A one-line summary (may be empty in this version) |
| Original path | Where the file is in the case's folder |
| Highlights | How many highlights its PDF shows |
The CSV copy opens cleanly in Excel. Cells that start like a formula are written as plain text, so a spreadsheet program never runs anything from a document's title.
#The result
After exporting, the screen says what was written (Exported 9 documents with 14 highlights, with real names.), shows the new folder and lists its files. Show in Finder / Show in Explorer opens the folder.
#Left out
If some documents couldn't be exported, they're listed under Left out with the reason, for example:
| Reason shown | What to do |
|---|---|
| The original changed since it was read. | Rescan the folder (Progress), then export again. |
| The original file is missing from the case folder. | Put it back, or point the case at its folder's new location. |
| It has not finished being checked for personal data. | Let reading finish, then export again. |
| Some of its pages could not be read… | Check the original; those pages couldn't be checked for personal data. |
| Personal data on its pages could not be blacked out with certainty… | Sanitized copies only. Use the real-names copy for the attorney, or leave the document out. |
| Its PDF could not be written. | Close the file if it's open in another program, then export again. |
A sanitized export may also say some approved highlights could not be shown, because their passages still hold personal data not yet replaced. Export again once the case has finished processing.
#Exporting through your agent
Your agent can write the same exports to the export folder set on Start Up, when you ask it to. Note the difference in defaults: an export the agent runs is sanitized unless you ask it for the copy with real names, while this screen defaults to real names. Doing it on this screen is usually simpler, and lets you see the result straight away.
#Connections spreadsheets
A Connections study has its own export: a CSV of every passage, document and e-mail behind each pair. See Connections.