🚀 Getting Started
BriefMate helps you create professional legal briefs by combining PDFs, images, emails, and documents into a single organized PDF. Everything is processed locally in your browser for maximum security.
📁 Adding Files
- Choose Files: Click "Choose files..." to select PDFs, images (PNG, JPG, TIFF), or email files (.eml)
- Drag & Drop: Simply drag files directly into the drop zone
- ZIP Support: Upload entire .ZIP folders - BriefMate will extract and process all supported files
- Encrypted PDFs: Password-protected PDFs are detected and handled appropriately
💡 Tip: Supported file types include PDF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, WEBP, TIF, TIFF, and EML email files.
⚙️ Options & Settings
- Add Cover: Toggle to include a professional cover page with case details
- Add Index: Generate an automatic table of contents with page numbers
- Try OCR: Slower but extracts text from scanned images for better date detection
- Fit images to A4: Automatically resize images to fit standard A4 page dimensions
- Restart page numbers: Begin page numbering from 1 after cover and index pages
- Filter small images: Automatically exclude small images like profile photos, logos, and icons from your brief
🖼️ Image Filtering
The image filtering feature helps you exclude unwanted small images from your brief:
- Automatic Detection: Images are analyzed by dimensions and file size
- Smart Defaults: Pre-configured to filter out typical profile photos and logos (400x400px minimum, 50KB minimum)
- Customizable Settings: Click "⚙️ Image Filter Settings" to adjust thresholds
- OR vs AND Logic: Choose whether images need to meet width OR height threshold, or BOTH
💡 Tip: Lower the thresholds if important document images are being filtered out. Increase them for stricter filtering.
📝 Cover Page Details
When "Add Cover" is enabled, you can customize:
- Title: Brief title (e.g., "Legal Brief")
- Solicitor: Law firm or attorney name
- Client: Client name
- Reference: Case or matter reference number
- Instructions: Additional notes or case summary
- Signature: Choose from typed name, uploaded image, or hand-drawn signature
📅 Date Management
- Automatic Detection: BriefMate automatically detects dates from filenames, file metadata, and document content
- Manual Editing: Double-click any date to edit it manually
- Sort by Date: Click "Sort by date" to arrange documents chronologically
- Rescan Dates: Use "Rescan dates" for deeper analysis using OCR and PDF text extraction
🎯 File Organization
- Drag to Reorder: Drag table rows to change the order of documents in your brief
- Edit Names: Double-click file names to rename them
- Remove Files: Click the ✕ button to remove unwanted files
- File Types: PDF (📄), Images (🖼️), and Emails (✉️) are clearly marked
🔨 Building Your Brief
- Add all your files using any supported method
- Configure options (cover page, index, etc.) as needed
- Organize files in the desired order
- Verify dates and file names are correct
- Click "Build Combined PDF" to generate your brief
📤 Output Options
- Download PDF: Save the combined brief to your device
- Open in New Tab: View the PDF in your browser
- Download Individual Files: Choose between bulk download or intelligent categorization
- Bulk Download: Get a ZIP with all processed files as-is
- Sort by Category: Automatically categorizes files into folders (Medical Records, Legal Documents, Correspondence, etc.) using OCR and filename analysis
- Preview: View the completed brief in the preview pane
🔒 Security: All processing happens locally in your browser. Your files never leave your device or get uploaded to any server.
🔧 Troubleshooting
- Encrypted PDFs: You'll be prompted for passwords when needed
- Large Files: Processing may take longer for large documents or many files
- Date Issues: Use manual editing or try the "Rescan dates" feature
- File Errors: Unsupported file types will be skipped with a notification
⚡ Performance: For best results with large briefs, consider processing files in smaller batches.