Viewing a document

What you'll learn#

• How to open a document's detail page
• What each section on the page shows you
• What the action buttons do (and why some go away at certain stages)
• How to read the approval history for a document

Opening a document#

Several ways to get to a document's detail page:

• Document Flow → Documents in the sidebar → click a row in the table.
• Dashboard → Recent Documents → click the document.
• From a task you're reviewing → click View document → in the top-right of the Document Excerpt card.
• Direct URL — /docflow/documents/{id} — useful if someone shared a link.

The detail page is the central place for everything about a document: its metadata, its content, its approval progress, and the discussion thread. It doesn't matter if it's yours or someone else's — you see the same layout, just with different action buttons available depending on your role and the document's status.

The page at a glance#

Header (top of the page)#

The header shows:

• Title — what the document is called.
• Status badge — Active, Approving, Approved, or Rejected (see the Reference section for the full list).
• Version badge — e.g., v1, v2. Increments each time the document is corrected after a rejection.
• Action buttons — change based on the status and your permissions. See below.

The information cards#

General Information (left)

• Title
• Status
• Version
• Document Type (e.g., "Vacation Request")

Details (right)

• Created by — who submitted the document
• Created at — when it was submitted
• Updated by / at — only shown if the document has been edited since creation
• Filename — for file-based documents only
• URL — if the creator added an optional link. Clicks open it in a new tab.

Content (request forms only)#

If the document is a request form and has content text, it appears in a collapsible Content card below the info cards. The content preserves line breaks — it's the text the creator entered (or the template pre-filled by the admin).

For file-based documents, there's no Content card — the main file is in the Document File card (further down).

Field Values#

The Field Values table shows the custom data entered for this document — amounts, dates, departments, reasons, and so on — ordered the way your admin designed them.

Each row shows:

• The field name (localized to your current language if translations exist).
• The value the creator entered.
• The version of the document at which that value was set.

If the document type has task-only fields (fields filled in by approvers during their steps rather than by the creator), those don't appear here — they show up on the task detail page instead.

Workflow Copies — the approval history#

This is where you see what's happened in approval so far. One row per approval attempt. If the document has been rejected and corrected, you'll see multiple rows (one per try).

Each row shows:

• ID (#123, a reference number)
• Workflow — which approval flow was used
• Step — how far through the flow it went
• Status — Approving (in progress), Approved (finished successfully), Rejected (stopped), or Disabled (no longer active)
• Created and Updated timestamps

When an attempt is Approved or Rejected, an extra row underneath shows the reviewer's comment — either the approver's note or the rejection reason. This is how you find out why something was rejected.

Document File (file-based documents only)#

Below the approval history, file-based documents show the attached file with two buttons:

• Download — fetches the file to your computer. The filename is preserved.
• Replace File — opens a file picker to swap the file. Only available while the document is in Active status; during or after approval, the file is locked.

Attachments (request forms only)#

Request forms have an Attachments card instead of (or in addition to) a main file. See Uploading attachments for the full flow — in brief: you can add supporting files, download them later, and (while the document is Active) delete them.

Discussion Board#

At the bottom of the page, the Discussion Board shows any conversation between approvers and the creator about this document. It's collapsed by default; click the header to expand it. See Using the discussion board for full details.

The action buttons — what you see at each status#

The buttons at the top of the page change depending on the document's status.

Buttons also obey your permissions. For example, if you don't have Delete permission on documents, the trash icon won't appear even when the status would otherwise allow it. See Navigating the app for an overview of how the UI reflects your access.

Common questions#