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Downloading an Original Document

You can download any document stored in Essal Office at any time. Essal Office keeps both the original uploaded file and, for most documents, a searchable PDF/A version. You can choose which one to download.

How to Download a Document

  1. Open the document by clicking it in the document list
  2. In the document detail view, look for the Download button in the toolbar at the top
  3. Click Download to download the file

Depending on your browser and settings, the file will either save automatically to your default downloads folder or prompt you to choose a save location.

Original vs. Archived Version

Essal Office stores two versions for most documents:

  • Version: **Original**
  • Description: The file exactly as you uploaded it (e.g. the original scanned PDF or JPEG)


  • Version: **Archived (PDF/A)**
  • Description: A standardised, searchable PDF version created during processing. This version includes the embedded OCR text layer.

The default download is typically the archived PDF/A. If you need the exact original file, look for the Download original option.

Note: For documents uploaded as plain PDFs that already contained text, the archived and original versions may be identical.

Downloading from the Document List

You can also download a document without fully opening it:

  1. Hover over the document card in the list
  2. Click the download icon that appears on the card

This downloads the archived (PDF/A) version directly.

Downloading Multiple Documents

To download several documents at once, use the export feature:

  1. In the document list, tick the checkboxes on the documents you want to download
  2. Click the bulk actions toolbar
  3. Choose Download

This creates a ZIP file containing all selected documents and downloads it to your computer.

File Naming

Downloaded files use the document's title as the filename (with the appropriate extension). If you want downloaded files to have specific names, update the document titles in Essal Office before downloading.