You upload your PDF in HelpRange and we give you a secure link to that PDF, which you can share.
When a user opens a given link in a browser, then he/she can view it or download it (if you did
not disable the ability to "download & print"). If it is being viewed in the browser then we can
track usage statistics (heat maps, read pages, IP address, browser used, and more...) and show
you all of that in a form of analytics stats in HelpRange. If you allow for PDF download, then
we can't control and track downloaded PDF, because it is just a file.
2. How HelpRange prevents people from downloading/copying/printing PDFs?
First of all, if you are using HelpRange to prevent people from copying/downloading your
documents, then you should probably use "Very secure upload" instead of the ordinary "Upload
PDF" button in HelpRange. This way HelpRange can use a more secure way of storing and displaying
your PDF - it is using end-to-end encryption. But you need to know that "Very secure upload" is
very slow, because proper encryption takes a lot of time and it depends on the size and the
complexity of given PDF file (PDF which is greater than 15MB in size may be processed probably
after upload in the background until it will appear in your directory, but for bigger files you
can wait even few hours or more, moreover there is lower PDF file size limit in this case).
Please do not try to upload again your file if it did not appear in your directory, because
encryption can take even longer. That's why if you are not truly paranoid about protection and
security of your PDF files we recommend to use the very fast ordinary "Upload PDF" button.
Given you uploaded your PDF in HelpRange, we give you a lot of access controls over your PDF.
First of all, you can disable the ability to "download & print" your PDF. This way you are
allowing the user to view your PDF only using your link, so you don't lose access controls to it
and you can use another HelpRange function: ability to revoke access to given PDF link at any
time.
However, you need to be aware that no such method from preventing people from copying your
materials is perfect. So we cannot guarantee that your document will not be copied. For example
we can imagine a situation where your document will be copied by making screenshots of a screen
displaying your document.
3. How to securely share documents with given email address or list of email addresses?
Please go to "Guests" tab. Here you can add guests (as email addresses) who are outside of your organization. You
can easily assign and
control access to documents for them. Every time you assign some document for a given guest
HelpRange will send an email message with a link where guests will need to authenticate (using one time password sent to given email address) to see assigned documents. Those
guests may
be your students,
people who paid for your materials and so on. Only Admins can control access to documents for
guests.
4. How to disable forwarding of your PDFs?
You can share your specific PDF link only with a single user. You can disable forwarding a given
PDF link, so that only the first user who opens it, will be able to open it again, any other
user who will try to open this link will be blocked (including the owner of the file). So if you
are the owner of the file, then you should not open the given PDF link, because sharing this
link with other users won't work. To disable forwarding a PDF link, please go to Settings/Links
for a given PDF file and set "Disallow forwarding" for a given link. We disallow forwarding PDF
links based on the device characteristics on which PDF link was opened the first time.
5. How setting the expiration date for a PDF works in HelpRange?
It is simple: you set an expiration date for a given link of your PDF file. After the expiration
date link will expire so anybody who will want to access your PDF using this link won't be able
to do that.
6. What are links to PDF files?
You allow for accessing PDF files in HelpRange using shared links. You can create as many such
links for a given PDF file as you want. Every such link can be labeled by the user/group
assigned to it. So you can track who exactly opened and viewed your PDF.
7. How can I be sure that nobody except people from a given group will view my PDF?
There is no way you can be sure by 100%. But, we are enabling many methods to only allow a given
group of people to view your materials. Except for disabling the ability to "download & print"
your documents, you can set expiration dates, passcodes or you can allow only users having given
an IP address to view your PDFs.
8. How can I prevent multiple users from accessing a given PDF shared link?
This is simple in HelpRange. You are just setting "Only one user can view at the same time" for
the given link. It should limit the number of users accessing a given link to one.
9. How to edit uploaded PDF files (e.g. after you hit the send button)?
This is super simple: you just upload a PDF file with the same name to the same directory.
10. How to track who opened a given PDF?
There are three possibilities. First one is to create a dedicated link for a given user/group.
Second one is to add query params to the given PDF link. For example if your link is
"https://wwww.helprange.com/view/somelinkid", then you can add for example query param
"?user=someid" to it, to share "https://wwww.helprange.com/view/somelinkid?user=someid". Last
one is to ask about users' email before they view your document (go to
Links/Settings and check "Ask about email"). Moreover, you can download whole list of provided
emails as a CSV file for a given link.
11. Can I use HelpRange for lead generation (emails) so that my documents will work as lead
magnets?
Yes, you can. You can ask about users' email before they view your document (go to
Links/Settings and check "Ask about email"). To avoid legal issues, you can provide
your own custom HTML consent box which will be used below our checkbox (you can set your own
template in your Settings, but you need to be admin of the team). Moreover, you can download
whole
list of provided emails as a CSV file for a given
link.
12. What is the upload limit for PDF file size?
Currently the default limit is 80MB for ordinary PDF file upload and 40MB for very secure
upload. If you want to upload bigger PDFs please contact us.
13. Can I limit the number of views for a given link document?
Yes, this is very simple in HelpRange: go to Links/Settings and provide your requested views
limit for the given link.
14. What is engagement score?
Engagement score is a rough estimate how "engaged" a given user was when viewing a document.
Basically, it is calculated as a ratio of number of pages given user viewed for at least few
seconds to total number of pages, but this ratio is normalized by total number of pages for
given document, so that it is easier to score given amount of "points" per page for longer
documents. Maximum value is 100.
15. How heatmaps are being generated?
Heatmaps are being generated basing on: mouse movements, scrolling and mouse clicks. Red dots
mark clicks. Purple color area means that user was spending some time on given area, red means a
click, yellow is just a boundary of purple, it does not mean much, the same with green.
Aggregated heatmaps are on the stats page, individual ones are in the Recordings
16. How to embed document on your website to use your own domain?
You can use your domain by embedding your PDF link on your website. Please go to Settings/Links
for given document and then click on "Embed on site" button. Here you can copy/paste given embed
code on your website for your custom url.
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