Any computer file or scanned digital document may be added to a connectBLC transaction. When a document is uploaded to connectBLC, it is transferred from your computer to a secure connectBLC server. At that point any transaction participant with suitable permission to view the document can access it from their computer.

However, it is important to understand that documents which you upload can only be viewed by other participants if they have compatible viewing software installed on their computer at their office, home, or wherever they are viewing the document.

PDF Documents

One common file format which you should consider when uploading a document to connectBLC is PDF. PDF is the acronym for Portable Document Format file. PDF files are commonly used to transfer printed output images from computer to computer. They can be thought of as being a scanned image of a printed document.

PDF documents are most commonly created and viewed with the following software from the Adobe Corporation:

• Adobe Acrobat: converts any file to PDF format
• Adobe Acrobat Capture: works with your scanner to create PDF documents
• Adobe Acrobat Reader (Free): lets you view and print PDF documents

Visit www.adobe.com for more information or to download the free Adobe® Acrobat Reader software.

Other products: There are other products that can convert your documents to PDF format. If you have a scanner, you can create the document in whatever file format your scanner supports, then convert the file to PDF before uploading the document to connectBLC. 

Other Document Formats

You can upload, to connectBLC, documents created by several other common software programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc. However, a Microsoft Word document could be downloaded by another transaction participant to their computer hard-drive and even though the original document on the connectBLC server cannot be modified, the downloaded copy can be modified. Use your discretion over the sensitivity of a document when choosing these other formats before uploading to connectBLC. Note that PDF documents cannot be modified.

Finally, you can also upload scanned documents and photos in .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, formats as well as others. These images can be viewed in software installed on most computers. However, a several page document scanned in these formats is likely to be quite large. Large documents could take a long time to upload and load when viewing. A 1 MegaByte file uploaded over a standard 56KB Modem could take over 5 minutes to upload. The document will take significantly less time over a high speed connection which typically exists in most offices today.