Valify accepts PDF (.pdf) and Microsoft Word (.doc and .docx) files, up to 50MB per file. Anything else is rejected at the point of upload with an explanation rather than a silent failure.
The requirement behind the file type
The file must contain a text layer. Valify reads the words in your document; it does not look at the page as a picture. A PDF exported from Word, InDesign or a document management system has a text layer. A PDF made by scanning a printout, or by photographing pages, is a collection of images with no text in it at all — so there is nothing to read, and the upload is rejected rather than returning an empty report.
The test takes five seconds: open the PDF, try to select a sentence with your cursor. If you can highlight the words, Valify can read them.
If your only copy is a scan
- Ask whoever produced it for the original Word file or a PDF exported from it. This is nearly always the fastest route.
- Run the scan through OCR software, which adds a text layer. Check the result by selecting text before uploading, and read it — OCR of a poor scan produces plausible-looking nonsense, and a report on nonsense is worse than no report.
Files over 50MB
A scan takes one file, so a document over the limit has to come down in size rather than be split across uploads — several of the most valuable checks compare one section against another, and they cannot run across separate submissions.
Most oversized files are large because of embedded photographs rather than text. Re-exporting the PDF at a lower image quality, or saving the Word file with compressed pictures, normally brings the whole thing under the limit in one step. If a genuine 50MB-plus document will not come down, contact us rather than splitting it.
What gets rejected
- Any file type other than PDF, .doc or .docx — including Excel, images, ZIP archives and email files.
- Zero-byte or empty files.
- Password-protected or encrypted PDFs, which cannot be opened for reading. Remove the protection and upload again.
- Image-only PDFs with no text layer.
Format is not the same question as content — see what documents Valify can review for which kinds of document are covered on your plan. A note on why files matter more than they should: submitting a locked or scanned PDF to a principal contractor causes the same problem for them, which is one of the template habits covered in what to include and avoid in a RAMS template.
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If this did not answer your question, email support@valify.co.uk and we will get back to you as quickly as we can. Tell us what you were trying to do and what happened — it saves a round trip.
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