Docs Pro

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 22 October 2026 21 min read

Docs Pro adds these to Docs: Domma Spaces (publish documents on your site), Cloud copies (keep copies in Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or an S3 bucket), Signatures (send a document for people to sign), Protected links (an expiry date and a password on a public link), Word files (import and download .docx), Merge fields (fill a letter or quote in from a contact), Comments, Suggested changes and Ready-made templates. Each has its own section below.

Docs Pro adds Domma Spaces to Docs. A Space publishes one of your Docs folders as a section of your website, for example a staff handbook, a help centre or a set of guides. Readers get a page tree, search and a reader built for long reading. They can change the text size, font, spacing, margins and colours, and choose to scroll or turn pages like an e-reader. The reader shows how far through the page they are and remembers where they stopped.

Docs Pro needs the Docs Tool, version 2.6 or later, installed and switched on.

What it does

Spaces: a folder and its subfolders become /spaces/your-space on your site. Subfolders become sections in the reader's contents.
Publish when you are ready: a document appears on the site only when you publish it. Editing it afterwards changes nothing on the site until you publish again, so you can work on a page without readers seeing half-finished changes.
Who can read it: anyone (search engines can list it), signed-in members only, or people holding the roles you choose.
The reader: a contents sidebar, "On this page" headings, Previous and Next, search within the Space, and the Aa reading settings.
Links between documents become links between pages. A link to a document that is not published shows as plain text until you publish that document.

If your licence lapses, the Spaces go offline. Your documents stay in Docs as they were, and every Space and its published pages are kept for when the licence is renewed.

Getting started

In Docs, make a folder for the Space (Folders, in the rail on the left), for example "Handbook". Put the documents in it. Use subfolders for sections.
Click Spaces in the rail, then New Space.
Give it a name. The Address fills itself in from the name, and you can change it.
Pick the Folder, add a short Description, choose Who can read it, and click Create Space.
The Space opens with its documents listed as Not published. Click Publish all to publish them all, or use a document's menu to publish one at a time.
Click the address under the Space's name to see it on your site.

Screens

Spaces (Docs > Spaces)

Lists every Space you look after, with its address, whether it is Online, who can read it, and how many pages are published, have changes or are not published yet.

Click a Space to open it.
Right-click it (or use the ⋮ button) to open it, view it on the site, open its Settings, Take offline / Put online, or Delete Space.

Deleting a Space takes its pages off the site. The folder and documents stay in Docs, untouched.

One Space

Lists the documents in the Space's folder, in the order readers see them, with sections for subfolders. Each shows its state:

Published: the site shows the document as it is now.
Changes not published: the document has been saved since it was published. The site still shows the earlier version.
Not published: in the folder, but not on the site.

At the top: View on site and Settings, then how many pages are published, have changes, or are not published yet. Above the list of pages:

Publish N changes: republishes only the documents with changes.
Publish all: also publishes the ones never published.

Click a document to open it in the editor. Right-click it (or use ⋮) to Publish, Publish changes, Publish again, View on site, Move up / Move down in the reader's contents, Make this the home page, or Take down.

No longer in the Space lists pages whose document has gone to Trash, been deleted, or been moved out of the Space's folder. Readers no longer see them. Remove tidies them away. Moving a document back into the folder brings its page back.

In the editor

When a document is in a Space's folder, a chip beside its title shows its state (Published in Space, Changes not published or Not published). The document menu (⋮) gains Publish to Space, Publish changes or Publish again, View on site and Take down. Publishing from the editor saves the document first.

On Docs Home, a document's own menu also has Publish to Space and Take down from the site.

Space settings

Name and Address: changing the address later breaks links people have saved.
Folder: one folder per Space. A folder already inside another Space cannot be used again.
Description: shown on the contents page, in the list of Spaces and to search engines.
Who can read it:
- Public: anyone.
- Signed-in members: anyone signed in to your site.
- Chosen roles: people holding a role you tick, or a role above it.
Online: switch off to take the whole Space off the site at once, for example while you prepare it.
Home page: the document readers see at the Space's own address. With none, readers see a contents page.
Starting theme and Starting font: how the reader looks the first time someone opens the Space - pick a tile. Site's colours follows your site's theme, light or dark. Each reader can change these, and their choice is remembered.

For readers

Contents (left, or the Contents button on a phone) lists every page. On this page (right, on wide screens) jumps to a heading.
Search this Space finds pages containing every word typed.
Aa opens the reading settings: Text size, Font (Serif, Sans, or Easy read, with wider letters and spacing that many readers, including some with dyslexia, find easier), Line spacing, Margins, Theme (the site's own colours, Light, Sepia or Dark) and Layout (Scroll, or Pages to turn pages like an e-reader). Back to the defaults undoes them. The settings are remembered in that browser.
In Pages layout: turn pages with the ‹ › buttons, the arrow keys, Page Up / Page Down, the space bar or a swipe. Turning past the last page goes to the next page in the Space.
The bar at the bottom shows how far through the page you are and about how long is left. Come back later and the reader returns to where you stopped, with Start from the beginning if you would rather.
Nothing about readers is stored on the site: their settings and places stay in their own browser.

Good to know

A published page is a copy of the document as it was when published. Version history in Docs still has every earlier version.
Pages are cleaned when published and again every time they are shown. Scripts and anything else that could run on the page are removed.
Public Spaces are listed in your site's sitemap.xml. Members-only Spaces, search results and offline Spaces are never offered to search engines.
The list of every Space a reader may open is at /spaces.
Members-only Spaces need your site's sign-in page (/login). Readers who are not signed in are asked to sign in.
A document that may not leave Docs - a page of a members-only wiki, say - cannot be published to a Space; publishing says why.

Permissions

Docs Pro adds a Domma Spaces permission under Roles, given to Admin:

Publish: publish and take down pages of documents you can edit.
Manage: create, change and delete Spaces on your own folders (administrators: any folder), and set the reading order and home page.

Publishing also needs the right to edit the document in Docs.

Cloud copies

Keep copies of your documents somewhere else: Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or an S3 bucket (Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, MinIO). Each copy is a normal file - Markdown, a web page, plain text or PDF - in folders that match your Docs folders.

Docs stays the master copy. Files are only ever sent out; nothing is read back.
Your own account and your own app. For Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox you make a small app of your own with the provider (the guide in Docs walks you through it), so the copies go to your account and nobody else's app is involved. The apps can only touch what they create: Google Drive's app sees only its own files, and the OneDrive and Dropbox apps only their own folder.
Only your own documents, never anything in Trash. A document you move to Trash or delete keeps its copies: they are a backup.

Getting started

In Docs, click Cloud copies in the rail on the left, then Add a destination.
Choose where the copies go.
Open How to set this up and follow the steps for that provider. For Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox you will be asked to paste this site's redirect address into the provider's settings - the guide shows it with a Copy button. It must match exactly.
Fill in the fields, choose What to copy, the kinds of file, and When, then Save and connect (or Save for S3).
For Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox, a small window opens: sign in and allow access. The window closes itself and the destination shows as connected.
For S3, press Test: it writes a small file and removes it again.
Press Copy now to make the first copies.

Settings

Name: how the destination shows in the list and on documents.
Documents: all your documents, or one of your folders and the folders inside it.
As: Markdown (.md), web page (.html), plain text (.txt), PDF (.pdf). PDF needs Chrome on the server; if it is not there, PDF is greyed out and says why.
Folder there: the folder the copies go in (default "Domma Docs"). Your Docs folders are made inside it.
When:
- Every save: a minute and a half after you stop editing a document.
- Nightly: once a night after 2am, everything that changed that day.
- By hand: only when you press Copy now.

Leave a secret field empty when you edit a destination to keep the one that is saved. Changing the app details (client ID or secret) means you need to Connect again.

The Cloud copies screen

Each destination shows whether it is connected, when it last copied, and what it copies. Copy now copies documents that changed since their last copy (unchanged ones are not sent again). The menu (⋮ or right-click) also has Copy everything again, Test the connection, Connect again, Settings, Switch off / on and Remove.

If documents could not be copied, the card says how many - press See why for each document and the reason. You are also sent a notification, and it goes away by itself once copying works again.

In the editor

A chip beside the title says when the document was last copied (or that a copy failed - hover for why). The document menu (⋮) has Copy to the cloud now, which saves the document first.

Good to know

A renamed document gets a file with its new name. In Google Drive the same file is renamed; elsewhere a new file is made and the old one stays.
Two documents with the same title in the same folder: the second one's file name gets a short code added so neither overwrites the other.
The sign-in details and keys are stored encrypted on the server and are never shown again - only "Saved", or the last four characters of an access key.
Google Drive: publish your Google app ("In production"). While it says "Testing", Google ends the sign-in after 7 days and copies stop.
OneDrive: a Microsoft client secret expires (you choose when, up to 24 months). Make a new one before then and paste it into the destination's settings, then Connect again.
If a sign-in stops working (you removed the app's access, or a secret expired), copies fail, you get a notification, and Connect again fixes it.

Permissions

Docs Pro adds a Cloud copies permission under Roles, given to Admin: Use - set up cloud copies of your own documents.

Signatures

Send a document for people to sign. Each person gets an email with a link that is theirs alone, reads the document, agrees to sign electronically, and types or draws their signature. When everyone has signed, they and you are emailed the signed copy: the document, every signature, and a certificate page recording who signed, when, from which IP address and browser, and the document's fingerprint.

This is a simple electronic signature - fine for most agreements (tenancy agreements, contracts for services, consent forms, policies). It is not suitable for deeds, wills or anything that must be witnessed.

Signing needs the site's email set up (Settings > Email) - the links are sent by email.

Signing a PDF

A PDF document (Docs 2.13: New > Upload a PDF) is signed where you say, not at the end:

Open the PDF, choose Request signatures…, add the people, then Place the boxes….
Pick a person, pick a kind of box - Signature, Initials, Date, Name or Text box - and click the page where it goes. Drag a box to move it, pull its corner to resize it, press Delete or its × to remove it. Every person needs at least one signature box; the others are up to you. A text box asks the signer to type something (a job title, a reference) - double-click it to set what it asks for.
The signer sees the pages drawn in their browser with their own boxes marked. Their typed or drawn signature goes into every signature box; initials boxes take their initials (or the drawing, small); date and name boxes fill themselves; text boxes they type into.
When everyone has signed, the signed PDF is the file exactly as sent with every box filled in and a certificate page added. Nothing else is derived from a PDF - there is no web-page copy. The "as sent" file attached to the email is the original PDF, whose fingerprint is on the certificate.
The file is frozen when you send: replacing the PDF in Docs afterwards changes nothing about the request.
Needs the optional pdf-lib package on the server (and pdfjs-dist to draw the pages); without it the form says so and a PDF cannot be sent for signing. A password-protected PDF cannot be signed.

Sending a document for signing

Open the document. Make sure it says what you want signed - it is frozen when you send it: later edits do not change what people sign.
From the document menu (⋮), choose Request signatures…
Add each person's name and email address.
Choose Sign in this order if the order matters (each person is emailed once the one before has signed), or leave it off to email everyone now.
Add a message if you like, choose how long they have (Sign within), and press Send for signing.

A chip beside the document's title then shows how far it has got ("Signed by 1 of 2").

Signing (what the signer sees)

The link opens the document in full, with the signing panel at the end. They tick the box to agree to sign electronically, then either Type their name or Draw their signature with a mouse or finger, and press Sign. They can also Decline to sign and say why. A link only works for the person it was sent to, only while the request is open, and - when signing in order - only once it is their turn.

The Signatures screen

In Docs, click Signatures in the rail on the left. Every document you sent for signing is listed with where it stands. Right-click one (or use its ⋮ button) to see the details, open the document, remind people now, download the signed copy or cancel the request. Click one to see:

each person and whether they have been emailed, opened it, signed or declined (with their reason),
Remind - emails whoever's turn it is again (at most once an hour each),
Cancel the request - the links stop working and anyone still to sign is told,
once everyone has signed: Signed PDF and Signed copy (web page),
the full Record and the document's fingerprint.

You are sent a notification as each person signs or declines, and when everyone has signed.

Automatic reminders

Switch automatic reminders on and anyone whose turn it is and who has not signed is reminded by email: by default every 3 days, at most 2 times. They are off until an administrator switches them on. Each reminder is the same email with the same link. Reminders stop as soon as the person signs, or the request is declined, cancelled or expires. The details of a request show each reminder in the Record, marked "(automatic)".

An administrator can change this for the whole site: in Signatures, click Reminders, then switch them on or off and choose how often (every 1 to 14 days) and how many (1 to 5). Reminders you send yourself with Remind count too: nobody gets more than five reminders for one request.

Good to know

The fingerprint (SHA-256) of the document as sent is on the certificate. Change a single character and the fingerprint changes, so anyone can check a copy is the one that was signed.
The signed copy is a PDF when the server can make one (it needs Chrome), otherwise a web page you can print.
On the PDF, a typed signature is printed in the server's own font.
If one person declines, no one else can sign; send it again once you have sorted it out.
Requests belong to whoever sent them. Permission: Signatures > Send under Roles, given to Admin, plus the right to edit the document.

PDF tools

A PDF document (Docs 2.13) gets its own tools in its ⋮ menu. Every one of them saves a new version of the file; the file as it was is in Version history, to download or restore.

Fill in the form… - shown when the PDF has its own form (the kind you fill in a PDF reader): every field listed, text, tick boxes, choices. From a contact fills the fields whose names say name, company, email, phone, address, website or reference from one of your contacts (fields you have typed in are left alone). Save keeps the form live for the next person; Save and lock writes the answers into the pages and removes the form, so nobody can change them.
Annotate… - the pages drawn in a window; choose Text, Date, Tick, Cross, Highlight, Stamp (APPROVED, PAID, DRAFT, COPY, RECEIVED, CONFIDENTIAL, VOID, or your own words), Picture (a PNG) or Draw, pick a colour, click the page. Drag to move, pull the corner to resize, × or Delete to remove. Save into the PDF draws them in for good, like ink.
Pages… - tick pages and Turn them, Turn back, or Remove them (never every page); the arrows move a page up or down. Each change is saved at once.
Take pages out… - type pages like 1-3, 5 and they become a new PDF document of your own; the original is unchanged.
Add another PDF… - choose a PDF from your computer; its pages go on the end (or the start).
These need the optional pdf-lib package on the server; a password-protected PDF cannot be changed.

Protected links

A document's public link ("Anyone with the link can view") can have an expiry date and a password.

Open the document's Share panel and switch the public link on.
Under Protect the link, choose the last day it should work, and/or type a password (at least 6 characters). Press Save.

After the expiry date the link says it has expired. The whole of that day still counts.
With a password, anyone opening the link is asked for it first. The browser remembers it for 12 hours. Tell people the password separately - not in the same email as the link.
Changing the password asks everyone for the new one. Remove the password opens the link to anyone who has it again.
The settings stay with the document: turning the link off and on (which gives it a new address) keeps them.

Word files

Import: in Docs, New > Import (or drag files onto Home) now takes Word documents (.docx, up to 15 MB) as well as Markdown, HTML and text. Each becomes a new document of yours.

What comes across: headings, paragraphs and their alignment, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, superscript and subscript, highlighting, links to web pages and email addresses, bulleted and numbered lists (nested, numbering that carries on), quotes, code, tables (merged cells stay merged) and pictures (PNG, JPEG and GIF, up to 5 MB each). Tracked changes are taken as accepted: insertions are kept, deletions are not.

Pictures are added to the Media library (named doc-…), and the document shows them from there - so they can be seen by anyone who has a picture's address, like every file in the Media library. Someone whose role cannot add to the Media library gets up to 2 MB of pictures built into the document instead.

What is left behind: headers and footers, footnotes, Word comments, text boxes, page layout, fonts and colours. Old Word files (.doc) need saving as .docx in Word first. A password-protected file needs its password removed first.

Download: Download as Word (.docx) on a document's menu (⋮), in the editor and on Home. The file opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice, with the same headings, lists, tables, links and pictures. Pictures from the Media library or elsewhere on the web are built into the file (PNG, JPEG and GIF; WebP and SVG pictures are left out).

Merge fields

Write a document once - a letter, a quote, a contract - with fields where the details go, then make a filled-in copy for each person.

While editing, put the cursor where a detail goes, open the document menu (⋮) and choose Insert a field: a contact's name, first name, company, job title, email, phone, address, website or reference, Today's date, or Your own field… (for example {{price}}). A field shows as {{contact.name}} in the text; you can also type one yourself.
When it is ready, choose Fill in the fields… from the document menu.
Search your Contacts to fill in the contact details in one go, and type anything else. {{date}} is today unless you type a date.
Press Make the filled-in copy. A new document is made - yours, in the same folder when the original is yours - and opens. The original keeps its fields, ready for next time.

A field left empty stays as it is in the copy, so you can see what still needs doing. Fields work in the title too ("Quote for {{contact.company}}").

Templates with fields: save a document with fields as a template (Save as template). Choosing it under Templates makes the new document and asks for the details straight away - press Fill in, or Later to do it from the document menu.

Contacts are the signed-in person's own (the Contacts Tool); someone whose role cannot read Contacts types the details instead.

Comments

Talk about a document without changing it.

On some words: while editing, select them, then choose Comment on the selection… from the document menu (⋮). The words are highlighted and your comment opens in the Comments panel on the right.
On the whole document: choose Comments from the document menu and write in the box at the top. Anyone who can open the document can do this - including people it is shared with as Viewers.
Click highlighted words to see their comment. Click the quoted words in a comment to find them in the document.
Reply, Resolve (it folds away under "resolved" and the highlight goes; a new reply opens it again) and Delete (a comment and its replies; the highlight goes too).
A chip beside the title counts the open comments; click it to open the panel.
The document's owner and everyone in a comment's thread are notified of new comments and replies.

Context editing: while editing, select some words and right-click them - make them bold, italic, underlined, struck through or highlighted, turn them into a link, clear their formatting, or comment on them, right there in the page. Inside a table the usual rows-and-columns menu appears instead, and a right-click with nothing selected keeps the browser's own menu, so spelling suggestions still work. (While suggesting, only commenting is offered - every change to the words must be a suggestion.)

Comments stay in Docs: they are never on the public link, a Space, a Word or cloud copy, or a document sent for signing. Highlighting words needs the right to edit the document; replying and general comments need only the right to open it. A comment can be resolved by its author or anyone who can edit the document, and deleted by its author or the document's owner.

Suggested changes

Change a document without changing it yet: your edits show as suggestions - new words underlined in green, removed words struck through in red - until someone who can edit the document accepts or rejects them.

Suggesting

People you share with as Suggesters: in the document's Share panel, set someone to Suggester. When they open the document they are always suggesting. They can read everything, comment, and suggest changes to the words, but not change anything directly.
Editors and the owner: while editing, open the document menu (⋮) and choose Suggest changes. A Suggesting chip shows beside the title; choose Stop suggesting (or click the chip) to edit directly again.

While suggesting:

Type anywhere to add words. Select words and type to replace them.
Backspace or Delete strikes words through instead of removing them. Strike out your own suggested words and they simply go.
Enter adds a line break. Pasting adds the text only, without its formatting.
Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y undo and redo.
Formatting and layout - bold, headings, lists, tables, the toolbar - are for editing directly, so they are off.

Your suggestions are saved as you go, like any change.

Reviewing

A chip beside the title counts the suggestions; click it (or choose Suggestions from the document menu) to open the list. Each suggestion shows who made it, when, and what it does ("Replace any order with an order"). Click one to find it in the document, or click a suggestion in the document to find it in the list.

While editing, the owner and editors can Accept or Reject each one, or Accept all / Reject all. Whoever made a suggestion can Take back their own.

The owner is notified when someone suggests changes, and whoever suggested is notified when their suggestions have been reviewed.

Good to know

Until they are accepted, suggestions are only in Docs: the public link, Spaces, downloads, Word and cloud copies, Send to, merge copies and documents sent for signing all show the document as it was.
Joining two paragraphs, and formatting changes, cannot be suggested - ask an editor, or leave a comment.
If Docs Pro's licence lapses, Suggesters can still read the document (like Viewers), and the suggestions already made stay in it, as they are, until Docs Pro is back.

Ready-made templates

Docs Pro adds a set of templates to Docs' Templates place, after your own:

Letters: Letter.
Sales: Quote, Proposal.
Agreements: Simple service agreement - a starting point to send for signatures; have it checked for your business.
Team: Meeting notes, Project brief, Weekly update.
Policies: Policy, How-to procedure.
Handbooks: Handbook page - laid out for a Space's reader.
People: Job description.
Marketing: Press release.

Click one (or right-click and choose New document from this) to start a document from it. Most have merge fields - {{contact.name}}, {{date}}, {{price}} - so Fill in the fields opens straight away: pick a contact, type the rest, and press Fill in (or Later). Your name starts as yours.

Ready-made templates cannot be changed or deleted. To make your own version, start a document from one, change it, and choose Save as template.... Type in the Templates search box to find one by name or category.