Files & resume
Where you keep every document attached to a candidate — resumes, cover letters, certifications, IDs, signed offer letters. Upload, preview, download, delete, and send documents to the candidate for e-signature.
The Files tab is where you keep every document attached to a candidate — resumes, cover letters, certifications, portfolios, IDs, signed contracts. You can upload files, preview them on the page, download them locally, delete them, and send them to the candidate for electronic signature when the document needs to come back signed.
The toolbar
At the top of the tab you’ll find two action buttons on the left and a sort control on the right.
Add Files
Click Add Files to open a side panel where you can drag in one or more files. Drop them into the upload zone, or click to browse.
Supported file types:
- Word documents — both modern .docx and the older .doc
- OpenDocument Text (.odt)
When you’ve picked your files, click Add files at the bottom (it changes to “Adding” while uploading). Click Cancel to drop everything and start over.
About accented filenames: Nextal converts accented characters in filenames to their plain equivalents before saving — so “CV — Amélie Dubé.pdf” ends up saved as “CV___Amelie_Dube.pdf”. The document content is unchanged; only the filename is simplified.
Send document
Click Send document to send a document to the candidate for electronic signature. This is how you send offer letters, NDAs, or any agreement that needs the candidate’s signature.
The flow is two steps in a dialog:
- Pick a document template — choose one of your organisation’s saved templates from the list.
- Fill in the signer roles — every template defines roles (typically Candidate, User, External). For each one, set the name, email, and language. The Candidate role is pre-filled with the candidate’s info; the User role is pre-filled with you; External roles you fill in yourself.
Click Send and the document is sent for signature. It also appears as a row in the Files tab so you can track its status alongside the candidate’s other documents.
Sort the file list
Click the sort icon on the top-right to open a small menu. You can sort the list by Creation date, either ascending or descending. Default is newest first — so the most recently uploaded file is always at the top.
The file list
The left column shows every file attached to the candidate. Each row displays:
- A radio button to select the file (clicking the file selects it)
- The file type (PDF, Word, etc.)
- The date it was added
- The filename — truncated to 25 characters with an ellipsis if longer
When the tab opens, the newest file is automatically selected and shown in the preview on the right.
The preview panel
Whatever file you select on the left is shown in the panel on the right.
For regular files
You’ll see:
- The filename (clickable to open in a new browser tab)
- The creation date and time
- The file content rendered in an embedded viewer
PDFs and images render natively. Word and other office formats render through Google’s document viewer.
For documents sent for e-signature
When you preview a document that was sent for signature, you see the signing interface inside the page — including current signature status (sent, signed, completed). You can also download the latest version of the signed PDF whenever you need a local copy.
The action bar
Three buttons sit at the top-right of the preview panel:
- Open — opens the file in a new browser tab
- Download — saves the file to your computer with its original filename
- Delete — opens a red confirmation dialog. Click the red Delete button to confirm; you’ll get a green notification saying “Candidate file has been deleted”. If something went wrong on the server, you’ll see “Candidate file can not be deleted please try again later” instead.
If the candidate has no files yet, the preview panel shows: “Please select a file to display it content here”.
Which file types you can upload
The Add Files panel only accepts these four formats:
- PDF (.pdf)
- Word (.doc and .docx)
- OpenDocument Text (.odt)
Other file types — like PNG, JPG, Excel, CSV — can’t be uploaded through this panel. If a candidate’s profile already contains those formats (for example because they came in through a CV parser or another import path), the preview panel will still display them correctly. You just can’t add new ones of those types here.
Who can do what
What you want to do
What you need
Open the Files tab and read files
Access to the candidate
Open or download a file
Same — access to the candidate
Upload a file
Same — access to the candidate
Send a document for signature
Same — plus your organisation’s e-signature setup must be configured
Delete a file
Same — access to the candidate
Coming soon
- Tag files with labels like Resume / Cover letter / Certification so you can quickly find the right document when a candidate has many files. Tracked in NEXTAL-1202.
- Mark one file as the primary resume with a star icon. The primary resume will show up on candidate cards in lists and kanbans, and be the default attachment when you forward the candidate. Tracked in NEXTAL-1203.
- Generate a shareable link to a file — a short, expiring URL you can paste into Slack or email so someone outside Nextal can view the file without an account. Tracked in NEXTAL-1201.
- More ways to sort and search the file list — today you can only sort by creation date.
Tips
- The latest CV opens first. Because files are sorted newest-first, the most recently uploaded document is always selected and shown in the preview when you open the Files tab.
- Use Send document for offer letters and NDAs. Once the candidate signs, the signed PDF appears as a regular file row — perfectly preserved for your records.
- Some previews need internet. Word and ODT files preview through Google’s document viewer — so a slow connection or strict corporate firewall may cause the preview to take a few seconds or fail. Click Open or Download as a fallback.
- Filename accents are stripped on upload. If you rely on exact filenames downstream, be aware that résumé becomes resume, Dubé becomes Dube, and so on.