Help

Name your first file

1. On Home, pick the association.
2. Drop the PDF in, or choose it. You'll see the file beside its card, or press Preview on a smaller screen. Click into another card to see that file.
3. Pick the kind of document, then fill in what it asks for. If the file's name suggests the kind, it may already be picked, and the card says so. Check it against the preview. The new name changes as you type.
4. When the card says Ready, click Download.

If the file's name already has a date, ShipShape offers it and says where it came from. Change it if it's wrong. ShipShape reads dates month first, so 3-4-26 is March 4, 2026. If the name has a month and year but no day, such as October 2026, the date waits for you to pick the day.

A whole meeting's files

1. Drop them all in. Several files start with no kind, so nothing goes out with the wrong one. If a file's name suggests a kind, the card says so and you click Use it, or use every suggestion at once. Check each one against the preview.
2. Under Set for all, pick the kind and date most of them share, then click Set for all. Set for all changes every file unless you tick some first, so after using suggestions, tick the ones still waiting or set only the date.
3. Fix the exceptions on their own cards.
4. Click Download. Many files come back as one zip. With In folders ticked, the zip is sorted into your convention's folders.

Keep original names in the zip adds a text file listing each new name beside its old one.

You can leave for Conventions and come back: your files stay. Closing or refreshing the page loses them, because they exist only in your browser, so ShipShape warns you first.

Why a file isn't ready

• Choose a kind. Pick the kind of document on its card, or use Set for all.
• Needs something. The pattern requires a field that's empty. ShipShape asks instead of guessing, so an insurance policy waits for its expiry date.
• Same name as another file. Two files can't share a name in one place. Change the kind of one, or fill in another field to tell them apart.
• Name too long. A file name can be at most 255 characters. Shorten what you typed.

Files that are ready can download without the others, and the rest stay on screen. Show me jumps to the first one that needs something.

Some characters can't be in a file name: \ / : * ? " < > |. ShipShape replaces them with a dash and tells you on the card. Everything else you type stays as you typed it, including & and #.

Your naming convention, by example

A convention is your company's set of patterns, one per kind of document. A pattern is a list of parts in order. For Minutes:

HV.2026.03.09.Minutes.pdf

• HV is the association's abbreviation.
• 2026.03.09 is the date, written the convention's way.
• Minutes is the kind's name.
• The periods are the convention's separator, and the extension is kept as it was, in lowercase.

Change any of this in Conventions. The top card sets the separator and date format for everything. Edit opens one pattern, where you can move parts, add them, or remove them, with a preview above.

• Required or optional. An optional part left empty disappears along with its separator.
• Word before. A word that shows only when its part is filled in, such as "Expires " before a date.
• Start on today. Untick this for a date that isn't about today, such as an expiry date.
• Folder. Where the file goes in a zip. Use a slash for a folder inside a folder: BOARD PACKETS/Packet Documents.

Changing a pattern never changes names already in your log.

Associations and units

Each association has a name and an abbreviation, which starts every file name. Two active associations can't share one.

On an association's page you can list its units, one per line, as number plus street initials: 1788HC. The Unit field then offers them as you type, and says if one isn't on the list. You can still type any unit.

Archiving takes an association out of the drop zone and keeps its log.

Check a name

Check a name tells you whether files that are already named follow your convention, and what's off if not. Paste the names, or drop the files. Only the name is read, and nothing is changed.

Where your files go

Renaming happens in your browser, and your download comes straight from there. A copy of each renamed file then waits in private storage for 24 hours, so Download again in the rename log can hand it back. Downloading it from the log deletes it within ten minutes. Keep for the board packet holds it for 7 days from the day you renamed it. Files are never read, and nobody outside your company can reach them. The log keeps names, never files.

Signing in

• You sign in to ShipShape with a Longline Labs account: one account for every Longline Labs app. On the sign-in page, click Continue with Longline Labs. Its name, email address, password and two-step sign-in are managed at account.longlinelabs.com, and Settings has the link.
• A new company starts at Start your free trial: sign in with your Longline Labs account (or create one there in a minute), then name your company. The person who starts the trial is the account owner. The free trial is 30 days, and no card is needed.
• Forgot your password? Click Continue with Longline Labs, then Forgot your password? on the Longline Labs sign-in page.
• To change the email address ShipShape uses, change it in your Longline Labs account. It changes here the next time you sign in.

Your team

Everyone on the team shares your convention, your associations and the rename log, and anyone on the team can change the convention and the associations. Only the account owner sees the Team page, chooses the plan and changes the company's name.

1. On Team, under Invite someone, type their email (and their name, if you like) and click Send invite.
2. They get an email with a link to join. They sign in with their Longline Labs account for that address (or create one) and they're in. The link works for 14 days. Until they accept, they're listed under Waiting to accept, where you can Resend a fresh link or Cancel.
3. Once they join, they sign in like you and see everything the team sees.

When someone leaves, the owner clicks Remove beside their name. They lose access right away, and the files they renamed stay in the log under their name.

Plan and billing

• One price for your whole company: $190 a year or $19 a month. Everyone on the team is included, with no limit on how many people you add.
• The owner chooses a plan in Settings, under Plan and billing, and pays on Stripe's secure page. Choose one with more than two days of the trial left and nothing is charged until the trial ends; closer to the end, billing starts that day.
• Adding or removing people never changes the bill.
• Manage billing opens Stripe's page, where the owner changes the card, downloads invoices or cancels. Switch to yearly or Switch to monthly changes how often you pay, and Stripe shows the exact amount before you confirm.
• Team members see a Plan card in Settings that says where the plan stands and who the owner is.

When a trial or plan ends

If the free trial ends without a plan, or a plan is canceled (or its payments stop) and its paid time runs out:

• You can still rename and download files on Home, just as before.
• Nothing is logged, so no copy is kept for Download again.
• Conventions and Associations can be read but not changed, and the owner can't invite or remove anyone.
• The rename log stays, and you can still download it.

We keep everything for 30 days. The strip at the top of the app's pages gives the date it will be deleted, and the owner gets an email 7 days before. On that date your convention, associations, rename log, team and logins are deleted for good. Choose a plan any time before then and everything carries on as it was.

A canceled plan keeps working until the end of the time you paid for. Until then, the owner can undo the cancel from Manage billing.

Downloading the rename log

The rename log keeps every file renamed: its original name, its new name, the folder, the association, the kind, who renamed it and when. It never holds the files themselves.

• On Home, Export CSV, next to the log's search box, downloads what you're looking at: the association you picked, narrowed by your search.
• In Settings, under Download your data, Download the rename log gives you every row, for every association.

Both are a spreadsheet (CSV) that opens in Excel or Google Sheets. Anyone on the team can download them, and they still work after a trial or plan ends.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't store documents. It's what you drop files through on their way to the shared drive, the board packet or your website.
• It takes PDFs only. Save a Word or Excel file or a picture as a PDF first.
• It doesn't work out a name from what's inside a file. No scanning, no AI. The preview is for your eyes only: your own browser shows it, and nothing is sent anywhere.
• It doesn't connect to OneDrive, Google Drive, SharePoint or Dropbox. You download the file and move it.
• It doesn't decide what a file should be called. The convention is yours.