Preview

The Preview panel (the eye icon in the right rail) shows your application assembled as one document: title, bibliography, sections in filing order, the claim set placed before the abstract, and drawing sheets last, formatted for the application's jurisdiction.

The preview is a faithful rendering of the outgoing document. Cross-references you inserted in the editors (claim 1, FIG. 2, reference signs) appear as resolved plain text, exactly as the document reads when filed and exactly matching the Word export. The interactive reference chips live in the editors, not here.

The document updates live as you type and as the assistant edits content. Optional sections stay hidden until they have text, and the claim set appears once at least one claim has text.

Need more room? The expand button in the panel header sweeps the preview over the whole work area. The collapse button, or navigating anywhere from the sidebar, brings you back to the page you came from, with the preview still open and docked on the right.

Following your work

By default the preview scrolls to the section you are working on: open a section editor and the panel jumps to that section, open Claims and it jumps to the claim set. Toggle this with the pin icon in the panel header.

Drawing sheets

Figures that carry an image render at the end of the document, one sheet per figure, captioned with the figure label alone (FIG. 1), the way filed drawing sheets read. The sheets carry no section heading, and figure descriptions belong in the Brief description of the drawings section rather than under the sheet: in a filed application that is the only drawings heading. The Word export carries the same sheets, each on its own page, scaled to fit inside the page margins.

Previewing another application

The panel header carries two crumbs after the Preview label: Application and Version. The application crumb is a searchable picker over your whole portfolio, the current matter's filings grouped at the top and everything else below labelled with its matter, so you can pull up a parent case, a sibling filing, or a priority document for reference without leaving the one you're editing. Pick Working draft at the top of the list to return to the application in scope. The same "Show in preview" action sits on every application card's menu on the Applications page and in each version's menu on the Versions page.

The version crumb switches the previewed application between its working draft and any of its frozen versions, and its Manage versions entry jumps to that application's Versions page. You can also pin a version by clicking it there.

Previewing anything other than the application you're editing (another application, or a frozen version of your own) highlights the crumb, outlines the document, and shows a clear (×) button next to the crumbs to return in one click. It's also read-only there, since editing lands on the application in scope, not the one on screen — and the formatting button opens that other application's settings, also read-only. Auto-scroll still follows the section you're working on even while previewing something else, so the reference document scrolls to the matching part of its own text. Clicking into whatever you're editing also returns the preview automatically.

Because the editor always shows the working draft, pinning a frozen version of your own application gives you a side-by-side compare: current text on the left, the frozen state on the right. Drawing sheets, reference-sign numbers, and prior-art citations on a pinned version show what was true when it was frozen, not the current registry (see Versioning) — except on versions frozen before that capture shipped, which still show the registry's current state for those three.

Exporting

The download button in the panel header builds a Microsoft Word (.docx) file: the assembled document in the formatting set for the previewed application, followed by the drawing sheets. Previewing a sibling filing exports that filing, without switching what you're editing.

The export gathers your drawings before it builds the file, so the button dims while it works. A figure whose image cannot be loaded is left out and the rest of the document still downloads — a notice below the panel header names any figures that were left out, so you can check the file before filing.

Formatting

The formatting button in the panel header opens the document settings for the previewed application, grouped as Paragraphs, Fonts and Headings. Changes save as you make them and apply to the preview and the Word export. Reset returns them to the defaults for the jurisdiction. While you're previewing anything other than the application you're editing (a frozen version, or another application) the document settings render read-only, since restyling a document you can't currently edit would be misleading.

Fonts offers Times New Roman or Arial, the nonscript faces the offices accept, plus a Read the preview in the app font checkbox. That checkbox is a reading preference only: it makes long stretches easier on the eyes in a narrow panel, is remembered across sessions, and never changes the document or the Word export. It stays available even when the settings above are read-only.

Headings sets whether section headings are centred or left-aligned.

Page setup (paper size, margins, type size and line spacing) is not adjustable, because the filing rules fix it: A4 for EP, PCT and NL filings (US filings go out on Letter, which the USPTO also accepts), minimum margins of 2 cm with 2.5 cm at the binding edge, and 12 pt nonscript type at 1.5 line spacing. Nodes-IP uses those values so the document as filed is compliant.

Paragraph formatting has three settings:

• Numbered: paragraphs carry [0001], [0002] and so on. This is a USPTO convention, so it is the default for US filings. Numbering runs continuously across the whole document rather than restarting in each section, and headings and tables are skipped.
• Indented: each paragraph opens with a first-line indent and no blank line between paragraphs, the traditional EPO filing form. This is the default for EP, PCT and NL.
• Not numbered: plain paragraphs separated by a blank line.

Each entry in the Brief description of the drawings is a paragraph in its own right, so under numbered formatting every FIG. n is a ... line takes its own number.