Document Engine – Document Library, PDF Viewer & Post to PDF

Description

Document Engine turns WordPress into a document library your visitors can actually use. Publish policies, meeting minutes, reports, forms and guides; let people search and filter them instantly; show PDFs in a fast viewer that runs on your own site; and let visitors save any post or page as a PDF.

It is built for the block editor, works with any theme, and the free plugin has no document limits, no ads and no time limits.

Made for councils and public bodies, schools and universities, housing and community associations, intranets and HR teams, nonprofits, law and accounting firms, and member sites.

Try it live · Documentation · Free vs Pro · Pro features · Pricing

Free vs Pro at a glance

The free plugin is complete on its own. Document Engine Pro adds control, proof and scale for organisations, in the same screens.

• Document library. Free: table, grid and folder layouts, instant search, multi-select filters with counts, preview popup. Pro adds custom-field columns and filters, search inside files and ZIP downloads.
• PDF viewer. Free: self-hosted viewer with search, thumbnails, outline and links. Pro adds a secure view-only mode with the reader’s name on every page, and reading analytics.
• Who can open what. Free: drafts, private and password-protected documents (their files stay in the public uploads folder). Pro adds members-only documents by role, person or category, private file storage and tracked share links.
• Records and compliance. Free: download counts and accessible-format requests. Pro adds an audit log, read-and-confirm with evidence export, versions, and review and expiry dates.
• Post to PDF. Free: a Download PDF button with header, footer, custom CSS and PDF permissions. Pro adds text and image watermarks and Handbook PDFs.
• Moving in and automation. Free: migration from three plugins, blocks, shortcodes and Elementor widgets. Pro adds bulk and CSV import, submissions, webhooks, Slack and Teams, and WP-CLI.
• Support. Free: the community forum. Pro: email support, priority on the Agency plan.

Compare every feature · See what Pro adds · Pro plans from $79 a year

Why Document Engine

• A real document library, free. Table, grid and folder layouts with instant search, filters with counts, multi-select filters, sorting and shareable links, all in the free plugin.
• A private PDF viewer. Built on PDF.js and served from your own site: no Google Docs viewer, no third-party requests, so it works on intranets and staging sites and helps with GDPR.
• Viewer features other plugins charge for. Search inside PDFs, page thumbnails and outline, clickable links, links to a page (#page=4), print, download and full screen.
• One link per document, for good. Every download goes through the document’s own link: downloads are counted (bots and link previews are ignored), and replacing the file keeps the same link, so emails and printed QR codes never break.
• Accessibility first. Keyboard and screen-reader friendly libraries and viewer, checked with automated WCAG 2.1 AA tests, plus an optional “Request an accessible version” form.

Document library

• Documents with nested categories, tags, a description and their own page. Titles are filled in from the file name.
• Document Library block (and [document_engine_library] shortcode, and Elementor widget) with table, grid and folder layouts and a live preview in the editor.
• Instant search as visitors type, and it still works without JavaScript.
• Filters by category (with document counts), tag, file type, year and author, plus sorting and pagination. Turn on “Let visitors pick several” to let people combine categories, tags or file types.
• Shareable filtered views: every search and filter has its own address, so you can link straight to “all 2026 minutes”.
• Preview popup: PDFs, images, audio and video open in a popup from the library, without leaving the page.
• Document Search block: put a search box in your header or home page that shows results in your library.
• Document List block: newest, recently updated, most downloaded or related documents, and optional related documents under each document page.
• Document Download block: one document as a card or a button, anywhere.
• Documents in your site search, with file type and size.
• Download or open: set it for the whole site, or per document.
• Any file type: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, audio, video, archives, or a link to a file on another site (for example a Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive share link).
• Turn existing files into documents: select them in Media → Library and choose Create documents.
• Mobile friendly: libraries adapt to phones and narrow columns and use your theme’s fonts and colours.

PDF viewer

• Self-hosted PDF.js viewer with page navigation, zoom, fit to width or page, print, download and full screen. The download, print and full-screen buttons, search and the sidebar can each be switched off; page navigation and zoom switch off together with the toolbar.
• Search inside the PDF with highlighted matches.
• Page thumbnails and outline (bookmarks) sidebar.
• Clickable links inside PDFs, including links to other pages of the same PDF.
• Link to a page: add #page=12 to a document’s address.
• Fast: the viewer loads when it scrolls into view and renders pages as you read. Text stays selectable.
• Show a document, a Media Library PDF or a PDF from another site with the PDF Viewer block or [document_engine_viewer].

Document pages

Every document gets a clean page with its file type, size, last update, categories, a download button and, for PDFs, the viewer. Pages are indexed by search engines, and can be switched off if you only want the file links. Templates can be overridden in your theme.

Post to PDF

• A “Download PDF” button on the post types you choose, placed before or after the content, or anywhere with the Save as PDF block or [document_engine_pdf_button].
• Header logo, title and page numbers, footer text, page orientation, margins, text size, custom CSS or your theme’s styles.
• Optional PDF protection (print, copy and edit permissions).
• PDF-only shortcodes for page breaks, columns and content hidden from the PDF.
• Fast and safe: generated PDFs are cached, each visitor has a per-minute limit, and only public content is exported (never private or password-protected posts).

Moving from another plugin

Document Engine copies your documents from Document Library (Barn2), Download Monitor and WordPress Download Manager: titles, descriptions, categories, tags, files, download counts, dates and passwords. A preview shows what will be copied first, the original plugin’s data is never changed, and running it again skips anything already moved. Afterwards the old shortcodes keep working and old download links redirect, so you can deactivate the old plugin.

For editors and admins

• QR code for every document (PNG or SVG) to print on notices, agendas and handouts.
• Command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + K): add a document or jump to any document from anywhere in the admin.
• Documents list with file type and size, category and download counts, and filters by category and file type.
• Roles: choose which roles manage all documents, publish their own, or only draft.
• Documentation built in under Documents → Docs.
• Multilingual: WPML and Polylang configuration included.
• Ready for AI assistants: the WordPress Abilities API lets assistants search and read your library, only ever returning documents the signed-in user may open.

Document Engine Pro

The free plugin publishes documents. Pro controls who can open them, proves who read them, and keeps them up to date, for councils, schools, HR teams, intranets, client portals and member sites.

Pro is an add-on: install it next to the free plugin and its features appear in the same screens. Your documents, pages and settings stay exactly as they are. See Document Engine Pro

Pro is for you if you need to…

• Publish staff-only or members-only documents without a membership plugin: restrict a document, or a whole category, to logged-in users, chosen roles or named people.
• Stop files being shared by their address: restricted files move out of the public uploads folder and are only served to people allowed to open them.
• Send a document to someone outside your site, such as an auditor, a board member or a client, with a link that expires and tells you when they opened it.
• Make staff confirm they’ve read a policy, with deadlines, reminders and evidence you can export for an inspection or audit.
• See which documents people read, for how long, and what they search for but can’t find.
• Collect leads before a download (name, email, consent), for brochures, reports and whitepapers.
• Keep a register of documents with your own fields (reference number, department, review date) that visitors can filter and sort by.
• Move hundreds of files in at once from a spreadsheet, and keep them current with versions, review dates and automatic expiry.

Everything Pro adds

Screenshots and details of every feature are on the Document Engine Pro page.

Access control

• Members-only documents by logged-in users, roles or named people, per document or for a whole category (sub-categories follow).
• Restricted documents shown with a lock or hidden from people who can’t open them, and left out of site search, feeds and file-content search.
• Private file storage for restricted files, with a Site Health test that checks the folder really is private (and shows the nginx rule when it isn’t).
• Share links for people without an account: expiring, named per recipient, with open tracking, an optional email on first open, and one-click revoke.
• “My documents” block: a client or staff area listing the documents shared with the signed-in person, with what’s new since their last visit.

Secure viewing and downloads

• Secure viewer for PDFs: read-only, with no download, print or copy buttons, and the reader’s name, email and date watermarked on every page.
• Stamped PDF downloads: every downloaded PDF carries the reader’s details.
• Email gate: name and email (and optionally organisation) with your consent text before a download; returning visitors pass straight through. Leads are listed, exported to CSV, emailed to you or sent to a webhook, and deleted after a retention period you choose.
• Abuse protection: a daily limit on how many different documents one person can open, and Cloudflare Turnstile on the email gate, request and submission forms.

Proof and insight

• Activity log of views, downloads, blocked attempts, leads and share-link opens, with charts, top documents, filters and CSV export. No IP addresses are stored; entries are deleted after your retention period.
• Reading analytics: time spent on each page of a PDF and how far people read.
• Search insights: what visitors search for, and the searches that found nothing.
• Read and confirm: ask chosen roles to confirm “I have read and understood”, with deadlines, reminder emails, a Required Reading block, new rounds after an important change, and an evidence export (who, when, the statement they confirmed and a fingerprint of the file).
• Views in the last 30 days and access status right in the documents list.

Keeping documents current

• Versions: replace a file without changing its link, see the history and restore any version. Upload a new version from the documents list (or drop a file onto a row).
• Review-by and expiry dates, with a daily email of documents due for review; expired documents are unpublished automatically.
• Custom fields (text, number, date, choice list, yes/no, link, email) shown as library columns, filters with counts and sort options, on document pages and in search. Works with Advanced Custom Fields.
• PDF accessibility check that flags untagged, scanned or untitled PDFs in the documents list.

Scale and automation

• Search inside PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), PowerPoint (.pptx), OpenDocument and plain text files, up to 30 MB, in libraries and site search (older .doc, .xls and .ppt files and files linked from other sites are not indexed).
• Automatic PDF thumbnails for grid layouts (when your server can make PDF previews).
• Bulk upload (drag and drop many files) and CSV import, including updates by ID and custom-field columns.
• ZIP download: visitors select several documents in a table library and download them as one ZIP (up to 100 files and 250 MB).
• Front-end submissions: chosen roles upload documents from a page, with allowed file types, a size limit and moderation.
• Watermarks on Post to PDF: text or image, with placeholders such as {name} and {date}.
• Handbook PDF: many posts in one PDF with a cover and table of contents, for admins or visitors ([document_engine_handbook]).
• Notifications: signed webhooks (for Zapier, Make or your own system), Slack or Microsoft Teams messages, and email subscriptions by category with a Subscribe block and one-click unsubscribe.
• AI assistant in the editor that suggests a title, summary, categories and tags from the file’s text for you to review. It needs an AI provider connected in WordPress (Settings → Connectors, WordPress 7.0 or newer); Pro holds no keys of its own.
• More for AI agents: abilities to read a document’s text (never for secure documents) and to list documents due for review.
• WP-CLI: list, import, stats, reindex, protect and share.
• Personal data export and erase for leads, activity, searches, reading sessions and acknowledgements, and automatic updates with an active licence.

Plans (every plan includes every Pro feature):

• Personal: 1 website, $79 a year or $199 lifetime.
• Plus: 5 websites, $149 a year or $379 lifetime.
• Agency: 25 websites and priority support, $249 a year or $599 lifetime.

Every plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee (refund policy). If a licence expires, Pro keeps working; only updates and support stop.

See Pro plans and pricing

External services

The free plugin works without any external service. It only contacts one in these cases:

• Google Docs Viewer (docs.google.com): only for PDF Viewer blocks created with version 1, on sites upgraded from version 1, until you switch on Documents → Settings → PDF Viewer → Version 1 blocks. The visitor’s browser loads Google’s viewer, which fetches the PDF’s address. New installs never use it. Google Terms of Service, Google Privacy Policy.
• MatrixAddons licence server (store.mantrabrain.com): only when an administrator enters a Pro licence key on Documents → Free vs Pro to install Pro. The licence key and your site’s address are sent to check the licence and download Pro. Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy.
• Files you link to: documents or viewers that point to a file on another website load that file from that website.
• Images in Post to PDF: when a post includes images or stylesheets from another website, your server fetches them from that website while it builds the PDF (local and private addresses are refused).