The document viewer lets you read uploaded course materials side by side with the chat. Open a Bloom, click the Documents tab in the workspace pane, choose a file, and it opens in a PDF reader inside the app. When the AI cites a source in its response, you can click the citation and the viewer jumps to that exact page. Bloom also remembers the last page you were on for each file in a conversation, so you can switch tabs and come back without losing your place.
Behind the scenes, every supported file (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, JSON, Markdown) is rendered through Bloom’s embedded PDF.js viewer. The viewer streams the file from your Bloom’s storage, so the document never leaves the browser tab.
Before you start
You need:
- A Bloom that has at least one file ingested. See How to upload course materials.
- Access to that file. Educators see every file. Students only see files set to View Only or Full Access. Files marked Hidden from Students or Reference Only never open in the student-facing viewer.
- The Documents workspace tab enabled on the Bloom. Some Blooms turn it off in configuration, in which case you will not see the tab at all.
Step 1: Open the Documents tab
Inside a Bloom, look at the workspace pane on the right of the chat. You will see a row of tabs: Canvas, Documents, Quizzes, and (if enabled) Desmos. Click Documents.
If the workspace pane is collapsed, click the workspace toggle on the right edge of the chat first. The pane will expand to about 60 percent of the screen on first open, then remember your size after that.
Step 2: Pick a file
Click any row in the list. Bloom fetches the file, renders it in the viewer, and replaces the list view. Above the page you will see the filename. Use the back arrow at the top left of the viewer to return to the list.
Files with the .url extension are not rendered in the viewer. Clicking one opens the URL in a new tab instead, since they point to external pages rather than uploaded content.
Step 3: Jump from a citation
When the AI grounds an answer in your knowledge base, the response shows a Sources section beneath it. Each citation lists the source filename and the pages used, for example: Week 1 Lecture Notes.pdf (Pages: 3, 7).
Click the underlined source name. Bloom does three things at once:
- opens the workspace pane if it is collapsed,
- switches the workspace to the Documents tab,
- opens that file and jumps to the first cited page.
Step 4: Navigate the viewer
The embedded viewer gives you the standard PDF.js controls along the top:
- Page input: type a page number to jump directly.
- Zoom: zoom in and out, or fit the page to width or full page.
- Find: open the search bar to find text inside the document.
- Download: only enabled for files where the access level is set to Full Access. For converted files (DOCX, PPTX, etc.) this downloads the original, not the converted PDF.
Bloom saves the page you were last on for each file, scoped to the current conversation. When you reopen the viewer in that conversation, it restores the saved page automatically. Citation jumps always win: if you click a Sources link to page 7, you land on page 7 even if your saved position was page 3.
Step 5: On mobile
On screens narrower than 1024 pixels, Bloom shows the chat and the workspace as separate top-level views rather than side by side. Tap the workspace icon in the top tab strip to switch to Documents, pick a file, and the viewer takes the full screen. Tap the chat icon to go back to the conversation.
Common issues
The Documents tab is missing
Either the Bloom has no files ingested yet, or the educator has disabled the Documents workspace tab in configuration. Upload a file (see Upload course materials) or ask the educator to enable the tab.
The viewer shows a grey screen and never loads
The file is still ingesting, or the storage URL has expired. Click the back arrow, wait a few seconds, and click the file again. If it still fails, the file may be corrupted, try re-uploading it.
“The download was interrupted due to a network issue.”
Bloom shows this toast when your connection drops mid-download. Reconnect and click Download again. Partial downloads are not resumed, you start from zero.
The download button is greyed out
The educator has not given you permission to download this file. Access levels of View Only, Reference Only, and Hidden from Students all disable the download button for students. Only Full Access enables it.
Citation link does nothing when clicked
The cited filename does not match a document in the current Bloom (for example, the file was renamed or deleted after the AI generated the answer). Open the Documents tab manually and find the file by name.
What’s next
- Update or replace files in your knowledge base → Manage and update documents
- Add new materials so citations point at fresh content → Upload course materials
- Open Bloom and try the viewer now → Manage Blooms