From first launch to a source-checked answer.

01

Before you begin

OriginPage v1 is designed for 64-bit Windows 11, English documents, English OCR, and local SSD-backed storage. A 16 GB Windows laptop with SSD storage is the current reference class; answer generation also checks that at least 4 GiB of physical memory is available before it starts.

Install OriginPage

1. Open the OriginPage Microsoft Store listing, choose Free trial when available, then select Install. Microsoft Store determines trial eligibility. You can also buy the app from the same listing.
2. Let Windows finish the full installation. The app and its local models are included; there is no first-run model download.
3. Select Open, or launch OriginPage from Start later.
4. Keep enough free disk space for the app, your managed Workspace copies, and import working space. OriginPage blocks new work before disk pressure can make a Workspace unsafe.

No OriginPage account or API key: ordinary document work does not require an app sign-in, cloud model, provider selection, or model configuration. Microsoft Store may require a Microsoft account to acquire the trial or purchase.

02

First launch and the app layout

OriginPage creates a default Personal Workspace and an empty Conversation. Select Add Documents in the center of the window or beside the Documents heading. The left side holds the active Workspace, its documents, and its conversations. The main area switches between Chat and Search.

After documents become Ready, the full layout shows document status on the left and the question composer below the main Chat area. A new Conversation also offers prompt starters; selecting one fills the composer so you can review or edit it before sending.

03

Organize work with Workspaces

A Workspace is a private boundary. Its Documents, Conversations, searches, and answer evidence are kept separate from every other Workspace. Use separate Workspaces for different clients, projects, or subjects when their sources should never mix.

1. Select the More button beside the Workspace selector.
2. Choose New workspace, enter a clear name, and select Create.
3. Use the Workspace selector to switch. OriginPage restores the active Workspace after restart.
4. Use Rename workspace when the subject changes. Renaming does not move or reprocess documents.

04

Keep questions in Conversations

Each Workspace can hold multiple durable Conversations. Select New conversation to start a separate thread without erasing older work. Select a Conversation card to reopen it. Completed questions, answer text, scopes, claims, and sources are designed to survive restart.

Use a focused Conversation for related questions. Follow-ups can use earlier turns to understand what “it” or “that plan” refers to, but earlier answers never become evidence; only eligible document passages can support a new factual claim.

05

Import PDF, TXT, and Word documents

1. Select Add Documents, or drag supported files onto the app window.
2. Select one or several .pdf, .txt, or .docx files. OriginPage copies accepted files into the active Workspace; it never edits the originals.
3. Watch each item progress through validation, text extraction, passage creation, and indexing.
4. Wait for the green Ready status before searching or including a Document in Question Scope.

A batch can contain a mix of successful, duplicate, rejected, or failed items. A duplicate points to the Document already in the Workspace instead of indexing the same content twice. Use Retry for a recoverable failure, Remove for an unwanted managed copy, and Clear all to dismiss completed batch results.

06

Review scanned PDFs before they become evidence

Image-only pages and pages without dependable selectable text enter OCR Review. Recognition runs locally in English. OriginPage does not silently treat OCR output as trustworthy evidence.

1. Open the Document marked Needs OCR review.
2. For each flagged page, compare the page preview with the recognized text. Pay special attention to names, dates, totals, and warnings about low confidence.
3. Select Approve when the recognized text is good enough to search and cite, or Exclude when it is not dependable.
4. Finish the review only after every flagged page has a decision. Approved text is indexed; excluded and pending text cannot support answers.

OCR boundaries: v1 is English-only, is not designed for handwriting, and accepts at most 100 scanned pages in one PDF. A document with mixed selectable and scanned pages can use both extracted text and your approved OCR text.

07

Inspect or remove a Document

Open a Document’s More menu and choose View details. The details surface groups status, file identity, processing details, and a preview of the extracted text that OriginPage actually searches.

Select Remove to delete the managed copy and its processed data from the active Workspace. Existing answer records can retain their historical source labels, but unavailable source text can no longer be reopened. The original file at the location you imported from is never deleted.

08

Find passages with Direct Search

Use Search when you need a clause, date, name, or passage rather than a written answer. Direct Search is fast, non-generative, and does not add a turn to the active Conversation.

1. Open the Search tab and enter a phrase.
2. Choose a mode: Hybrid for most searches, Exact phrase for the requested wording, Keyword for lexical matches, or Semantic for related meaning.
3. Optionally choose one Document. For PDFs, enter a From page and/or To page.
4. Select Search. OriginPage returns up to 50 inspectable passages and labels the match signals used for each result.
5. If you change the query or filters, the existing results remain visible but are marked Out of date. Select Update results when you are ready to run the revised search.
6. Select a result to open its surrounding source context.

09

Ask a grounded question

1. Return to Chat and confirm that the answer model says Ready.
2. Open Answering from. Keep All documents, or choose Selected documents and check at least one Ready Document. Large Workspaces add filtering, Select all Ready documents, and Clear controls.
3. Write a specific question. Include the subject, comparison, date range, or output you need.
4. Select Send or press Enter. Use Shift + Enter for a new line.

The eligible Document set is stored with that question and does not silently expand later when you import more material. If you need a different scope, ask a new question with the new selection.

10

Verify the answer, claim by claim

OriginPage uses retrieved passages from the saved Question Scope as the answer’s factual material. It is designed to expose conflicting evidence and say when the eligible sources are insufficient instead of filling gaps with unstated assumptions.

1. Read the source cards shown with the answer before relying on the prose.
2. Select a cited claim or source card to open the exact retained span in the source inspector.
3. Check the surrounding text, Document name, and PDF page or text-section location.
4. If the evidence is weak, inspect the Document details, try Direct Search, or ask a narrower question with a better scope.
5. Select Copy only after verification. Copy includes the completed answer text; stopped or failed output should be treated as incomplete.

Good habit: use Chat to synthesize and Direct Search to audit. Search can quickly reveal a conflicting date, exception clause, or missing source that a broad question might hide.

11

Understand the local privacy boundary

Extraction, reviewed OCR, indexing, Direct Search, persistence, and answer generation are designed to run on the current Windows device. Ordinary work has no cloud-model fallback. OriginPage keeps a managed copy because it must preserve the exact text and evidence offsets behind search results and claims.

• Source files: never edited or deleted by OriginPage.
• Remove Document: deletes the managed copy and processed data for that Document.
• Repair: keeps application data.
• Reset or uninstall: removes OriginPage application data, including Workspaces.
• Updates: are designed to keep local Workspace data while migrating it forward.

Windows, Microsoft Store services, administrators, malware, backups, and other privileged software are outside the OriginPage process boundary. For the full statement, read the privacy page.

12

Know the v1 operating limits

Unsupported inputs include legacy .doc, macro-enabled or protected Word files, encrypted PDFs, handwriting, and formats other than PDF, TXT, and DOCX. DOCX support extracts supported visible text; it does not reproduce Word’s full visual layout, embedded objects, comments, or deleted revision text.

13

Troubleshooting

14

Keyboard access and compact layout

On a narrow window, OriginPage hides the persistent left panes and shows compact navigation buttons plus the active Workspace name. The same Workspaces, Documents, and Conversations remain available. Source context opens as a light-dismiss overlay; maximize the window when you want a resizable inspector beside the results.