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File Types, Sizes, and Restrictions

The file types and sizes supported by EngagementHQ and the file name restrictions.

Gayathri Rajendiran avatar
Written by Gayathri Rajendiran
Updated over 3 weeks ago

You can upload files to many places in EngagementHQ. These include project and tool descriptions, your homepage, and various widgets.

These file restrictions also apply to files uploaded by participants. Participants can upload files in various ways, including images in Places, Ideas, Stories, and Forum topics, and can upload any valid file type with the Survey File Upload question type. We recommend providing your participants with guidelines for uploading files, such as image sizing and specific file types for submissions.

Supported File Types

We support the following file types:

  • Documents: PDF, XLS, XLSX, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, RTF

  • Audio: MP3, WAV, x-WAV

  • Video: MP4, MPEG, MOV, FLV

  • Images: JPG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG

  • Other: ZIP, XML

  • Places map layers: WMS, KML, Shapefile, GeoJSON

File Sizes

You can upload files of up to 200 MB in size, but we recommend using a maximum of 5 MB and as low as 500 KB if you can. Larger files take longer to view and download, particularly for visitors on mobile devices or with slower internet connections. If your documents are too large, consider splitting them into smaller documents.

File Names and Restricted Characters

It’s also best practice to use only letters and numbers in your file names and short file names that tell the user what they’re downloading. For example, a simple and descriptive file name like “Council Draft Strategic Plan” is better than “Strategic plan for council (draft)_version 4_ongoing.”

You cannot use the following characters in your file names:

  • Hashtag (#), pound (£), or dollar sign ($)

  • Percent (%)

  • Ampersand (&)

  • Left or right braces ({ })

  • Square brackets ([ ])

  • Backslash or forward slash (\ /)

  • Left or right angle brackets (< >)

  • Asterisk (*)

  • Question mark (?)

  • Exclamation point (!)

  • Single or double quotation marks (“ ‘’ ”)

  • Comma (,)

  • Colon (:)

  • Semicolon (;)

  • At symbol (@)

  • Equals sign (=)

  • Plus sign (+)

  • Vertical bar or pipe (|)

  • Caret (^)

  • Tilde (~)

  • Accents in the Roman alphabet (e.g., à, ë, í)

What Else?

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