Real matters are not one document. They are a contract, a dozen emails, two invoices and someone's notes. If you want an AI tool to read them together, the same person has to carry the same placeholder in all of them.
What goes wrong with one file at a time
Anonymize each file separately and you get this: in the contract, Maria Lopez is Person_1 and her landlord is Person_2. In the emails, the tool starts counting again, so the landlord is Person_1 and Maria is Person_2. Paste both into the same chat and the AI sees two different people called Person_1 and gets the story backwards.
The restore step breaks too. When the AI refers to Person_1, which one does it mean? The key for the contract and the key for the emails disagree.
One matter, one key
The fix is simple to state. For one client or matter, keep a single table of placeholders. Every document in the matter uses it. Then:
- Person_1 is Maria Lopez in every file, including files you add next month.
- The AI can follow her across the contract, the email and the invoice.
- One restore step covers every answer about the matter.
The article on placeholders and black bars explains why labels that stay the same matter for the AI's reasoning.
By hand
You can do this with a spreadsheet: one row per person or company, one column for the placeholder, one for the real value, one for spellings. Work through each document with the same sheet open. It is dependable for three or four short files and falls apart beyond that: new spellings turn up, a name in a footer is missed in file seven, and nobody remembers whether Company_4 was the bank or the insurer.
If you do it by hand, add every new person to the sheet the moment they appear, and search each finished file once more for every name on the sheet.
How ClientSafe handles a case
- One client, one case. Documents live in cases. Add files or a whole folder, including subfolders. A file you add twice is not duplicated.
- The same name, the same placeholder. It applies across every document of the case, including different spellings of one name.
- Review once. Untick a match and it is removed from every document in the case. Mark something it missed, and it is replaced in all of them, including documents you add later.
- Merge and split. If two spellings were treated as two people, merge them. If two people were treated as one, split them. Placeholder numbers are not reused.
- Restore. Paste the AI's answer and the real names come back from the table for that case.
- Delete the case when the matter closes. That removes the table and the safe copies. The original files on your disk are not touched.
A small example
A tenancy dispute has three documents: the lease, an email thread and a rent ledger.
| Real | Placeholder | Appears in |
|---|---|---|
| Maria Lopez | Person_1 | Lease, emails, ledger |
| Northwind Ltd | Company_1 | Lease, emails |
| 14 Harbor Street | Address_1 | Lease, ledger |
| j.alvarez@example.com | Email_1 | Emails |
Ask "Did Person_1 pay rent on the dates the lease requires, according to the ledger?" and the AI can connect the lease terms to the ledger lines, because Person_1 and Address_1 mean the same thing in both.
Asking questions across documents
Once the documents share placeholders, you can ask things a single file cannot answer:
- "Build a timeline from these documents."
- "Does the email contradict the contract on the payment date?"
- "List every obligation of Company_1 across the documents."
- "Which invoices relate to the work described in the agreement?"
Label each document in your prompt, for example "Document A: lease. Document B: email thread." The AI can then tell you which one a statement comes from. If the case is large, send the documents that matter for the question, not the whole folder. AI tools have limits on how much they can read at once.
When the case gets large
A hundred documents will not fit into one chat, and they should not all go in anyway. Keep the case complete in the tool that holds the key, and choose the passages for each question. The placeholders stay the same whichever subset you send, which is the point of keeping one key. A good habit is to keep a short index of the documents by name, so you can tell the AI which one a passage comes from without sending the file name itself.
Pitfalls
- Two matters in one case. The same person may appear in both, with a different role. Keep matters apart.
- Same name, different people. Two clients called Maria Lopez need two placeholders. A tool should not merge them silently, and you should check.
- Adding documents halfway. A new file brings new names. Make a fresh safe copy for it and ask follow-ups in a new chat if the earlier answers depended on missing information.
- Different spellings across languages. A name written in two scripts is one person. Check merged items.
- Hidden content. Comments, notes and sheets carry names. See the checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use one case for several clients?
Better not. One case per client or matter keeps the placeholders and the restore unambiguous.
What happens to the numbers if I add a file later?
People already in the case keep their placeholders. New people get the next free number.
Can I see which files a name appears in?
Yes. The review panel lists each found value, its placeholder and how many files it appears in.
ClientSafe keeps one set of placeholders per case on your PC, shows each found value with the number of files it appears in, and restores the real names into the AI's answer. Detection is not perfect, so review the list before you copy.