The full-page Explorer is the complete library view, modelled on a desktop file browser: a sidebar on the left to navigate, and the page you picked on the right, with its folders and documents. Opening /explorer takes you to Home. It is where all your documents live, organised into folders by project, customer, or topic. (For the compact version inside the editor, see the Explorer panel.)
The sidebar is one tree in three groups: Overview, Spaces and More. Every document lives in exactly one place, My documents, a team, or this browser, and everything else in the sidebar is a view that gathers documents from wherever they live. Search sits in the top bar: type there to search, or pick a filter, and the page you are on narrows to what matches (Search and filter documents). Making things happens in the page header: New document is on Home, Timeline, Recent, Favourites and search results, and on My documents and inside a folder it becomes a Create button offering New document and New Folder (New Subfolder inside a folder). Wherever New document is (except Home), an Import from menu sits beside it. Pages that aren't a place a document lands (Inbox, Shared with me, the Library pages, Trash, a team, This browser) have no New document.
Overview
- Home is what the Explorer opens on (Home): the documents you use most and last, and what other people did while you were away. Its See more link opens Recent, which has no sidebar row of its own. The row carries a badge when something has happened since you last looked.
- Inbox lists the open actions and comment threads waiting on you, with a badge counting the open actions and Plan cards assigned to you.
- Timeline is the full feed of everything that has happened across your documents, teams and account, your own doings included. Home's See timeline link opens it too.
- Shared with me gathers every document other people have shared with you into one list, kept apart from your own library so collaborator work and your own never get mixed up. Its badge counts them.
Spaces
Your spaces are the top-level folders of the tree.
- My documents is your own library. Beneath it sit the folders you create; opening it lists those folders, then the documents you have not filed. This is where you do the filing: moving documents into folders with Change Folder, renaming, and nesting folders inside folders. Its own menu (its ⋯ button or a right-click) holds Use as default for (Default folders).
- Each team you belong to sits beside it, and expands to the team's shared folders (Team spaces). Its badge counts the members once there is more than one.
- Invites appears while a team invite is waiting for you.
- New team creates a team. If you are not signed in, a Sign in to access Teams card sits here instead (a self-hosted copy without sign-in shows neither).
More
- This browser lists the documents saved only in this browser (Offline Mode). It shows only while there is at least one. They are yours, like everything in My documents, and every row and card of one carries a Local only pill: hover or focus it to read that it lives only in this browser, and click it for the Offline Mode guide. Their menus offer Sync Document to move one to your account, while a cloud document's menu offers Take Offline to do the reverse.
- Library expands (it has no page of its own) to the Image gallery (every image you have uploaded, with where each is used), Themes (your custom themes, ready to edit or reuse) and Shape libraries.
- Trash holds deleted documents for 30 days, ready to restore.
Moving around with the keyboard
The sidebar is a single stop when you press Tab. Then the arrow keys move up and down, Right opens a row and Left closes it (or moves to its parent), Home and End jump to the first and last rows, Enter or Space opens the row, and typing a letter jumps to the next row starting with it. On a folder, or on My documents, Shift+F10 (or the Menu key) opens its menu.
My documents starts expanded and Library starts closed (it opens by itself when you are on one of its pages). Teams and folders start closed, and what you expand lasts until you reload.
With power user mode and Minimal chrome on, the group titles give way to thin lines between the groups, with nothing above Home.
Each page is named after its row: Home, Shared with me, My documents, This browser, Image gallery and the rest, in the page heading, the browser tab and the breadcrumb.
List or card view
Every browse view (My documents, your folders, Recent, Favourites, Search results, This browser, and a team's shared library) can be shown three ways, switched with the List view / Card view / Details view toggle at the top-right of the pane:
- List packs documents into compact rows, best for scanning a long library by name and date.
- Card shows each document as a tile with a thumbnail of its first tab, best for recognising a document by its shape at a glance.
- Details lays everything out as a table you can sort by any column: type, comments, access, size and dates.
Cards are the starting view. Your choice is remembered on this device, so the Explorer always opens the way you left it. List, Card and Details Views covers the three layouts and the snapshot previews in detail.
Duplicating a Document
To make a copy of a document, open its menu (the ⋯ button on its row or card, or a right-click) and choose Duplicate. A "Document duplicated" notification confirms it, and the copy appears in the list.
- The name is the original's with "copy" on the end, so "Roadmap" becomes "Roadmap copy". Rename it from the same menu.
- Where it goes: beside the original, in the same team and folder. If you can't file a document there (a team you are not in, or a folder that isn't yours), the copy lands at the top of My documents instead.
- Everything comes with it: every tab, its tab folders, and any Plan cards and Sheets on those tabs.
- Links between tabs point at the copy's own tabs, so clicking one inside the copy stays inside the copy. Links to other documents and to websites are left as they are.
- Default folders don't apply. A copy always goes beside its original, never into the folder you set as a default.
- A Local only document duplicates as another Local only document, so nothing you chose to keep in this browser is uploaded. See Offline Mode.
If the copy can't be made, a message says so ("Couldn't duplicate that document. Try again.") and nothing is created.
Finding your way around
Whichever row you pick, the main pane on the right shows its contents. Inside a folder, a breadcrumb under the title traces the folder path so you can click any step to jump back up. On a phone, the menu button beside the page title opens the same sidebar as a drawer from the left; picking a page closes it. Everything works whether or not you are signed in: a guest sees the documents and folders their own browser owns, and can sign in later to carry that work into an account.
New here? Start with My documents to learn folders, then let Home show you what changed since you were last here.
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