The Explorer's browse views can render the same folders and documents three ways: a compact list of rows, a grid of cards, each with a large live preview of the document's canvas, or a details table you can sort by any column. Recognising a document by its picture is often faster than reading near-identical names, so the card view shines in folders full of variations on a theme; the list packs more onto the screen when you know exactly what you're looking for.
Switching views
Look for the three-button toggle at the right of the header on the Explorer page's browse views (Recent, Favourites, Search results, My documents, folders, and This browser). Click List view (the rows icon) for the list, Card view (the grid icon) for cards, or Details view (the table icon) for the table. The choice applies immediately and to all of those views at once.
The same toggle appears on a team's shared library, and it shares the same preference, so a card-view person gets cards there too.
Cards are what you get until you choose otherwise: a document is easiest to recognise by its picture, and the grid is the view that shows you one. Your choice is then remembered per device (it's a layout preference, not account data), so your phone and your desktop can each keep the view that suits their screen.
What a card shows
Each card carries everything its list row does, arranged around the preview:
- A live snapshot of the document's first tab, rendered from the actual canvas and refreshed when the document changes. The preview keeps the document's own background colour, so the card reads like a window onto the canvas.
- The name, the last-updated time, the owner where relevant, the Made by AI or Local only pill where one applies, and the same visibility badge and ⋯ menu as the list row: Rename, Duplicate, Change Folder, Favourite, Hide from Recent and Delete, among others.
- A star on anything you have favourited: before the name in the list view, so a column of rows lines its stars up in one scannable vertical, and in the meta row on a card. It is amber rather than brand-coloured because it is a personal mark sitting beside badges that describe the document itself.
- Folders appear as folder cards in the same grid, so navigation doesn't change between views, and a folder card previews what is inside it: a small mosaic of up to four tiles, the document snapshots it holds first, then its subfolders. When there are more than four, the last tile becomes a muted +N counting the rest. An empty folder keeps the plain folder glyph. This is the card grid only; the list view keeps its count badge, and the editor's Explorer panel is unchanged.
The grid is responsive: one column on a phone, two on a tablet, three on a wide screen.
The details view
The details view is a table, one row per folder or document, much like the details pane of a desktop file manager:
- Name: open a document or folder from it. Rest the pointer on a document's row for a moment (or tab to its name) and a preview of its canvas appears beside it; move down the rows and each next preview appears at once.
- Type: the mode the document was last worked in (Diagram, Draw, Illustrate or Plan), with its icon. Folders read Folder.
- Comments: how many comments the document holds, resolved ones included. Empty when there are none.
- Access: what you may do with it, as the Share dialog's role icon: Editor for your own, team and this-browser documents, or the role a shared link gives you.
- Size: how many objects the document holds across its tabs, and how much space it takes, for example 12 objects (34 KB). A folder shows how many items it holds.
- Created and Updated: the date and time.
Press any column heading to sort by it; press it again to reverse. Folders always stay above documents. The sort is remembered on this device, like the view.
A document's numbers can show – for a short while after an update to livediagram, while older documents are counted; they fill in on their own. Documents shared with you always show – for Type, Comments, Size and Created, since they sit in someone else's library. On a phone the table keeps just the name and the last update.
You can drag any of your own or your team's document rows onto a folder, here or in the sidebar, to move it there.
About the previews
Snapshot thumbnails also appear in list rows and other Explorer surfaces; the card view just shows them large. A few behaviours worth knowing:
- Previews load lazily as you scroll, so a long library doesn't fetch dozens of images up front.
- A document with an empty first tab shows a dashed sketch captioned "Nothing drawn yet" instead of a snapshot, and while a snapshot loads a placeholder fades into it, so the card never jumps in size.
- Previews are rendered fresh after the document is edited, so what you see stays current without you doing anything.
- A preview is vector, not a photo of the canvas, which is why it is crisp at any size. It is also the very same picture a live image link serves: one snapshot per document, drawn once and used as a 36px row thumbnail, as this card, and in your README.
The Shared with me page keeps its own fixed layout, previews included, so incoming shares always look the same regardless of the toggle.
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