Files

Choose the workspace, then Files. Its folders and files are a tree on the left, and the file you open is on the right; each wears an icon for its kind. Drag the edge between them to give the tree more or less room. Space remembers which folders are open and which file you had when you return from another page or reopen Files after a reload. Reopening reads the current file from your machine; it does not restore an older copy over a newer edit.

Find your way

Choose a folder to open it in place, and again to close it. Choose a file to open it. With a keyboard, Tab reaches the tree once, then:

• Up and Down move between rows, and Home and End go to the first and the last.
• Right opens a folder, then moves into it; Left closes it, then moves to the folder that holds it.
• Enter opens a file and takes you into its text; Space opens it and stays in the tree.
• Typing the first letters of a name moves to it.

Search or ask Kin, or Ctrl+K / ⌘K, finds files across your home. Type a filename or words from its path, then select a row under Files. Enter or clicking opens that file in its workspace; it does not start a conversation. Enter on a search still loading, unable to read files or reading only part of your home does not send the filename to Kin. See Search or ask Kin for retrying or explicitly sending a question instead.

To search just the workspace by a few letters, press Ctrl+P (⌘P on a Mac) on any of a workspace’s pages, or search for Go to file…. Type a few letters of its name or folder, then choose it. Files with unsaved changes and files you opened lately are offered before you type. Elsewhere in Space, Ctrl+P and ⌘P print as usual.

The path in the top bar ends with the open file. Choose one of its folders to find that folder in the tree, or Files, the view you’re on, to go to the tree’s top; neither closes the file. On a phone, the trail shows the workspace’s icon, the Files icon and the file’s name; use Back to Files beside the file’s name to return to the tree.

Hidden files, whose names start with a dot, stay out of the tree until you choose Show hidden files from the … at its top, where Collapse folders is too. Space remembers the choice for each workspace. Refresh Files in the top bar reads the open folders and the open file again.

Create or upload

New file, New folder and Upload are at the top of the tree. They act on the folder you are in: the folder you chose, the folder holding the file you chose, or the workspace itself. A folder’s own menu offers New file here, New folder here and Upload here.

Type the new name in the row that appears and press Enter; Escape cancels it. A name cannot contain /, so choose its folder first.

To upload, drop files from your device onto a folder in the tree, or anywhere else in the tree to put them in the workspace; holding them over a closed folder opens it. Files dropped on the open file go into its folder. Uploads never overwrite an existing file. If a name conflicts, rename the incoming file or deliberately resolve the existing one before retrying. Each uploaded file can be up to 64 MB. An empty workspace offers New file and Upload in the tree itself.

Files attached to a message wait with Kin beside the conversation’s workspace, so they do not appear in Files or in the project’s changes. Removing a chip before sending removes that copy. With an older Kin that cannot keep handed files, uploads still go into the workspace and removing a chip leaves them here. See message attachments.

Open and read a file

The row of icons beside the open file’s name holds its actions: Preview and Edit for a file that can be shown, Ask Kin about this file, File actions and Close file. File actions, its … menu, holds Download, Share file… where your device supports it, Rename…, Move to…, Copy path, Preview with Kin, Discard changes… and Move to Trash….

Code and plain text open in the editor, numbered line by line, and code, Markdown and settings files are quietly coloured. A Markdown file opens as its text: choose Preview to read it rendered, and Space keeps that choice for the rest of your visit. A preview of unsaved changes says Previewing your unsaved draft. Pictures, PDFs and HTML pages open as their preview, in an isolated view that runs apart from your session and your other files. Spreadsheets open as a table: see Spreadsheets. A file with nothing to show offers its download. A very long file keeps its line numbers without colours, and says so.

Markdown previews use Space’s formatting rather than custom page styling included in the file.

In the editor, Tab indents and Shift+Tab takes an indent away, and Enter keeps the line’s indentation. To leave the editor with the keyboard, press Escape and then Tab.

In a narrow window, as on a phone, the tree and the open file take the page in turn. Back to Files, beside the file’s name, returns to the tree and keeps the file open. Turning a phone sideways gives the file page its own scroll, with Save changes still available after editing.

Opening or previewing a file never starts or changes a conversation with Kin. A file that cannot open says why and offers Try again. A failed save stays above the file; a failed move, upload or Trash stays in the tree until you dismiss it, so you can inspect the reason before trying again.

Spreadsheets

An Excel workbook (.xlsx or .xlsm), a CSV file or a TSV file opens as a table. A workbook with several sheets shows them as tabs above it; a sheet hidden in the workbook is listed in italics with a crossed-out eye. Tab reaches the tabs once, and the arrow keys, Home and End move between sheets.

The column letters stay at the top and the row numbers at the start as you scroll, and so do any rows the workbook freezes. A CSV or TSV file keeps its first row, its header, in view. On a phone, only the table scrolls sideways.

Each cell shows the value the file saved, in the workbook’s own number format, so currency, percents, thousands and dates read as they do in a spreadsheet app. Space never recalculates a formula: a formula’s cell has a small mark in its top corner, and pointing at it shows the formula. Choose a cell, or Tab to the table and use the arrow keys, to see its address, formula and value in the line beneath the table; Escape lets the cell go. A workbook saved without results, as some tools write them, shows each formula in a muted face instead of a value, and the line beneath says how many. A column that offers a pick-list has a small arrow beside its letter; point at it to read the choices. Merged cells show as one.

A very long value ends in an ellipsis; its cell’s title and the line beneath hold the rest. A large sheet shows its first 1,000 rows and 50 columns, and the line beneath says how many there are. Charts, pictures, colours and column widths are left out, and nothing in the file runs: download the original to see everything in a spreadsheet app.

The line beside the file’s name says what you are looking at: Saved values · formulas are not recalculated for a workbook, and Read as a table · Edit shows its text for a CSV or TSV file. A workbook has no text to edit. A CSV or TSV file’s Edit opens its text in the editor, and Preview returns to the table, which shows the saved file rather than your unsaved draft: the line then says Showing the saved file · your draft is kept. When Kin finishes a turn, or you choose Refresh Files, a sheet whose file changed is read again. A workbook Kin links to or shows you beside a conversation, and one a letter carries, opens as the same table.

A workbook that cannot be read says why: it may be damaged or not really a workbook, locked with a password, or too large to show. Download original stays beside it.

Kin can work on spreadsheets with you: make a workbook, recalculate one so its formulas have saved results, or render a copy to look at. She recalculates and renders with LibreOffice’s spreadsheet engine, without its desktop. New Spaces are set up with it; a Space that already existed gets it only when the person who looks after it installs it, since updating Space does not add it. Without it, a workbook Kin writes can reach Files with formulas and no saved results; open it in a spreadsheet app to calculate them.

If a preview is blank or cannot open

An isolated preview in Files or beside Chat keeps Preview not displaying? and Try again outside the document, even when the document is blank. Choose the first for an explanation, or Try again to open a fresh preview. While it is opening, that control reads Opening preview….

For a workspace file, you also have:

• View source when Files can read its saved text in the editor; otherwise, File details, which names the file’s path and offers Preview again and Download. Both leave the preview rather than opening the same frame again, and any unsaved edit in Files is kept. Beside Chat, they close the view and open the file in Files, in its own workspace.
• Download original, which downloads the saved file, not your unsaved draft. The Apple app’s download limitation still applies.

A copy handed to Kin keeps Download original without workspace file controls; views beside Chat explain how to discuss that copy again.

An empty file, an unsupported binary file, text too large for the text preview, or a spreadsheet that cannot be read gets an explanation instead of a blank frame. If loading takes ten seconds, or Space cannot check whether it loaded, it offers recovery without calling the file corrupt. You can keep waiting or try again; a later load can still display normally.

PDF previews use your browser’s PDF reader, so availability depends on the browser. An HTML page can load but remain blank if its own code fails or needs scripts or data the isolated view cannot access. Space does not rewrite the page or widen that access to make it display. Use the recovery controls rather than treating a blank preview as proof that the original file is damaged.

Save an edit

1. Open a text file from the tree. For a picture or page that opened as its preview, choose Edit beside its name.
2. Make your changes in the editor.
3. Choose Save changes, or press Ctrl+S / ⌘S.
4. Check that the square mark beside the file’s name has gone.

The tree, an open document and its save controls in a disposable workspace.

Each file keeps its own unsaved changes while you move around: opening another file never asks, and Close file keeps them. A square mark beside a file’s name shows that it has unsaved changes, a smaller one marks a closed folder holding such a file, and Files among the top bar’s views wears a dot while any are waiting. Discard changes, at the start of the editor’s footer or in a file’s menu, throws a file’s changes away once you confirm.

Unsaved changes live in this page only: save before reloading or closing the browser. Space asks before a reload would lose them, and a newer version of Space waits to load. Conversation draft recovery is not a backup of an unsaved file edit. Typing while a save is in progress leaves the newer text unsaved; save again after that save finishes.

Files saves text files up to 1 MB. A draft holding a character a text file cannot keep, such as a null character, is refused with that reason rather than called too large. Either way, your draft stays in the editor.

If the file changed elsewhere

When Kin finishes a turn, and when you come back to Files, Space reads the open file again. Without unsaved changes you simply see the current file. With them, or when a save finds the file changed, your draft is kept and the editor offers a choice:

• Use the newer text accepts the current file from the machine. Undo restores your replaced words as an unsaved draft until the text next changes; save explicitly if you want those words back in the file.
• Keep mine writes your draft after you have reviewed the conflict.
• Save it again recreates a file that was removed behind the editor.

Review both versions before overwriting either. Keep a separate copy of edits you need beyond this visit; Undo is not a file backup.

Rename or move

To rename, choose a file or folder in the tree and press F2, or choose Rename… from its menu, then type the new name in its row and press Enter. To move it, drag it onto a folder, or choose Move to… and pick the folder; Move to… works from the keyboard and on a touch screen. The line at the foot of the tree says what moved, with Undo. An open file and its unsaved changes move with it.

A move never replaces a file or folder already there. Space also refuses to move a folder into itself, a workspace’s own folder or a folder holding one, a repository’s .git folder and the Trash, and says why. A project’s copies stay where Kin keeps them, in the project’s .kin folder. Inside a copy, files move as anywhere else, but nothing moves into or out of one; bring a copy’s work back from its project’s Overview instead.

See what changed

In a workspace kept in Git, a file changed since the last checkpoint shows with a tinted name in the tree, a new file and a file in conflict in colours of their own, and a folder holding one carries a small dot. Point at a row, or listen to its description with a screen reader, for the words. Source shows the changes themselves.

In a shared workspace, a file someone else changed carries a small mark, and so does each folder above it, until you open it. A file two people changed in the same lines carries a warning mark, and opening it shows a card where you choose a version.

Discuss a file with Kin

Ask Kin about this file, beside the open file’s name, deliberately adds the file’s context to your message. Review the draft and send when ready. A file’s menu in the tree offers the same action as Ask Kin about this file. Only a file inside the conversation’s workspace can go with its message, since Kin reads the path from there; for a file elsewhere, Space says so and adds nothing.

To keep a preview beside the conversation, choose Preview with Kin from the file’s menu. Closing that preview returns you to the open file. For an interactive result you want to revisit, see Views and custom cards.

Download or share

Download in a file’s menu saves the original to your device. Right-click a file in the tree, press Shift+F10 or the menu key, or choose its … for open, discuss, preview, rename, move, download and path-copy actions.

On supported devices, choose Share file… in a menu. Space prepares the original, then Share file in its dialog opens the system share menu; Download, beside it, saves the file instead. If sharing is unavailable or fails, Space explains why and offers Download. This does not create a public file link.

To send a file to someone with a Space, open Letters and use Enclose a file on your desk for them. The file travels with the letter once you review and seal it.

The current Apple app does not save Download links. Open your Space in an ordinary browser and sign in there to download a file. Share file… is available only when the client supports sharing that file.

Saving a file writes it to your machine. Use Source to keep a checkpoint of your project’s changes and push it to GitHub.