Library and folders

The sidebar

The sidebar on the left starts with your own places, then your workspace:

• Search (⌘K): find a file, a folder or a command. See Search.
• Recents: your latest work.
• Shared with you: files other people sent you.
• Your workspace's name, which switches workspaces, and under it Files, Design systems, Archive and Settings.
• Starred: the files and folders you starred.

Your name sits at the top, with the bell beside it for Activity. Click your name for Settings, Connect an app, Docs, Support and Sign out.

Recents

Recents opens when you open Kite. It shows the 50 files edited most recently, across your workspace and the files shared with you, newest first. It is a quick way back to what you were doing, not a full list: for that, use Files.

Shared with you

This row appears once someone shares a file with your email address, and shows how many there are. Files from people outside your workspace land here. If they invited you as Can edit, you can rename, duplicate and archive the file too. See Sharing.

Starred

Choose Add to Starred from a file or folder's menu to pin it to the sidebar, under Starred. Click the heading to fold the list away; Kite remembers. Stars are yours alone: starring a file doesn't change anything for anyone else. A star shows on the file's card too. Choose Remove from Starred to take it off.

Files and folders

Files shows everything in your workspace: folders as cards along the top, then the files that aren't in a folder. Everyone in the workspace sees the same Files, so a teammate's new file shows up for you too; the only files left out are ones their owner set to Invite only without inviting you. More files load as you scroll.

Click a folder to open it. The heading becomes a path, like Files / Clients / Acme; click any step to go back up. Folders can hold other folders, as deep as you like.

Make a folder

1. Open Files, or the folder you want the new one inside.
2. Choose New → New folder at the top right.
3. Name it and choose Create. Kite opens it.

You can also right-click a folder and choose New folder inside. A file made with New → New file while a folder is open goes into that folder.

Move files

• Drag a file's card (or row, in the list) onto a folder card. Kite says Moved to and the folder's name.
• Or right-click the file and choose Move to, then a folder. No folder takes it back out to the top of Files.

Moving a file doesn't change its link or who can open it.

Delete a folder

Right-click the folder and choose Delete folder. Deleting a folder never deletes files: whatever was in it moves up one level, into the folder around it, or onto Files if it was at the top. Kite tells you what will move before you confirm.

Sort, filter and view

The buttons at the top right of each view change how files are listed.

• Created by: choose You to see only files you made, or Anyone to see them all. Kite goes back to Anyone next time, so a teammate's file is never hidden from you without you knowing.
• Sort by: Alphabetical, Date created or Last modified (the default), and under Order A to Z or Z to A, Oldest first or Newest first.
• Grid or List: cards with a picture of each file, or rows with Name, Edited, Created and Created by. In the list, click Name, Edited or Created to sort by it; click again to reverse.

This browser remembers your sort and your choice of grid or list.

Search

Press ⌘K in the library, or click Search in the sidebar. Type to find:

• Files and folders by name.
• Words inside files: from the second letter you type, Kite also looks through the text and layer names in your files, and shows a snippet of what it found.
• Commands: New file, Your account, Workspace settings, Docs and Archive.

Use the arrow keys and Enter to open what you picked, or Esc to close. Inside a file, ⌘K searches the editor's commands instead; see Keyboard shortcuts.

The file menu

Right-click a file, or hover over it and click the … button. Everyone who can see the file gets:

• Open and Open in new tab.
• Copy link: copies the file's link to send to someone. They still need access; see Sharing.
• Add to Starred or Remove from Starred.

If you can edit the file, you also get:

• Share…: opens the file with its share settings.
• Rename.
• Duplicate: makes your own copy, named with “(copy)” at the end, in the same folder and with the same design system. It copies every page and picture, but not the comments or the people the original was shared with. Choose Open on the message to go to it.
• Move to: see Move files.
• Archive: takes the file out of the library and turns its link off. Undo on the message puts it straight back. See Archive.

The folder menu

Right-click a folder card, or use its … button, for Open, Open in new tab and Add to Starred. Workspace editors also get Rename, New folder inside and Delete folder.

Who can do what

What you can do in the library depends on your role in the workspace, set under Settings → People. See Workspaces and people.

The workspace owner can change every file in the workspace. A viewer sees no New button, and every file menu shows only what you can do with that file.

The start card

At the foot of the sidebar, a small card takes turns with three things worth doing early: Invite your teammates, Get Kite for Mac and Connect your agent. Each has one button to the place that does it. Click a line along the top to jump to one. Close it with Dismiss (the cross); it stays closed for your account in this browser.

On a phone

On a small screen, the sidebar folds into a drawer: tap the menu button at the top left (Open menu) to open it. The list view shows each file's name and when it was edited. The start card isn't shown on a phone.