Managing Documents
Once your files are in My Documents, you can find them, preview them, download them, rename them, and remove the ones you no longer need.
To get there, click My Documents in the left sidebar. Admins find it inside the WorkSpace group.
My Documents is your personal library. Everything you upload here belongs to you alone — there is no sharing, no access level, and no "uploaded by" information on this page. If you need to share files with your team, department, or the whole company, use the Knowledge Base instead.
:::note What you see depends on your role Searching, uploading, previewing, downloading, renaming and deleting are each allowed separately. By default everyone who has My Documents can do all of them. If your organization has given you a role without one of them, that control is hidden or disabled — see Roles & Permissions. :::
Your document grid
Your documents appear as a grid of cards, not a plain list. The grid adjusts to your screen: one card per row on a phone, two on a medium screen, three on a wide screen.
Each card shows:
| On the card | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Colored file icon | The file type at a glance (see the colors below) |
| File name | Long names are shortened — hover over the name to see it in full |
| File size | For example, 2.3 MB |
| Date | How recently it was added: Today, Yesterday, 3 days ago, 2 weeks ago, 5 months ago |
| Reading status | Shown only when the AI cannot use the file yet — see Reading status |
| ⋮ button | The actions menu, in the top-right corner of the card |
On a computer, the ⋮ button appears when you move your mouse over a card. On a touch screen it is always visible.
Document type colors
Every card carries a colored icon so you can spot a file type without reading the name.
| File type | Icon color |
|---|---|
| Red | |
Word (.doc, .docx) | Blue |
Excel (.xls, .xlsx) and CSV | Green |
PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx) | Orange |
| Images | Purple |
| Audio | Pink |
| Markdown | Indigo |
Plain text (.txt) | Gray |
For the full list of what you can upload, see Supported Formats.
Reading status
After an upload, Arketic reads the text out of the file so the AI can use it. A card whose file was read without problems shows nothing extra. Otherwise a status line appears under the file size and date:
| Status on the card | What it means |
|---|---|
| "Still being read — the AI cannot use it yet" (grey) | The file is still being processed. The line disappears on its own when it is ready |
| "Text could not be read — the AI cannot use this file" (amber) | The text could not be taken out of the file |
| "Indexing failed — the AI cannot find this file" (amber) | The text was read, but the file could not be made searchable for the AI |
| "No readable text found — probably a scan without OCR" (amber) | No text was found in the file — typical for a scanned page or a picture |
The three amber states carry a Try again link. Click it to have the file read again; the link reads "Retrying…" while it runs, and a message tells you whether it worked.
A file with an amber status is still stored — you can preview and download it. Only the AI cannot work from it until it has been read successfully.
Opening a document
Click anywhere on a card to open the document in the preview window. You can also open the ⋮ menu and choose Preview.
The preview window shows:
- The file name and size at the top
- The document itself — PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets, presentations, images and text files are displayed right there
- A Download button
- A × button to close
If a file type can't be shown in the browser — audio files, for example — the preview says "Preview not available for this file type" and "Please download the file to view it".
Press Esc to close the preview. Clicking outside the preview window closes it too.
Card actions menu
The ⋮ button on each card opens a short menu with four actions.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Preview | Opens the document in the preview window, without downloading it |
| Download | Saves the file to your computer under its current name. A short message confirms the download |
| Rename | Opens the Rename document window so you can change the document's name |
| Delete | Permanently removes the document from your library, after you confirm |
Each action appears only if your role allows it. If you see fewer than four, the missing ones have not been given to you.
There is no move or share action in My Documents.
Renaming a document
- Open the ⋮ menu on the card and choose Rename.
- In the Rename document window, type the new name in the Document name box.
- Click Save, or press Enter.
A message confirms with "Document renamed". To leave the name as it was, click Cancel or press Esc.
Save stays disabled while the box is empty or the name is unchanged.
Keep the file extension (for example .pdf) at the end of the name. The document is downloaded under the name you give it, and the icon and the file type tabs are worked out from the name.
Searching
Use the Search files... box at the top of the page to find a document by name. On a phone, the search box sits just below the page title.
Start typing and the grid updates on its own after a brief pause — there is no search button to press. Search looks at file names.
If your role does not allow searching, the box is greyed out and shows "You don't have permission to search documents" when you hover over it.
To search by what's inside a document rather than its name, ask the AI in chat instead — for example: "Find my documents about the vacation policy."
Filtering by file type
A row of tabs sits above the grid. Select one to show only that kind of file. The tab you're on is highlighted with a blue underline.
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| All | Everything in your library |
| PDFs | PDF files |
| Spreadsheets | Excel files and CSV files |
| Presentations | PowerPoint files |
| Text | Word files and plain text files |
| Images | Image files |
Audio files and Markdown files have no tab of their own — you find them under All.
Filtering by date
Next to the tabs is a calendar button. Use it to show only the documents added within a certain period.
- Click the calendar button.
- Pick a start date on the calendar. To cover a period, pick an end date as well.
- Click Apply.
Only the documents added in that range stay on screen.
While a date filter is active, the calendar button turns blue and gains a small ×. Click that × to remove the filter and see everything again. You can also reopen the calendar and click Clear.
Sorting
The Sort: button at the top right of the filter row controls the order of the cards. Click it and choose an option.
| Sort option | Order |
|---|---|
| Newest first | Most recently added at the top — this is the default |
| Oldest first | Earliest added at the top |
| Name (A-Z) | Alphabetical by file name |
| Name (Z-A) | Reverse alphabetical by file name |
| Largest first | Biggest files at the top |
| Smallest first | Smallest files at the top |
The option you're using is shown on the button itself and highlighted in the list.
Search, the file type tabs, the date filter and sorting all work together. For example: choose the PDFs tab, apply a date range for last month, and sort by Largest first to find the big reports you added recently.
Downloading a document
You can download a file from two places:
- The ⋮ menu on the card → Download
- The Download button in the preview window
Either way, the file is saved to your computer under the document's current name.
Deleting a document
- Move your mouse over the card (on a touch screen the ⋮ button is always visible).
- Click the ⋮ button.
- Choose Delete.
- A confirmation window titled Delete document? opens. It names the file and reminds you that the file and everything the AI learned from it are removed permanently. Click Delete to confirm, or Cancel to keep the document.
A short message confirms that the document was deleted.
Deleting is permanent. There is no trash and no way to undo it, so check the file name in the confirmation window before you click Delete. Once a document is gone, the AI can no longer refer to it in your conversations, including in any assistant that used it.
When you see an empty page
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| No documents yet — Upload your first file to get started | Your library is empty. See Uploading Documents |
| No documents found — Try a different search term | Nothing matches what you typed in the search box. Clear the search box or try another word |
| No documents match this filter — Your other documents are still here — clear the filter to see them. | The file type tab or the date filter is hiding everything. Click Clear filter to go back to the All tab and remove the date filter |
| Failed to load documents. Please try again. | The list couldn't be loaded. Refresh the page and try once more |
Tips
- Tidy up regularly. Deleting outdated files keeps your search results relevant and stops the AI from referring to information that is no longer correct.
- Give files clear names. Search and the A-Z sort both work on file names. If a name turns out to be unhelpful, use Rename in the card menu.
- Preview before you download. Most common file types open right in the preview window, which saves you a download when you only need a quick look.
- Use Largest first for a clean-up pass. It brings the heaviest files to the top so you can decide quickly which ones are still worth keeping.
- Look for amber status lines. A card that shows one holds a file the AI cannot use yet — click Try again.
Related pages
- Uploading Documents — how to add files, one at a time or many at once
- Supported Formats — which file types you can upload and preview
- Knowledge Base — for documents that need to be shared with other people