# Files and the editor

> The Files pane shows your vault as a tree beside the assistant. Open files in tabs, make, move and delete notes and folders, and write in the note editor.

- Page: https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/files/
- Checked with Samurai Scribe 0.65.0

Files shows your [vault](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/vault/) as a tree, with the files you open as tabs beside it. Notes open in an editor that writes plain Markdown: the same files Obsidian, or any other editor, sees. Files sits at the right of the Projects view, so a note and a chat about it can be side by side.

## Opening Files

- **The Files button**, the grey circle at the top right of a chat, opens it. So does Cmd+\ on a Mac or Ctrl+\ on Windows.
- **From the Meetings view**, the same button or keys open Files and switch to the Projects view.
- **Opening a note from anywhere** opens it in Files: a link, a citation in an answer, or **Open** after the assistant saves a note.

Along the top of the pane:
- ≡ hides or shows the tree;
- **Search in files** searches inside your notes and meetings;
- **More** has **New note**, **New folder**, **Refresh** and **Show the vault folder**;
- **Fill the window** spreads Files over everything but the sidebar, for reading or writing at length, and **Back beside the chat** undoes it;
- **Close Files** closes the pane.

## What the tree shows

The Meetings folder starts open, with each meeting as a folder of its files. Beside it are your other folders and notes: Notebooks, Skills, People, Dictionary and your own. A Dictionary list opens in the editor like any note; the **Dictionary** page in the sidebar is the easier way to edit it (see [The Dictionary](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/dictionary/)).

- **Listed:** folders, Markdown notes, PDFs, Word files (`.docx`), PowerPoint decks (`.pptx`), plain-text files such as `.txt`, `.csv` or `.json`, and pictures.
- **Not listed:**
  - folders whose names start with a dot, such as `.obsidian`, `.git` and `.samurai`;
  - the Profiles and Scripts folders, which have their own editors;
  - in a meeting's folder, the files whose names start with `_`: the recordings and the app's record of the meeting.

If your vault is a folder inside another notes folder, such as your Obsidian vault, **Include Parent Folder** in **Settings → AI Apps → Folder Access** makes Files show the folder around it too. See [Folder access](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/folder-access/#include-parent-folder).

## Opening files and tabs

- **One click** opens a file as the preview tab, in italics. The next single click replaces it.
- **A double click**, or editing the file, keeps the tab open. A preview tab's right-click menu also has **Keep open**.
- **A tab's right-click menu** has **Close** and **Close others**, and, for a meeting's files, **Open in the meeting**. A middle click or the × closes a tab.
- **Your tabs come back** when you next open the app.

What opens where:

- **A note** opens in the editor.
- **A meeting's transcript and documents** open as the meeting shows them, editable there.
- **A meeting's folder**, hovered, shows an arrow, **Open the meeting**.
- **PDFs, Word files, decks, text files and pictures** open in their own app on your computer.

**With the keyboard**, once you've clicked in the tree:
- ↑ and ↓ move through it, → opens a folder and ← closes it;
- Enter opens a file and keeps its tab;
- F2 renames;
- Delete deletes. On a Mac, Backspace and Cmd+Backspace do too.

## Filtering and searching

The box above the tree reads "Filter, ? to search, # for a tag".

- **Type a name** to list the files, and the meetings, whose names contain it.
- **Start with `?`** to search inside your notes and meetings.
- **Start with `#`** to list the notes and meetings with a tag. Nested tags count: `#client` also finds `client/acme`.
  - A note's tags are its `tags` property and any `#tags` in its text.
  - A meeting's tags are only those in its meeting note's `tags` property.

Clicking a `#tag` in a note open in Files fills in the filter for you.

## Making notes and folders

The buttons under the filter box are **New note**, **New folder**, **Refresh** and **Collapse all folders**, and, at the right, **Show what AI may do here**, which marks each row with its [folder access](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/folder-access/).

- **New note** asks for a name and makes the note in `Notebooks/Unfiled`, the folder for notes that belong nowhere yet, then opens it.
- **New note here**, in a folder's menu, makes the note in that folder.
- **New folder** makes a folder at the top of the vault; **New folder here** makes one inside a folder.

## Moving, renaming and deleting

- **Rename** a note or folder with **Rename** in its menu, or F2. The name becomes a field: Enter keeps the new name, Esc puts the old one back. A note's name in its header renames it too.
- **Move** by dragging a note or folder onto another folder, or with **Move to…** in its menu. Dropping in the space under the last row moves it to the top of the vault.
- **Links follow.** When you rename or move a note or folder yourself, in Files or in a note's header, links to it in your other notes are updated, as Obsidian does. A move the assistant makes doesn't update links.
- **Delete** with **Delete note** or **Delete folder**. It goes to your computer's Trash (the Recycle Bin on Windows), where you can get it back. On a Mac, drag it out of the Trash: Finder's **Put Back** doesn't work for it. Where the system trash can't be used, such as on some network drives, it goes to a trash folder inside the vault's hidden `.samurai/` folder instead.

Some things don't move, rename or delete from the tree:

- **The app's own folders**, such as Meetings, Notebooks, Skills, People and Dictionary, and any folder that holds one. Move them in **Settings → Vault → Folders**, or People under **Settings → Vault → People notes**; see [moving the app's folders](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/vault/#what-is-in-the-vault).
- **A meeting's files** stay in its folder. A meeting's whole folder can be filed in any folder inside Meetings, by dragging or **Move to…**, but not outside it. It keeps its name, which follows the meeting's title. It can't move while the meeting is recording, processing or importing.
- **Meetings are deleted from the meeting itself**, not the tree. A meeting's own note has no **Delete**; one of its documents has **Delete document**.
- **PDFs, Word files, decks, text files and pictures** don't move, rename or delete on their own. Move the folder they're in, and they stay with the notes that use them.

## What each row's menu has

Right-click a row, or use its **More** button. Every menu starts with **Reveal in Finder** (**Reveal in Explorer** on Windows) and **Copy path**. Then:

- **A note:** **Export**, **Rename**, **Move to…**, **Delete note**.
- **A meeting's note:** **Export**.
- **A transcript:** **Export**, **Export analytics csv**, **Open in the meeting**.
- **A meeting's document:**
  - **Export**;
  - **Attach to prompt** (or **Remove from prompt**), which decides whether the meeting's next run reads it;
  - **How this was made**, when the assistant or a skill wrote it, which opens the chat that did;
  - **Open in the meeting**;
  - **Delete document**.
- **A PDF, Word file, deck or text file:** **Open in its app**.
- **A picture:** **Open in its app**, **View reading**, **Read now** (**Read again** once read) and **Read with…**. Reading a picture turns what is in it into text the assistant can search and quote.
- **A folder of yours:** **New note here**, **New folder here**, **Rename**, **Move to…**, **What AI may do here** (see [Folder access](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/folder-access/)) and **Delete folder**. A notebook's folder adds **Ask about this notebook**.
- **One of the app's folders**, such as Meetings or Skills: **New note here**, **New folder here** and **What AI may do here**.
- **A meeting's folder:** **Open the meeting**, **Move to…** and **What AI may do here**.

**Export** saves the file as PDF, Word (`.docx`), Markdown or Plain Text, or copies it. A transcript's **Export** also offers CSV, JSON, SRT Subtitles and WebVTT.

## The note editor

Notes format as you type: headings, bold, links, tables, tasks and pictures show as they will read, and a line's Markdown marks appear while your cursor is on it.

- **Live Preview and Source.** The toggle in the note's header switches between the formatted view and the raw Markdown.
- **Properties.** A note's properties show as a panel at the top, one field per property: text, a checkbox, a date, or a list. Editing a field changes only that property, and leaves your comments and their order alone. The panel's `</>` shows them as written.
- **The / menu.** Type / at the start of a line or after a space to insert:
  - **Heading 1**, **Heading 2**, **Heading 3**;
  - **Bulleted list**, **Numbered list**, **Task**;
  - **Table** (also Cmd+Option+T on a Mac, Ctrl+Alt+T on Windows);
  - **Quote**, **Callout**, **Divider**, **Code block**;
  - **Link to a note**, **Image or file**, **Properties**.
- **The selection bar.** Select some text for a bar with **Bold** (Cmd+B or Ctrl+B), **Italic** (Cmd+I or Ctrl+I), **Strikethrough** (Cmd+Shift+X or Ctrl+Shift+X), **Highlight**, **Code**, **Link** (Cmd+K or Ctrl+K) and **[[ ]]**, a link to a note or meeting.
- **Links.** Type `[[` and pick a meeting or note from the suggestions. Or drag a file, or a meeting's folder, from the tree into the note to link it.
- **Pictures and files.** Paste or drop one into a note, or use / → **Image or file**. The file is saved beside the note, and the note gets an embed. Embeds written in Obsidian, `![[shot.png]]` or `![](shot.png)`, show too. Audio and video embeds get a player.
- **Find** with Cmd+F on a Mac or Ctrl+F on Windows.
- **Saving** happens as you type. The header shows **Edited**, then **Saving…**.
- **Dictation** types into the note when it has the cursor.
- **Size.** A note over 4 MB doesn't open in the editor.

If notes or documents show blank, turn off **Settings → Appearance → Formatted editor**. Notes then open in a simpler editor that still styles Markdown as you type and saves exactly what you write, without rendered tables, the Properties panel, pictures or the / menu.

## When a note changes somewhere else

A note can change while it's open: you edit it in Obsidian, a sync tool brings a new version, or you keep a change the assistant suggested. The open note shows the change within a couple of seconds.

- **No unsaved edit:** the new version simply shows.
- **An unsaved edit:** the app stops and says the note changed on disk since you opened it. Choose **Reload** to take the new version, or **Keep mine** to save yours over it.
- **Moved or deleted elsewhere:** with nothing unsaved, the tab follows a moved note, and closes for a deleted one. With an unsaved edit, choose **Put it back** to save your text where it was, or **Discard**.

Nothing in Files saves over a newer version without asking.

## Notebooks

A [notebook](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/glossary/#notebook) groups the meetings and notes about one client, project or series. It is a folder in `Notebooks/` holding a note of the same name, whose `sources` property lists its meetings. The folder can hold notes of your own too.

- **Make one, or add a meeting to one:** on a meeting's menu choose **Add to notebook…**. Tick the notebooks it belongs in, or type a name under **New notebook** and press **Create and add**.
- **Ask about one:** in Files, a notebook's menu has **Ask about this notebook**, which starts a chat about its notes and meetings.
- **Edit the list by hand:** add or remove links in `sources`, in the app or in Obsidian. See [Using Samurai Scribe with Obsidian](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/vault/obsidian/#people-and-notebooks).

`Notebooks/Unfiled` isn't a notebook: it holds notes that belong nowhere yet.

## Files and the assistant

The note open in Files is the one the assistant's context chip names: ask a question and it reads that note first. [The assistant](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/assistant/) explains asking. To see or change what AI may do in each folder, click **Show what AI may do here** under the filter box; [Folder access](https://samuraiscribe.com/docs/folder-access/) explains the marks.