Documentation

Three things to know

Core features

Click the + button at the top of the sidebar. Give it a name and pick a colour.

The colour cascades to all decks inside it, so you can tell projects apart at a glance without reading.

Right-click a project in the sidebar and select New Deck in [Project Name]. Name the deck.

It inherits the project colour, stepping slightly lighter or darker so decks within the same project are still visually distinct. You can have as many decks as you need — split by phase, discipline, deliverable, or whatever matches how you work.

Open the File Explorer panel on the right. Navigate to any file or folder — including OneDrive, network drives, and mapped drives.

Windows

Hold Ctrl and drag the file onto the deck. A portal appears. The original file has not moved.

macOS

Hold ⌘ Cmd and drag the file onto the deck. A portal appears. The original file has not moved.

Rename a portal

Right-click a tile and select Rename. Type a display name that makes sense to you. The file on disk is completely untouched — only your label changes.

Useful when file names follow a company naming convention you cannot change. In Deckspace you see the name you chose. The system sees the original.

Birds of a Feather

Click the stack icon (≡) in the deck header. All portals group by file type — PDFs together, spreadsheets together, drawings together. Click it again to return to your custom order.

Drag to reorder

Hold Alt (Windows) or ⌥ Option (macOS) and drag a tile to a new position within the deck.

Right-click any portal tile to get these options:

• Locate — the File Explorer scrolls to and highlights the file in the tree.
• Copy file path — copies the full path to your clipboard. Format follows your setting in Settings.
• Copy parent folder path — copies the path of the folder containing the file.
• Open in Windows Explorer (Windows) / Open in Finder (macOS) — opens the system file manager with the file highlighted in its actual location.
• Open with (Windows only) — opens the file with a different application using the system "Open With" dialog.

Click a tile once to select it. The info panel slides open on the right side of the deck.

• Notes — free text attached to the file. Good for revision status, who sent it, what still needs checking.
• Comments — timestamped entries that build into a thread over time. Good for logging decisions or handover notes.
• Activity log — automatic record of every time you opened the file through Deckspace. No manual input needed.

Open Settings from the bottom of the sidebar.

• Tile size — S / M / L. Compact to see more files, or spacious for easier reading.
• Layout — List or Grid. List is more detailed, Grid is more visual.
• Explorer text size — S / M / L. Adjust the file tree to your screen.
• Show file extensions — toggle on to see .pdf, .docx, .xlsx on every tile.
• Confirm before removing — when on, Deckspace asks before removing a portal.
• Copy path separator — choose Windows (\) or Unix (/) format. Defaults to \ on Windows and / on macOS.
• Show hidden files — toggle on to see hidden files in the File Explorer.
• Start location — Home or Last visited.
• Check for updates — manually check whether a newer version is available.

More things you can do

Navigate the File Explorer by typing a path

Click the address bar at the top of the File Explorer panel. Type or paste any path and press Enter. The explorer jumps directly to that location.

Useful when a colleague sends you a file path in an email or Teams message — paste it straight in.

On Windows, use paths like C:\Users\.... On macOS, use paths like /Users/.... Both formats are supported.

Attach a file to an email

Find the file in the File Explorer panel. Drag it directly into your email client (Outlook, Gmail in browser, Teams message). The actual file is attached, not a shortcut.

This also works from a portal tile — drag the tile out of Deckspace and drop it wherever your operating system accepts a file drop (Windows Explorer, Finder, email clients, browser windows).

Move a Deck to a different Project

Drag the deck name in the sidebar and drop it onto a different project.

Reorder Projects and Decks

Drag and drop directly in the sidebar. Projects and decks can be reordered independently.

What happens if a file moves

If a file is moved or renamed outside of Deckspace, the portal detects this on next launch and attempts to find it automatically by searching nearby folders.

• If found — the portal updates itself silently.
• If not found — the tile shows a broken state. Right-click and select Relink to point it to the new location. Your display name, notes, and comments are preserved.

Activate your license

Settings, License, paste your license key, Activate. Your license key was emailed to you after purchase. Check your spam folder if you cannot find it.

Transfer to a new machine

1. On your current machine: Settings, License, Deactivate this machine.
2. Install Deckspace on your new machine.
3. Enter your license key in Settings, License, Activate.

If you no longer have access to your old machine, email hello@deckspace.com.au and we will release the license for you.

Frequently asked questions