Sidebar
The sidebar keeps the files and folders you care about within reach. Show or hide it with View ▸ Toggle Sidebar (⌃⌘S) or the sidebar button in the window bar. At the top of the sidebar, next to the + button, sit an Open Folder button and a clock button listing your recent folders — a folder opened from either lands in Recents as a browsable tree. Clicking an empty area of the sidebar opens the same Add menu as the + button. Drag the divider between the sidebar and the document to resize it, or double-click the divider to fit the sidebar to its widest item. To keep it fitted automatically, turn on Fit width to content in Settings → Sidebar.
It holds two kinds of sections: Spaces (including Favorites) are for things you keep, and Recents shows your recent files — the same list in every window. Favorites and Recents are pinned at the top of the sidebar, in that order — your other spaces appear below them.
Spaces
A space is a named group of files and folders. Spaces are the same in every window, and they persist across launches.
- Create a space with the + button at the top of the sidebar, then New Space. Type a name to finish.
- Add items by dragging files or folders into a space, or right-click any sidebar item and choose Add to Space. An empty space shows a drop zone — drop something on it, or click it to pick files or folders. Dropping or picking several at once adds them all.
- Open a file with a single click, or ⌘-click it to open it in a new tab (also in its right-click menu as Open in New Tab). Folders expand in place so you can browse them.
- Create files and folders on disk by right-clicking a folder in a space and choosing New File or New Folder.
- Reorder items in a space by dragging them up or down. Folder contents mirror the disk, so only top-level items move.
- Remove an item by right-clicking it (Remove from Space), or drag it out of the window — it disappears with a poof. The actual files stay where they are.
- Manage a space from the ⋯ menu on its header (or right-click the header): New File, Add Files & Folders, Rename, Change Icon, Delete. Deleting a space removes the space and its shortcuts — the actual files stay where they are.
- Reorder spaces by dragging a space's header up or down. Favorites and Recents are pinned above your spaces and don't move.
- Color a space to tell spaces apart at a glance: open its header ⋯ menu (or right-click the header) and click one of the colors — the space's title and icon take that color, and a soft tint of it appears behind the open space. Click the current color again to remove it. Favorites can be colored too, from its right-click menu. To remove the tinted cards entirely, turn off Show space backgrounds in Settings → Sidebar; the color stays on the title and icon.
An item lives in one space at a time. Adding it to another space moves it there.
Dropping a file or folder into the empty area below the sidebar adds it to your last space. To open a folder as a new root in Recents instead, drop it directly on the Recents header.
Favorites
Favorites is a built-in space: it works like any other space, but it can't be renamed or deleted. It's a good home for the handful of files you come back to constantly. To add files without dragging, right-click the Favorites header and choose Add Files & Folders….
To hide it, right-click the Favorites header and choose Hide Favorites. Turn it back on from Settings ▸ Sidebar with Show Favorites.
Recents
The Recents section shows your recent files — the same list as File ▸ Open Recent, so it's identical in every window. Files you open are added to the list automatically, whether or not they also live in a space — a new file lands at the top, and a file already on the list keeps its position, so the list doesn't reshuffle as you click through it. The list keeps your ten most recent files and survives relaunches. Entries whose document isn't open in this window appear dimmed — click one to open it again.
Folders you open appear above the recent files as browsable trees. Folder trees are per window: each window keeps the folders it has open, so two windows can browse two different projects over the same recents list.
When the section is empty, it shows a drop zone. Click it to choose files or folders to open. Dropping files onto the Recents section works differently: they're added to the top of your recents without opening — a quick way to queue something up for later. Dropping a folder opens it as a browsable tree.
To remove one entry, right-click it and choose Remove from Recents, or drag it out of the window. To start over, right-click the Recents header and choose Clear Recents — this clears the file list everywhere, including the Open Recent menu, but leaves your folder trees alone. Clearing the list doesn't touch the files themselves and doesn't close the document you're viewing.
To hide the whole section, right-click the Recents header and choose Hide Recents. Turn it back on from Settings ▸ Sidebar with Show Recents.
If Peekdown loses permission to read a folder, its row dims — right-click it and choose Grant Access Again.
Folders and files behave differently when it comes to spaces. Drag an open folder out of Recents into a space and it moves there — the browsable tree closes in Recents. Files don't move: adding a recent file to a space keeps it in Recents too, since a file can live in both places at once. Dragging a file from a space onto the Recents section bumps it to the top of the list without opening it, the same as any other drop.