Click into any site, library, or folder from the sidebar and Dockli shows the file grid — the sortable list of your files and folders. This is where most of your day happens.
Columns adapt to depth
Dockli tailors the columns to how deep you are, so each level shows the most useful information:
| Where you are | Columns |
|---|---|
| Root (Sites / Teams / OneDrive) | Name, Type |
| Inside a site (its libraries) | Name, Date Modified, Type, No. of items |
| Folders and files (deeper) | Name, Date Modified, Type, Size |
Folders leave the Size column blank, matching File Explorer, which only shows a size for individual files. Every column is resizable — drag the edge between two headers.
Selecting rows
Each row has a leading checkbox, and selection works the way you’d expect from Explorer:
- Single click selects one row (and clears any other selection).
- Ctrl + click (Cmd + click on a Mac keyboard) adds or removes individual rows.
- Shift + click selects a range from the last-clicked row.
- Checkboxes toggle rows without affecting the rest of the selection.
- Marquee — click an empty area and drag a rubber-band box over rows to select them.
- Arrow keys move the selection up and down.
- Ctrl + A selects everything in the current folder.
A multi-row selection is what actions like Cut, Copy, and Delete operate on — see File operations.
Opening folders and files
Double-click a row (or press Enter on the selected row) to open it:
- Folders drill in — the grid navigates into them and the breadcrumb extends.
- Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint —
.docx,.xlsx,.pptxand their older cousins) open in the desktop app via the Office protocol, straight into co-authoring under your signed-in identity — no browser prompt. - Other files (PDFs, text, images, and so on) open in a browser tab.
No 'do you want to open Word?' prompt
Dockli launches files through Windows directly, so you won’t get the browser’s “Do you want to open this app?” dialog. For Office documents it uses the direct file URL so the desktop app opens in edit mode, not the read-only SharePoint viewer page.
The details pane
Select a file (not a folder) and Dockli opens a details pane on the right. Containers — folders, libraries, sites, teams, and OneDrive roots — don’t have file properties to inspect, so the pane stays out of the way for them.
The details pane shows, top to bottom:
- A hero preview thumbnail (or a large file-type icon).
- Open — launches the file. For Office files this is a split button: the main click opens the desktop app, and the chevron menu offers Open in desktop app and Open in browser. The button is disabled until the file’s link is available (“Open link not available yet”).
- Share and Preview buttons.
- A Properties section: Name, Type, Size, Modified, Path, and Owner.
- A More Actions list with Version History and Edit Metadata.
Copying the path
In the Path row, a copy button grabs the file’s link (or path). It flashes “Copied!” for a moment and returns to normal after about a second and a half.
Version history and metadata
The More Actions links open the same pane’s sub-views for Version history and Editing metadata. You can also reach them by right-clicking a file (see below).
The embedded preview
Click Preview to open the large, read-only preview viewer in a split pane. It has a sticky toolbar with the file’s icon and name plus two buttons:
- Open File — the edit path: launches the file in its Office app or browser.
- View location — closes the preview and reveals the file back in the grid.
While the viewer loads you’ll see a spinner labelled “Loading preview…”. If a file can’t be previewed inline, Dockli shows a message pointing you to use “Open File” to view it in Office or the browser instead. The preview itself is read-only by design — Open File is how you edit.
Sorting, grouping, and filtering
Sort by
Click a column header to sort by it; click again to flip between ascending and descending. You can also right-click an empty area of the grid and choose Sort by to pick the key: Name, Date modified, Type, or Size. (The No. of items column is display-only and doesn’t sort.)
Group by
From the same background right-click menu, Group by buckets the grid under headers by Name, Date modified, Type, or Size — or none for a flat list.
Column filters
Column headers offer a funnel filter — pick “Contains…” to narrow to matching rows, and “Clear” to remove it. Combine filters with sorting and grouping to zero in on what you need.
Right-clicking a file
Right-click any file or folder for the Windows 11-style menu. Along the top is a row of icon actions — Cut, Copy, Rename, Delete — over a list with Open, favorites (star/unstar), Copy as path, and, for files, Version History, Edit Metadata, and Properties (which open the right-hand pane on that exact tab). The mechanics of Cut/Copy/Rename/Delete are covered in File operations.
Where to go next
- Create, rename, delete, and move → File operations
- See a file’s full history → Version history
- Edit SharePoint columns → Editing metadata