Files and Images: Capture, Organize, and Share all Your Documents

The wait is over and you no longer need to use extensions to easily add images and files to your Workflowy document. Whether you’re on your desktop or mobile device, adding files to Workflowy is now a piece of cake.

Just drag and drop the file where you want it to show up in your Workflowy document or left swipe on a bullet on your mobile device to bring up the bullet menu and add your files. Be sure to update your mobile and desktop apps to the latest version for the best experience!

Why is this awesome?

With the addition of files and images to Workflowy, a new world of possibilities is available. The same ease of use and flexibility you already know and enjoy in Workflowy is also a part of the files and images upgrade.

You can manipulate images and files with the same keyboard shortcuts you already use for bullets. In addition, all the other features like infinite nesting, mirrors, internal links, sharing, fractal boards and so on work with files and images as you expect. This means that it’s ridiculously easy to get started adding files to your documents.

What sort of things can I do with it?

While the possibilities are only limited by your creativity and needs, we’ve come up with a couple of ideas to get you thinking about adding files and images to your Workflowy today.

1. Enrich the documents you already create

Everything from work proposals, post outlines, class notes and so on can become much more valuable now that you can also easily add images to give the surrounding text context. This is arguably better than using a traditional document creation app since you also have at your disposal the ability to infinitely nest items. Instead of creating one very long document in something like google docs, you would instead nest the different sections into relevant bullets. This makes it much easier to keep related information visually close to each other, so you don’t have to scroll back and forth.

The ability to easily add relevant files inline saves you the trouble of having to first upload the files to a third party service like dropbox or google drive, create links, edit permissions and finally add those links. With Workflowy you simply drag and drop the files where you want them to show up.

Ideas to get you started 💡

• Quickly outlining blog posts and reports
• Taking photos for a job proposal and then adding the notes below each image
• Adding screenshots of papers and the original pdf to research outlines
• Adding lecture slides to class notes
• Take photos of whiteboards and documents then incorporate them into your processes
• Including images of the steps in a recipe

2. Store and share important assets

Collaborating with a team just got an upgrade. Now it’s easier than ever to share templates, assets, screenshots, references and important files all from your shared Workflowy document. You don’t have to mess with third party apps or worry about sharing outdated links or incorrect permissions – if your team members have access to the shared space, they have access to the files, it couldn’t be easier.

Ideas to get you started 💡

• Keeping a repository of commonly used templates
• Creating and sharing how-to guides with photos and screenshots
• Creating documentation with images and gifs for internal or external use
• Centralizing assets that are created by one team and used by another

3. Document and track file changes

Use Workflowy’s infinitely nesting bullets to easily track changes and modifications to files. This makes it easy document changes to images and any other type of file. Forget about using confusing file-name schemes to keep track of which version is the latest version – simply nest the newest version and done. This is especially useful if you’re working with a team, everyone can easily see which version is the latest and also have access to any previous version if they need to.

Ideas to get you started 💡

• Sharing drafts of files with clients
• Keeping everyone on a team up to date with the latest version of a file
• Simplify review and editing flows, no more misplaced versions

How to upload files

There are several ways to upload a file.

1. The Bullet Menu ⋯

Create a new blank bullet, then from the bullet menu choose ‘Upload file’. This will bring up your operating system’s file browser where you can choose a single file or multiple files then upload them. If you do this on a bullet that already has content – then the file or image you upload will be nested under that bullet.

2. Dragging and dropping

On the web and desktop version of Workflowy you can simply drag and drop files and images directly into Workflowy. Once you release them, they’ll start to upload.

3. Pasting a screenshot

Take a screenshot with the keyboard shortcut for your operating system. On Windows, that’s – Windows key + PrtScn. On Mac, that’s – CMD + Shift + Control + 4. Then paste directly into Workflowy.

Image actions

Image files have 5 different actions you can perform on them.

1. Resize

On the web and desktop versions of Workflowy, if you place your cursor over an image, you’ll see a vertical bar on the right side of the image that you can drag left or right to resize the image.

2. View full screen

If you hover on an image, then click or tap on the options icon (three vertical dots) then select ‘Show full screen’, the image will display in full screen mode. This mode focuses on the image and gives the image a solid background. To exit full screen mode, simply click or tap on the ‘x’ icon in the top right corner. You can also double click on an image to enter full screen mode.

3. View original image

If you hover on an image, then click or tap on the icon with the square and the arrow coming out of it, the image will open a new browser window (in the desktop version as well) with the image in its full resolution.

4. Download

On the web and desktop versions of Workflowy, if you click or tap on the icon with the arrow pointing down to the drive you’ll download the image to your device.

5. Delete them

On the web and desktop versions of Workflowy, if you click or tap on the icon with the trash can you’ll see a modal that checks to make sure you really want to delete that image.

Image options

You can change the default image thumbnail size from the settings menu – clicking on the three vertical dots in the right-hand side of the menu bar or by hovering over an image then clicking the three vertical dots icon on that image and selecting ‘Settings’. From either of these two places you can choose to show the thumbnails in a large or small size.

Mobile support

Files and images are fully supported on your preferred mobile platform. On mobile devices, to add files or images, you simply:

1. Create a new bullet
2. Left-swipe on that bullet to open the bullet menu
3. Tap on ‘Upload file’ and choose your file

File size limits

Pro subscribers enjoy unlimited uploads with a 5gb individual file size limit.

Free users have a 100MB global cap.

Back to you

We hope you enjoy the feature and be sure to share what you’re using it for on social media, we love seeing users do interesting and creative things with Workflowy. 😃