Properties are your team's own fields on every file: the customer, a SKU, the substrate, a due date. You define them once for the team, fill them in per file or per folder, and filter by them. Other apps can read them too.
Property types#
| Type | Holds | Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Text | a short text | up to 2,500 characters |
| Long text | notes | up to 10,000 characters |
| Number | any number, such as a width | |
| Whole number | a count | no decimals |
| Date | a day | entered in the API as YYYY-MM-DD |
| Yes / no | true or false | |
| Choice | one value from a list | only the listed choices |
| Multiple choice | several values from a list | each choice at most once |
| Link | a web address | a full http or https link |
Define your properties#
Team admins manage the properties in Files settings › Properties. Add a property asks for:
- a Label, such as "Substrate";
- the Key (for the API): lowercase letters, digits and
_, starting with a letter. It can't be changed later; - the Type, and for the choice types the Options, one per line.
Each property in the list then has three switches:
- Show in grid: the value appears on the file's card. Up to 5 properties can be shown;
- Filterable: the property appears in More filters;
- Required: people editing a file can't clear it. Uploads never need it.
Drag the list to change the order properties appear in. Archive hides a property but keeps the values stored on files, and Bring back restores it (Show archived lists archived properties). Remove values on an archived property deletes its values from every file, which can't be undone. A property's type can't change while files have values for it: archive it and add a new one instead. Through the API a property can also have a help text, a unit and value suggestions.
Customer is built in. You can change its label, but not delete it or change its type.
Print-shop starter set#
Add print-shop starter set adds the properties most print shops use: Customer, PO / job number and SKU (text), Substrate (choice), Finish (multiple choice) and Due date (date). Substrate and Finish start with no choices, so add your own. Properties you already have are left as they are.
Fill in values#
Open a file's Properties tab in the side panel to edit its values and tags. Required properties are marked.
Select several files and press Properties to edit them together. A property whose value differs between the selected files says "differs between files", and only the fields you change are saved.
Folder defaults#
A folder default is a property value set on a folder, for example the customer "C-102" on the folder "Customers / C-102".
- New and moved files get it. A file uploaded into the folder or one of its subfolders, or moved there, gets the folder's defaults for every property it doesn't have yet. When folders on the way down set the same property, the folder nearest to the file wins.
- You can see where a value came from. A value from a folder is greyed, with "from Customers / C-102". Set on this file turns it into the file's own value. Editing it does the same.
- Set them with Folder defaults… in a folder's menu (right-click), or Folder defaults › Edit… in the side panel of an open folder, then Save defaults.
- Changing a default asks about the files already there, for example "Apply to the 214 files already in this folder and its subfolders?":
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Fill empty values only (the default) | Files without a value for the property get the new default. |
| Overwrite values that came from folders | Values that came from folder defaults are replaced; values someone set on a file are kept. |
| Not now | Only files that arrive from now on get the new default. |
Moving a whole folder keeps the values its files already have.
Tags#
Tags are free words for grouping files, such as "reorder" or "rush". A file can have up to 20 tags of up to 64 characters, separated by commas when you type them. Tags are stored in lowercase, so "Rush" and "rush" are the same tag. With several files selected, the Properties tab shows the tags on every selected file: adding or removing one there changes all of them.
Find files#
- Search matches file names that contain every word you type, in the open folder and its subfolders or across all files. Spaces, hyphens, underscores and dots count alike.
- Filters in the toolbar: Customer, Type and Preflight. More filters adds Spot ink, Dieline, Pages, Trim size (mm), Modified, Tag and every filterable property.
- Ranges. Number and date properties filter from one value to another, such as due dates in the next two weeks.
For integrators#
The API reads and writes the same properties, and publishes your team's definitions as a JSON Schema you can validate against in your own tools. The Files API validates every value itself as well. See Files API.