40 tips to work faster

Forty short tips to save time in Filarr: files, search, tidying, notes, tasks, vaults, display and security, each with a link to learn more.

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These forty tips are the gestures that save the most time once you know them, and that few people find on their own. Each one takes a few seconds to try, and links to the article that goes further.

The keys shown are those of the desktop app.

Files

Look inside a file without opening it

Click in the folder, select the file with the arrow keys, then press Space. The quick preview shows emails, Word documents, archives and more, without leaving Filarr. Press Space again or Esc to close it. See Preview and open files.

File a document by dropping it on a subfolder

Drag the file onto a folder card: the card lights up. Keep hovering and the folder opens, so you can go one level deeper before you let go. To send a file back up, drop it on a part of the path at the top of the page, or on the back arrow. See Organize files in folders.

Pick the destination with Ctrl+X and Ctrl+C

Select files, then press Ctrl+X to move them or Ctrl+C to copy them. Filarr does not use the clipboard here: it opens a window where you pick the destination folder, with a search field and New folder here. See Organize files in folders.

Decide once how a kind of file opens

Right-click a file, choose Open with…, pick System application or one of the built-in editors, tick Always open .zip files this way (the extension follows your file), then click Open. Every double-click on that kind of file now does the same. See Preview and open files.

Copy a file out of Filarr with Alt

In the desktop app, hold Alt and drag a file from Filarr onto your computer's desktop or into one of its folders. You get an ordinary, unencrypted copy there, and the file stays in Filarr. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Filter results with plain words

Add a file type, a year or a period to your search: pdf, docx, 2024, today, this week, this month. For example, invoice pdf 2026 keeps the PDF files about invoices added in 2026. See Find anything.

Find the words inside a scan

Search reads the text of your documents, but a scan or a photo is only a picture. Right-click it, choose Make searchable and pick the language: the search box then finds the words printed on it. See Recognize text in images and PDFs.

Filter a folder by tag

In a folder, type # and the tag in the folder's own Search... box, for example #unpaid. When files carry tags, chips also appear at the top of the folder: one click filters, All shows everything again. See Tags, favorites and recent files.

Run a command without looking for its button

Press Ctrl+K and type what you want to do: "dark theme", "grid view", "tidy up my files", "tasks". Enter runs it. When a command shows a shortcut on the right, that shortcut does the same next time. See Find anything.

Jump to a heading in any note

While you write in a note, press Ctrl+P to open the Quick Switcher. Type a few letters of a note title and press Enter, or start with # to look through the headings of all your notes. Filarr opens the note at that heading. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Favorites and tidying

Open your favorites with Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9

Right-click a favorite in the sidebar, choose Assign a shortcut (Ctrl+1-9), then type a digit. From then on, Ctrl and that digit open it from anywhere in Filarr, even while you are typing. See Tags, favorites and recent files.

Put a waiting file away in one click

On the To tidy page, the files waiting in a folder such as "Downloads" or "To sort" come with suggestions. Click Move to follow the main one, or one of the small folder buttons after Or:. Undo, in the message that follows, cancels the move. See Tidy up with "To tidy".

Get rid of exact duplicates safely

When To tidy shows A duplicate file, click Remove the obvious copy. Filarr checks that the copy is still identical right before it goes, and sends it to the trash, where you can restore it. See Tidy up with "To tidy".

Let a smart collection gather files for you

In Collections, click Smart collection and add a rule, for example Tags, has at least one, Unpaid. The collection fills itself with every matching file, from any folder, and stays up to date. No file moves. See Collections and smart collections.

See what takes up your space

Click See what takes up space at the bottom of the sidebar. The Folders page draws each folder as a block sized by what it holds, and To free up space points to duplicates, the trash and folders asleep for a long time. See The Folders page.

Notes

Type [[ in a note, then a few letters. The list shows your notes first, then the files and folders of your vault. Enter inserts the link, and a click on it opens the file or the folder. See Link your notes.

Type [[ followed by a title that does not exist yet. The last line of the list offers Create note "…": Filarr creates the note and links to it in one go. See Link your notes.

Show a note inside another, kept up to date

Type ![[ and the title of a note: it appears in a frame and follows every change made to the original. Add a heading, as in ![[Design principles#Where they come from]], to show only that section. See Sub-pages and embedded notes.

In the right panel of a note, Potential Links lists the titles of your other notes that appear in the text without a link. Link all turns them all into links in one click. See Link your notes.

Ctrl+click a link in a note, or click it with the middle button of the mouse: the other note opens in a new tab, and you keep your place. Alt+click puts the cursor inside the link, to edit it. See Link your notes.

Move paragraphs without cutting and pasting

Press Esc to select the block you are in, Shift+↓ to add the next ones, then Ctrl+Shift+↑ or Ctrl+Shift+↓ to move them. Ctrl+D duplicates them. See Blocks, layouts and callouts.

Start the day with Ctrl+Shift+D

Ctrl+Shift+D opens today's daily note from anywhere, and creates it if needed. The tasks you left unchecked in your last daily note are waiting under Carried Over. See Daily and periodic notes.

Skip the template window

If you always start from a blank page, tick Never suggest templates in the window that opens with each new note. Ctrl+Shift+N and the + button then open a blank note straight away. To get the window back, tick Suggest templates in a blank note in More actions → Templates. See Templates.

Write a note next to its files

Open a folder and click New Note at the top. The note is attached to that folder and shows as a card among its files: handy for the notes about a client or a project. See Organize your notes.

Tasks and databases

Add a task in one sentence

On the Tasks page, press n, then type the task with its date, time and priority: Send the Lumen invoice reminder friday 10am !high. Check the chips under the field, then press Enter. See The Tasks page.

Catch up on overdue tasks in one click

On the Today tab of the Tasks page, the Overdue group has a Reschedule all to today button. Every late task moves to today, without opening them one by one. See The Tasks page.

Schedule a task by dragging it

Switch the Tasks page to Calendar. The No date tray on the right lists the tasks without a date: drag one onto a day to schedule it, or drop a task back in the tray to remove its date. See The Tasks page.

Repeat a chore from the day you do it

For a task like "water the plants every three days", open its options, choose Custom… under Repeat, and tick Count from the day I complete it. The next date then counts from the day you check the task, not from its due date. See Tasks.

Let a database fill a row for you

In a database of books, films or links, click the lightning button (⚡) at the end of a row. Filarr fills the empty cells from the web page of the row, or from a catalog of Books, Movies, TV shows or Anime chosen under Source. See Fill rows automatically.

Vaults and sharing

Pass an invitation on yourself

If an invitation email does not arrive, the window that sent it offers Email not arriving? Pass the link on yourself: with Copy the link and QR code. Send the link through a channel you trust: it only works for the address you invited. See Invite people and manage members.

Move a file into a vault and keep a shortcut

Right-click a file, choose Add to shared vault…, then the action Move (remove from here). Leave Leave a shortcut in its place ticked: the file now lives in the vault, and the shortcut left behind opens it there, as long as the vault is unlocked. See Shared vaults.

When you create a share link for a file, tick Limit number of downloads or Allow only one download per IP. The decryption key sits in the link, after the #: anyone with the full link can open the file, so send it through a channel you trust. See Share a file by link.

Hand over work with an assigned task

In a note of a shared vault, open the options of a task and pick a member under Assignee. They are told in their inbox, and the task appears in their My tasks tab. See Work together in a vault.

Personalization

Hide every bar with Ctrl+Shift+B

Each press of Ctrl+Shift+B moves to the next way of showing the bars, down to No bars, where only the page is left. A short message names the mode you reach. Press it once more to bring all the bars back. See Themes and appearance.

Fit more lines on the screen

Open the Density menu in the top bar and choose Dense. Lists and grids get tighter, so you see more files at once. Comfortable gives the room back. See Themes and appearance.

Work on two pages side by side

Drag a tab to the left or right edge of the window, and drop it when Open on the left or Open on the right appears. Ctrl+Alt+\ puts the current tab in a panel on the right, and Ctrl+\ moves between the two panels. See Find your way around.

Security

Lock Filarr in one keystroke

In the desktop app, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L locks Filarr from anywhere on your computer, even when it is in the background. You can also click your avatar, then Lock. See Lock Filarr.

Let Filarr lock itself

In Settings → Security, set Auto-lock to a delay, for example After 5 min. When you step away, Filarr locks after that time without activity. See Lock Filarr.

Ask for the password at every launch on a shared computer

Turn on Enhanced lock in Settings → Security. The desktop app then deletes its local key when it closes, and asks for your password at the next launch, even if the profile has a PIN. See Lock Filarr.

Protect a file without opening Filarr

In the desktop app, press Ctrl+Alt+F to open the mini vault, a small window, and drop files on it. Filarr adds an encrypted copy to a folder named Inbox, and the original stays where it was. See Desktop protection and the mini vault.