Docs

Writing an idea

Files

Files keep the research behind an idea with it: interview notes, a spreadsheet of tickets, a report, screenshots of how it works today. Chat can read what’s in them, and so can anyone on your team.

What you can add

PDF
.pdf
Text
.txt, .md, .markdown
CSV
.csv
Word
.docx
Excel
.xlsx
Image
.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp

Walden checks that a file is what it says it is. Older .doc and .xls files, web pages, archives, audio and video can’t be added.

Add a file

  • Drop it on the page where you want it. A picture becomes a Screenshot block; anything else becomes a File block.
  • Paste it into the page. It lands after the paragraph you’re in.
  • Type / on an empty line and choose File or Screenshot, then pick the file from your computer.
  • From the Files list. Choose Files in the toolbar, then Add a file…. The file goes on the idea without going on a page.

A File block shows the file’s name, kind and size, and who added it. Under it, write what the file is and why it matters, in your own words.

The Files list

Files in the toolbar lists every file on the idea. Each one says where it sits, or Not on the page, with its kind and size. Choose a file to:

  • Open. It opens in a new tab, under its own name. The link only works for a short while, so open it from Walden again later rather than bookmarking it.
  • Show it on the page. Takes you to the block that holds it.
  • Take it off. Takes it off the idea. See below.

Deleting a block from the page doesn’t delete the file. It stays on the idea, listed as Not on the page.

Use a file across a project

A file lives on the idea it was added to. If that idea is in a project, the project’s other ideas can use the same file, never a copy:

  • Type / and choose File. Beside Upload a file you get the files On the project, then those on the project’s other ideas, each with the idea it’s on.
  • A block that uses a file from another idea says On and that idea’s name, and links there.
  • The project’s Files tab lists every file on its ideas, where each lives and where else it’s used.

A project also has a shelf of its own: a file added on its Files tab is for every idea in the project. See Projects.

Quote a file under the Problem

A quote under the Problem can say which file it came from. On a Something said or Something counted quote, choose From a file and pick the file: one on this idea, on the project’s shelf, or on another of its ideas. For a PDF, add the page. The file’s name then sits beside the quote and opens it. Not from a file takes the citation off.

The words stay yours. Nothing is copied out of the file, and the quote counts like any other. See The idea page.

What chat reads from a file

When a file lands, Walden pulls its text out once: text and CSV as they are, a Word document’s paragraphs and tables, each sheet of a spreadsheet, a PDF page by page. A picture has no text, and the list says nothing about it. A scanned PDF has none either, and for it the Files list says Its text couldn’t be read. Of a very long file, only the start is kept.

In the idea’s chat, type @ or choose Add files and pick files from this idea, the project’s shelf and its other ideas. Chat reads what you picked with each message, as information about the idea, never as instructions. Eight files at a time. See Chat.

Paste something longer than a message fits, on Home or in the idea’s chat, and it becomes a text file on the idea instead, named after its first line. Chat reads it with that message.

A coding agent building the idea is told every file the idea has or uses, the project’s shelf included, and reads their text the same way: as information, never instructions. A screenshot reaches it as its caption. See Coding agents.

Take a file off

  1. Choose Files in the toolbar and pick the file. For a file on the project’s shelf, use its row on the project’s Files tab.
  2. Choose Take it off. The message that follows has Undo.

Every block that used it says Taken off this idea, and it no longer opens. A file taken off is deleted for good after thirty days. When an idea is deleted, its files go into Deleted with it and come back if it’s restored. See Organizing your ideas.