Browser widget

The Browser widget puts a working web browser on your desk. Use it to keep a site you need for this piece of work beside your notes, tables and documents: a dashboard, a reference page, a form you fill in every week. It remembers the page you were on, so it opens where you left off the next time you come back to the desk.

A new Browser widget opens at Desktop size, 1920 × 1080, so sites lay out the way they would on a large screen. Zoom the canvas in or out to work with it comfortably, or pick a smaller size from the toolbar.

Before you start

• Plans. The Browser widget is part of every plan.
• Where it works. The full browser runs in the PlexiDesk app. On a desk someone opens from a share link, the widget looks different. See When you share a desk.

Add a Browser widget

1. Open the desk you want it on.
2. Press B on the desk, or click Add widget in the header and choose Browser.
3. In the box that appears, type a web address, or words to search for, and click Load.

In the Add widget menu, Browser is in the Web & apps column. You can also type "browser" in the search box at the top of the menu and press Enter.

There are other ways to get a page onto a desk:

• Drag a link or a tab from your web browser onto the desk. It opens as a Browser widget where you drop it.
• Drag a connected app from the side menu onto the desk. See Keep a site signed in on your desks.
• Let AI find the site. An empty Browser widget shows Set up with AI. See AI, below.

Use the page

Until you click a Browser widget, scrolling over it moves the desk, not the page, so a large browser does not catch your scroll wheel as you move around. Point at it and you see Click to interact.

1. Click the page once. The widget becomes active and the page responds to your mouse and keyboard as it would in any browser.
2. Click elsewhere on the desk when you are done.

When you are zoomed out, hold ⌘ on a Mac or Ctrl on Windows and click the widget to zoom straight in to it at full size.

Links that a page opens in a new tab open as a new Browser widget on the desk, just below and to the right of this one. Sign-in windows and pop-up windows that a site opens appear in their own window.

The toolbar

Along the top of the page, from left to right:

• Back and Forward: move through the pages you have visited in this widget.
• Reload: loads the page again. While a page is loading, it becomes Stop.
• Search or enter address: click it, type an address or a search, and press Enter. An address opens the site; anything else is searched for. Press Esc to leave the box without changing the page.
• Search engine chip: shows which search engine your searches use. Click it to choose another. The choice applies to every browser in PlexiDesk.
• Open in your system browser: opens the current page in your computer's own web browser.
• Open full screen: opens the same page in PlexiDesk's full-screen browser. A Browser widget that is not pinned to a connected app shares its sign-ins with the full-screen browser, so you stay signed in there. To step back, click Back to the side panel or press Esc; click Close, or press Esc again, to close it. See Browse the web inside PlexiDesk Coming soon.
• Resize to a stored resolution: snaps the widget to a common screen size. See the next section.

Window sizes

Click Resize to a stored resolution in the toolbar to open the Window size menu, then choose a size. The widget changes to that size, and the page lays out as it would on that kind of screen. If the widget is already at one of these sizes, that size has a tick.

Use Mobile or Tablet to see how your own site looks on a phone or tablet, or Tablet (landscape) to fit a page on a small screen.

The chips at the top right of the page

• pin to apps: turns this site into a connected app, so every Browser widget for it shares one sign-in. See Keep a site signed in on your desks.
• The app's name: once the widget belongs to a connected app, this chip shows the app's name in place of pin to apps.
• edit: opens the address form, where you can type a new address and click Load.

Right-click menus

Inside the page

Right-click text, a link, an image or a video in the page to open PlexiDesk's menu. As well as the rows every widget has, it adds:

• Open link in new browser (on a link): opens the link in a new Browser widget beside this one, linked to it.
• Copy link (on a link): copies the link's address.
• Save image to desk (on an image): adds the image to the desk as an Image widget, linked to this browser.
• Save video to desk (on a video): adds the video to the desk as a widget, linked to this browser.
• AI Assist (on selected text): rewrite, summarise, translate or otherwise work with the text you selected. See AI Assist: rewrite, summarise and translate text.
• Open in browser and Copy URL: open the widget's current page in your computer's own web browser, or copy its address.
• Add to Attention…: starts an Attention item from the page, or from the text you selected, with the page's address kept on it. You confirm the item before it is filed. This row shows while Attention is turned on. See Capture something into Attention Coming soon and Turn Attention on or off Coming soon.

Right-click inside a text box on the page and you get the usual editing menu instead: spelling suggestions, Add to dictionary, Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Select All.

On the title bar

Right-click the widget's title bar for the widget menu. For a Browser widget it includes:

• Pin to Apps: the same as the pin to apps chip. It is not shown once the widget belongs to a connected app.
• Reload: loads the page again.
• Open full screen: opens the page in the full-screen browser.
• Change URL…: opens the address form.
• Open in browser: opens the page in your computer's own web browser.
• Copy URL: copies the page's address.

The rest of the menu is the same on every widget. See Right-click menus.

AI

AI can work out which site you mean and open it for you. It uses what the desk is about, its name, notes and other widgets, and anything you tell it.

1. On an empty Browser widget, click Set up with AI.
2. The Set up with AI window drafts a suggestion straight away and shows the address under Open this address, with a one-line summary.
3. To steer it, type what you are after in the box at the top, for example "our team's project board", and press Enter or click Redraft.
4. Click Set up to open the address, or Cancel to leave the widget as it is.

Nothing changes until you click Set up. AI runs on PlexiDesk AI credits when you are signed in, or on your own Anthropic key. See AI credits and where your AI runs Coming soon.

The AI button on the widget's title bar opens the same window at any time. Its tooltip reads Find with AI on an empty widget and Change with AI once the widget has a page. See Use a widget's AI button.

Extensions

Browser extensions you add in Settings > Advanced > Browser extensions also run in Browser widgets, including widgets that belong to a connected app. See Add Chrome extensions to Plexii's browser Coming soon.

When you share a desk

A Browser widget on a shared desk never shows your signed-in view of a site. What people see depends on how you share:

• A live view of the desk shows the widget as the page's address, which visitors can open themselves. See Publish a live view of a desk.
• A desk someone opens in their web browser shows the site's name with an Open link at the top of the widget, and the site itself inside it. Some sites do not allow themselves to be shown inside another page; for those, the area stays blank and Open takes the visitor to the site. See Share a desk anyone can use.

Good uses

• Keep the dashboard or admin page for a project on that project's desk.
• Put a reference page, such as a style guide or a price list, beside the document you are writing.
• Check how your own website looks on a phone with the Mobile size, next to the notes you are making about it.
• Pin a site you use every day with pin to apps, then drag it onto any desk that needs it, already signed in.

Common questions

Why does scrolling move the desk instead of the page?

The widget is not active yet. Click the page once, then scroll.

Will the widget remember where I was?

Yes. Each time the page changes, the widget saves the address, so it reopens on that page next time.

Can I have more than one Browser widget on a desk?

Yes. Add as many as you need. Plain Browser widgets share the same sign-ins, so signing in to a site in one signs you in to it in the others.

The page is too wide or too narrow

Choose a size from Resize to a stored resolution, or drag the widget's edges to any size you like.

Related tasks

• Keep a site signed in on your desks
• Browse the web inside PlexiDesk Coming soon
• Add Chrome extensions to Plexii's browser Coming soon
• Add widgets with a single key
• Web & apps widgets
• More about this widget Coming soon