Document widget

The Document widget puts a PlexiiDocs document on a desk, with the document editor inside it. You can write, format, lay out pages, draft with AI and export to Word or PDF without leaving the desk where the rest of the work is.

It is the same document you see in Office, not a copy. Edit it on the desk or in Office and you are changing one file.

Use it for writing that belongs with a piece of work: the brief beside the research, the report beside the numbers, meeting notes beside the plan.

More about this widget Coming soon

Before you start

• The Document widget is on every plan.
• You need a desk open.
• Draft with AI and Rewrite selection need AI to be set up: PlexiDesk credits while you are signed in, or your own Anthropic key. See AI credits and where your AI runs Coming soon.
• To bring in a Word file, have it saved as a .docx file on your computer.

Add a Document

1. Open the desk.
2. Click Add widget in the centre of the header.
3. Click Document. The Add document window opens.
4. Choose one of the three options below.

The Add widget menu groups widgets into columns by what they are for. Document is in the Files & documents column. You can also type document in the search box at the top of the menu and press Enter to add it.

Create new

Click Create new ("Start blank with our editor"). A blank document called "Untitled document" is placed on the desk, ready to type in.

Import a file

1. Click Import a file ("Import a Word .docx, formatting kept").
2. Choose a .docx file on your computer.

A new document is made from the Word file, named after it, and placed on the desk. The Word file on your computer is not changed.

Place an existing one

Under Place an existing one, the window lists the documents you already have.

1. If the list is long, type part of the document's name in Search documents….
2. Click the document. It is placed on the desk.

If you have no documents yet, the list says No documents yet.

To close the window without adding anything, click the close button or click outside it.

Other ways to add one

• Right-click an empty part of the desk and choose Add object > Files > Document. The same window opens, and the document is placed where you clicked.
• Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows and choose Add Document. This skips the window and places a new blank document called "Document".
• From Office, put a document you already have onto a desk. See Put a document, spreadsheet or deck on a desk Coming soon.

The same document in Office

The widget shows a document kept in Office. Your changes save automatically as you type, and they are there when you open the document in Office, and the other way round.

• You can place the same document on more than one desk. Each widget shows the same file.
• Removing the widget from a desk takes it off that desk only. The document stays in Office.

To open the document in PlexiiDocs:

1. Open Office. If you have not used it yet, see PlexiiOffice: your office suite Coming soon.
2. Click Recent in the Office menu.
3. Click the document. It opens in PlexiiDocs.

If it is not among your latest files, see Find, star and pin your Office files Coming soon.

Do these in PlexiiDocs rather than in the widget, because they concern the file itself:

• Give the document a new title with File > Rename.
• Make a separate copy with File > Make a copy.
• Go back to an earlier version with File > Version history. See Version history Coming soon.
• Add and answer comments. See Comment on a document Coming soon.

See PlexiDocs overview Coming soon.

The editor at a glance

From top to bottom, the widget shows:

• The menu bar: File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools and Help.
• The formatting toolbar: undo and redo, the styles menu (it shows the style of the text you are in), font size, bold, italic, underline and the other text styles, text colour and highlight, alignment, line spacing, lists, link, image, table, divider, clear formatting, and find and replace. At the right end are the word count, the Open or export Office files button (a folder) and Ask AI.
• The view bar: the word count and reading time, Continuous or Page, and in page view the page settings. On the right are Outline, Comments, Assistant, Focus and Suggesting.
• The page you write on.

For formatting and styles, see Format text and use styles Coming soon. Type / to insert things, and @ to link to other things in your workspace; see Insert with / and link with @ Coming soon.

Lay out the page

The Continuous and Page buttons in the view bar switch between one flowing column and real pages with margins. PlexiDesk remembers which you prefer. In page view the page is white, like paper, in every theme.

In page view, the view bar adds:

• Portrait or Landscape: click to switch the orientation.
• A4 or Letter: click to switch the paper size.
• Margins: choose Normal (1"), Narrow (0.5"), Moderate (1" / 0.75") or Wide (1" / 2"), or type your own top, right, bottom and left margins in inches under Custom (inches).
• Ruler: shows a ruler above the page. Drag its markers to set the margins.
• Header/Footer: type a header and a footer to repeat on every page, and tick Show page number for either.

Paper size, orientation, margins, header and footer are saved with the document, so they carry over to Office and to your exports. See Page view, margins, headers and footers Coming soon.

Write with AI

Draft new text

1. Click where you want the text to go.
2. Click Ask AI at the right end of the toolbar. The Draft with AI panel opens.
3. Describe what to write, for example "a risks section with a table".
4. Click Draft, or press ⌘ Enter on a Mac or Ctrl Enter on Windows.
5. Read the Preview. Click Insert to add it to the document, or Regenerate for another version.

Rewrite a passage

1. Select the text you want to change. A small formatting bar appears above it.
2. Click its AI button (Rewrite with AI). The Rewrite selection panel opens.
3. Click a quick choice: Improve writing, Make it more concise, Fix spelling and grammar, Make the tone more formal, Turn this into a bulleted list or Turn this into a table. Or describe the change in your own words and click Rewrite.
4. Read the Preview, then click Replace selection, or Regenerate for another version.

Nothing changes in your document until you click Insert or Replace selection. See Draft and rewrite with AI in PlexiDocs Coming soon.

The Assistant button in the view bar opens the Plexii panel, for questions and help beyond this document. See Meet Plexii, your assistant.

Review and tidy

• Suggesting: click Suggesting in the view bar and your edits are recorded as tracked changes instead of being made outright. Accept all and Reject all appear beside it. See Suggest edits with track changes Coming soon.
• Find and replace: press ⌘ F on a Mac or Ctrl F on Windows while you are typing in the document, or use the toolbar's find and replace button. See Find and replace in a document Coming soon.
• Outline: click Outline to see the document's headings in a side panel. The panel starts closed; the Panel tab at the top right brings it back.
• Focus: click Focus to dim everything except the paragraph you are writing. Press Esc, or click Exit in the bar at the top, to leave. See Focus mode, outline and word count Coming soon.
• Comments: comments are added and read when you open the document in PlexiiDocs, as described under The same document in Office above. See Comment on a document Coming soon.
• Tools menu: Word count, and Check accessibility to look for things that make a document harder to read with assistive technology. See Check a file for accessibility Coming soon.

Insert pictures, tables and more

The Insert menu adds an Image (a PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP or SVG file from your computer), a Table, a Table of contents, a Footnote, a Link or a Horizontal line.

Widget from a desk lists your desks and their widgets, and places the one you pick inside the document. See Embed desk widgets and other files in a document Coming soon.

See also Tables, images and links Coming soon and Table of contents and footnotes Coming soon.

Import and export

Click Open or export Office files (the folder button near the right end of the toolbar) for:

• Import Word (.docx): adds the contents of a Word file at the cursor, and takes its page size, orientation, margins, header and footer.
• Export Word (.docx): saves a copy as a Word file, named after the document. Choose where to save it.
• Export PDF: saves a copy as a PDF, laid out with the document's page settings.

The File menu's Download offers Microsoft Word (.docx), PDF document (.pdf) and Web page (.html), and Print (PDF) saves a PDF ready to print. After a Word or PDF export, a line above the page shows where the file was saved.

See Word, PDF and web export in PlexiDocs Coming soon and Export to PDF and print Coming soon.

Commands from the keyboard

While a Document widget is on the desk in front of you, press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows. The command palette shows a Document label beside the search box, and its list starts with the editor's own commands, such as Insert table, Find and replace, Toggle page view, Draft with AI, Export Word (.docx) and Export PDF. Type a few letters to find one.

For the editor's shortcuts, choose Help > Keyboard shortcuts in the menu bar. See Search and commands (Cmd+K).

Make room to work

A new Document widget opens wide enough to show a full page. To give it more room:

• Drag an edge or corner of the widget to resize it.
• Use Expand in the title bar and choose Larger on desk, or Focus mode to give the document a whole pane. See Open widgets full screen and side by side.

The title bar

The title bar's buttons appear when you rest the pointer on the widget.

• The name is the document's title. To use a different name on this desk, double-click it or click Rename (the pencil), type the name and press Enter. This renames the widget on the desk only; the document keeps its title in Office. To rename the document itself, open it in PlexiiDocs and use File > Rename.
• Pin keeps the widget in a corner of the screen while you move around the desk.
• Expand offers Larger on desk and Focus mode.
• × removes the widget from the desk. PlexiDesk asks Remove from the desk? first. The document stays in Office. If you remove one by mistake, undo it straight away. See Undo and redo.

See The controls on every widget for the rest.

The title bar starts with an AI button (the sparkle). The document's writing AI is in the editor, as described above. The title-bar button opens the Plexii panel with this document attached, so you can ask Plexii about it; Plexii reads the document's text. See Use a widget's AI button.

Sharing

If you publish a live view of the desk, the document is shown on it for people to read but not change. See Publish a live view of a desk.

To share the document itself with someone, see Share a widget, document or file Coming soon.

Good uses

• Brief and research together. Write the brief in a Document widget beside the browser pages and notes it draws on.
• Report next to its numbers. Keep the write-up beside the table or chart it explains, and embed the chart in the document with Widget from a desk.
• Work on a Word file in place. Import the .docx someone sent you, edit it on the desk, then export it back to Word.
• Meeting notes on the project desk. Keep one running document per project where everyone working on the desk can find it.

Common questions

Is the document on the desk a copy? No. It is the same document as in Office. Changes in either place are changes to one file.

I dropped a Word file onto the desk and got a File or link widget. Files dropped onto a desk become File or link widgets, which open the file in your computer's default app. To edit a Word file in PlexiiDocs, add a Document widget and choose Import a file.

Where do I add comments? Open the document in PlexiiDocs from Office; comments are added and read there. See Comment on a document Coming soon.

Why is the page white when I use a dark theme? Page view shows the document as it will print, on white paper. Switch to Continuous to write in your theme's colours.

What happens to the document if I remove the widget? The widget points at the document in Office, so the document stays there.

Related tasks

• Files and documents widgets
• PlexiDocs overview Coming soon
• Put a document, spreadsheet or deck on a desk Coming soon
• Slides widget
• Draft and rewrite with AI in PlexiDocs Coming soon
• Word, PDF and web export in PlexiDocs Coming soon