Docs

Files — the visual database

Every file is a row. What you know about it becomes columns.

Files mode shows a folder as a list with columns or a grid of real thumbnails. Folders and files are split into their own blocks; tabs along the top hold the folders you're working in, and a pinned tab always reopens on its folder.

Attributes — your own columns

Add an attribute once and every file in the project can carry a value: single tags (like the built-in editable Status), multi tags, text, ratings, checkboxes, dates and links. Tags are created Notion-style — type a new name in a cell and it becomes a tag, recolorable and renamable everywhere at once. Values attach to the file's stable identity, so they survive renames, moves and round-trips through Dropbox.

Alongside your manual attributes, Plaza derives read-only Smart attributes — Version, Stage, Owner, Shot — from the filenames you already write.

Sort, filter, group

• Sort by clicking a column header.
• Filter by value — pick exact values per column (Owner = RB, Status = In Progress, or specific filetypes with live counts). Filters AND across columns and OR within one.
• Group by any column into collapsible sections (list view).
• Drill down flattens every file under the current folder into one listing. On very large folders, a filter searches the whole tree — not just what's loaded — and tells you how many files it checked.

Columns that behave

Resize by dragging a header edge, reorder by dragging headers, hide and show from the Columns button, rename from the right-click menu. Name stays left-aligned; everything else right-aligns. Layouts persist per project.

The viewer

The right-hand Viewer pane is a preview and an inspector: the selected file's image or video, its full attribute set (editable in place), its smart values, and — for renders with a tracked source — a clickable Source row naming the exact scene file that produced it (Versions & Compare). Space opens fullscreen Quick Look; a Related panel surfaces files that share the selection's name tokens.

Real file operations

Copy, cut and paste real files (Ctrl/⌘ C X V), drag between folders, drop files in from Explorer or Finder, and drag files out of Plaza into any other app — hold Ctrl (Windows) / ⌥ (macOS), or simply drag past the window edge. Moves and copies stream with progress and per-file error reporting; deletes go to the Recycle Bin (Windows) or a recoverable trash (macOS).

Plaza previews the formats other apps shrug at: EXR and HDR (tone-mapped), Cinema 4D scenes without Cinema 4D installed, PSD, AI, RAW, HEIC, SVG, video with duration and exact frame counts. When a video's codec can't be decoded for inline playback (ProRes and friends), Plaza names the codec and hands the file to your system player in one click.