Where your files live

Find your library folder

Settings › Library Location › Open folder

Unless you chose somewhere else, your library is in Documents\Sopycat. If Windows keeps your Documents folder in OneDrive, it is in the Documents folder inside OneDrive instead.

To see the folder in File Explorer, open Settings › Library Location and press Open folder. The full path is shown there too.

Your documents by type

Library folder › Documents

The Documents folder at the top of the library shows your files the way the Documents page does: PDFs, Word, Pictures, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Text and Other, each file named after its document and always its latest version. Rename a document in Sopycat and the file is renamed; save a new version and the file follows; delete the document and the file goes. Show in folder on a document opens File Explorer here.

Each file is the library's own file, linked, not a second copy, so the folder takes no extra room. If you open one in another program and save it there, Sopycat reads it back as a new version of the document ("Edited in another program") the next time the library changes or opens; the earlier version stays under Versions.

A new file you put in the folder yourself is not added to Sopycat: drop it on Sopycat instead.

The folder is on by default. Settings › Library Location › Keep a Documents folder with my files by type turns it off (the folder is cleared) or on again. The setting is each computer's own: on a shared library, the folder stays while another computer that opens it keeps the setting on. A library laid out the pre-3.0 way has no such folder until it is tidied into the 3.0 layout.

What is inside the library folder

The library folder holds three folders:

• Documents, your documents by type: PDFs, Word, Pictures, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Text and Other, each holding the latest version of every document, named after it. Open a file from here in any program. See Your documents by type.
• Saved files, with what you save from Sopycat. Manuals has the manuals you saved as a PDF, a Word document, a web page, a text file or a video. Documents has the copies you saved of your documents. See Where the files go.
• Library data, where Sopycat keeps its own files: each manual and document, Recently deleted, your empty folders, the search index, the Records, the audit log and saved form profiles.

Library data is a hidden folder, so File Explorer shows it only when Hidden items is turned on in its View menu. OneDrive, Dropbox and backups still copy it like any other folder.

Inside a manual's folder

In Library data › Manuals, each manual has its own folder. The name starts with the date the manual was made, followed by its title, so the folders sort by date.

• A small file with the title, summary, labels, folder, steps, owner and review date, plus who saved it last and on which computer.
• The screen recording and what was clicked and typed during it.
• A steps folder with the picture for each step. Next to each picture is the untouched frame it was drawn from, so boxes, blurs and numbers can be redrawn later.
• The tutorial video, if one was made.
• A history folder with the earlier versions of the manual. Sopycat keeps the newest 30.

Inside a document's folder

In Library data › Documents, each document has its own folder, named the same way.

• A file folder with the file exactly as you added it. Sopycat never writes over it.
• Each edited copy you save, next to the original. Up to 20 edits are kept, and the newest is the one you see. The Versions menu goes back to any of them or to the original.
• The text of the document, so search can find it, and a small preview picture. A Word file's picture is its first page as Word lays it out.

You don't need to look for a document's file yourself. Open the document and press Show in folder, and File Explorer opens with its latest version selected. The document's ⋯ › Copy file puts the file on the clipboard, ready to paste into an email, a chat or a folder. See Open a document in another program.

A lock file while someone is editing

While someone has an item open for editing, a small lock file sits in its folder. It tells other computers who is editing. It goes away by itself. See Share a library with your office.

Libraries made before Sopycat 3.0

Before 3.0, everything sat at the top of the library folder: a folder for each manual and document, beside a few files and folders whose names start with an underscore. The first time Sopycat 3.0 opens a library like that, it moves them into Library data. Your manuals, documents and records are moved as they are.

A library that other computers use is not moved until you say so, because Sopycat before 3.0 would find it empty. Manuals and Documents ask Tidy this library’s folder? instead. See Update a shared library to Sopycat 3.0.

Point Sopycat at another folder

Settings › Library Location › Change…

1. Open Settings › Library Location.
2. Press Change….
3. Choose the folder in the window that opens.

Sopycat looks at the folder first. If you chose the folder above a library (it has one inside, such as Sopycat) or a folder inside one, it names the library and asks whether to use it. If there is no library there, it says so, and that a new, empty one would start, before you choose.

Move your library somewhere else

To move the items you already have, for example into OneDrive or onto a new drive:

1. Close Sopycat, so nothing is being saved while you copy.
2. In File Explorer, copy the whole library folder to the new place. Copy it, do not cut, until you have checked the new copy works.
3. Open Sopycat, go to Settings › Library Location › Change…, and choose the new folder.
4. Check that your manuals, documents, folders and Records are all there.
5. Then delete the old folder if you want to.

You can also make a backup and restore it into the new folder. See Restore from a backup.

Using OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive or a network drive

Because the library is plain files, a sync program or a network drive handles it like any other folder. Putting it inside OneDrive or Dropbox gives you an extra copy in the cloud, and lets other people use the same library. Records, the audit log and folders are inside the library folder, so they travel with it.

• If you see Couldn’t read the library folder, the folder is not there right now. The drive may be disconnected, or the sync program has not finished. Reconnect it, or go to Settings › Library Location › Change… and choose the right folder.
• When two people save the same item at the same time, the sync program may keep both copies. Sopycat spots this and asks which one to keep. See conflict copies.

To share a library with your office, read Share a library with your office.

Sopycat's own settings folder

Your preferences are kept separately from the library, in a folder named Sopycat inside your Windows AppData folder. It holds your settings, the log, unsaved PDF edits kept for crash recovery, your saved signatures and stamps, and any extras you downloaded, such as speech to text or the Office pack.

This folder belongs to one Windows user on one PC. It is not part of the library and is not shared. Uninstalling Sopycat normally leaves it behind. See What uninstalling keeps.