Embedded Files

DocuShark lets you embed files — PDFs, spreadsheets, images, and more — directly onto your canvas. Files appear as shape cards with thumbnail previews, and you can open them in built-in viewers.

Adding Files

There are three ways to embed files:

Drag and Drop

The simplest method — just drag files from your file manager onto the canvas. DocuShark creates file shapes at the drop location.

When dropping multiple files, they automatically arrange in a 3-column grid.

Toolbar Button

Click the paperclip icon in the toolbar to open a file picker. Select one or more files to embed them on the canvas.

Context Menu

Right-click on an empty area of the canvas and choose Embed file... to open the file picker.

Supported File Types

Category	File Types	Viewer
PDF	.pdf	Continuous scrolling reader with text selection, search, outline, bookmarks, and immersive mode
Spreadsheet	.xlsx, .csv	Table view with sheet tabs, virtual scrolling
Image	.png, .jpg, .gif, .svg, etc.	Full-resolution display with zoom and pan
Audio	.mp3, .wav, .ogg, .flac, etc.	Built-in player (playable formats depend on your system)
Video	.mp4, .webm, .mov, etc.	Built-in player (playable formats depend on your system)
Text	.txt, .md, .log, etc.	Monospace view with line numbers
Other	Any file type	File info display (no preview)

Viewing Files

Double-click a file shape on the canvas to open it in the built-in viewer.

The viewer opens as a full-screen modal with:

• File-type-specific rendering (PDF pages, spreadsheet tables, images, media players, etc.)
• File info — size, type, page count, and the file's content checksum
• Download button to save the file locally
• Close button or press Escape to return to the canvas

Floating Viewer

On desktop-sized screens, click the pop-out button in the viewer header to detach it into a floating panel — drag it by its header, resize it from the right and bottom edges, and keep reading a PDF while you edit the document beside it. The panel remembers its position and size; the dock button (or opening the viewer on a small screen) returns it to the full-screen modal.

PDF Viewer

The PDF viewer is a full reading experience:

• Continuous scrolling — pages flow vertically; scroll naturally or jump by typing a page number
• Text selection — select and copy text straight from the page
• Find in document — press Ctrl+F (or use the search button) to search, with match counts and highlight-all
• Outline sidebar — documents with a built-in table of contents get a clickable outline for jumping between sections
• Zoom — fit-width, fit-page, stepped zoom buttons, or Ctrl + mouse wheel
• Immersive reading — expand to a distraction-free full-screen view; a floating strip keeps page navigation at hand, and Escape returns to the normal viewer
• Dim pages — in dark mode, soften bright pages for comfortable reading
• Bookmarks + reading position — press b (or use the bookmark button) to mark pages; the Bookmarks sidebar tab lists, renames, and jumps to them. The viewer reopens on the page you left, with your zoom mode — per person, on this device; nothing is written into the shared document
• Cite — add the PDF to the document's reference library from its DOI
• Send page to canvas — render the current page as a high-resolution image on the canvas, ready to annotate

Spreadsheet Viewer

• Switch between sheets using tabs at the bottom
• Virtual scrolling handles large datasets smoothly
• Works with multi-sheet .xlsx workbooks

File Shapes on the Canvas

Embedded files appear as rectangular cards showing:

• A thumbnail preview (auto-generated for images and PDFs)
• The file name and file icon
• File size indicator

You can move, resize, and style file shapes just like any other shape.

Managing Files

Replacing a File

To replace a file's content while keeping its position and size on the canvas:

• Right-click the file shape → Replace File, or
• Use the Replace button in the Property Panel or File Viewer

Storage Manager

View all embedded files in Settings → Storage:

• See file names, types, sizes, and reference counts
• Preview thumbnails
• Check which documents reference each file
• Detect and clean up orphaned files (files with no shape references)

Limits

• Maximum file size: 50 MB per file
• Zero-byte files are rejected
• Files are stored in IndexedDB as content-addressed blobs (deduplicated by SHA-256 hash)

Collaboration

When collaborating, embedded files sync between users:

• File shape metadata syncs via WebSocket (instant)
• File content syncs via HTTP blob endpoints (background transfer)
• A progress notification appears while files upload or download, and completes when the sync finishes
• Missing files are fetched automatically when you join a session
• Downloaded file content is checksum-verified before it's stored — a corrupted transfer is rejected with a notification and can be retried

Tips

• Use thumbnails for context — even without opening the file, the thumbnail gives visual context in your diagram
• Link documents to diagrams — embed the spec PDF next to its architecture diagram
• Spreadsheets for data — embed data tables directly instead of recreating them as shapes