Quick View (Peek)
Select a file and press Space — Quick View (Peek) opens the file in a floating preview window over your browser view, without navigating away. Press Space again (or Esc, or click outside) to close it, arrow to the next file to peek it instead, and get back to work.
You can also right-click any file and choose Quick View.
The peek window
Peek isn't a fixed overlay — it's a small window you control:
- Drag it anywhere on screen to keep it out of the way while you browse.
- Resize it from the edges, from a glance-sized thumbnail to nearly full screen.
- It stays open while you keep working — select other files, scroll the folder, and peek follows your selection.
What's peekable
Everything Poly can preview can be peeked:
| Type | In the peek window |
|---|---|
| Images | Full image viewer, including RAW and PSD |
| PDFs | Page-by-page viewer |
| Office files | Word (.docx), Excel XLSX (.xlsx), PowerPoint (.pptx), and their older/ODF/iWork siblings |
| Text & code | Syntax-highlighted viewer |
| Audio | Player with a scrubbable timeline |
| Video | Player with a scrubbable timeline |
| Links | The linked page, embedded |
| YouTube videos | The embedded player |
| HTML | Rendered page |
Folders, archives, and unrecognized binaries aren't peekable — for those, the Details panel is the quick look.
Audio and video peeks are fully interactive: scrub the timeline, jump around, and even drag a time selection to search without ever opening the file properly.
More than one file
Peek up to three files at once — select them and hit Space — handy for eyeballing a set of shots side by side. Select exactly two files and peek can show them as a comparison, which is the fastest way to tell near-duplicates apart.
Peek from anywhere
Quick View works wherever files appear: the file browser, search results, and Flashback events — peeking a historical revision shows the file as it was then. When you peek a search result, the preview opens at the matched spot, like the matching page or moment.