View Modes
Poly gives you eight ways to view a folder, each suited to a different kind of work. Switch with the view mode dropdown in the toolbar — the mode and its settings are remembered per folder, so your photo library can stay a gallery while your documents stay a table.
Icon
The classic file-manager view: files as icons with their thumbnails, laid out in a grid of uniform cells. The default mode, and the best general-purpose one — dense enough to scan, visual enough to recognize things at a glance.
Grid
A tighter thumbnail mosaic that prioritizes the previews themselves. Best for folders of visual content — images, video, design files — where the content is the identity and metadata is secondary.
Feed
A single scrolling stream of large previews, one file after another — read a folder the way you'd read a timeline. Great for reviewing a batch of screenshots or a photo dump in sequence. A Horizontal toggle in the view options flips the feed from vertical scrolling to a side-scrolling strip.
Detail
A split view: a compact file list on one side, a full preview of the selection filling the rest. The mode for triage — arrow through the list while the preview pane does the work. The list column's width is adjustable in the view options.
Tree
Your folder hierarchy as an expandable outline, subfolders unfolding in place. The right mode when structure is the point — reorganizing a project, or working across several nested folders at once without losing sight of where you are.
Column
Miller columns, macOS-style: each folder you enter opens a new column to the right, keeping the full path visible. Drag the column dividers to resize. Like Tree, it's hierarchical — built for navigating deep structures fast.
Table
A spreadsheet of your files: one row per file, one column per property — name, size, dates, tags, rating, and any custom properties defined on the drive. Click a header to sort. The mode for metadata-heavy work, and the closest in-app equivalent of poly ls -l.
Gallery
Edge-to-edge previews at their natural aspect ratios — a wall of images for browsing a collection the way you'd browse a photo service. A Show properties toggle overlays each item's key metadata when you need it.
Settings that work everywhere
Every mode shares the same underlying controls, available from the view dropdown:
- Shown properties — choose which properties display with each file (preview, name, tags, dates, …) and at what size.
- Sort — stack one or more properties into a sort order; toggling a property that's already sorting reverses or removes it.
- Filter — narrow what the folder shows, with the same facets as faceted search.
Settings apply per folder and sync with your account, so a folder looks the way you left it — on every device.