Doing the work
Files on tasks
Attaching a file to a task, what kinds are allowed, how big they can be, opening one without downloading it, and what happens when you remove one.
Every task has a Files panel. Put the brief, the screenshot, the signed contract where the work is, rather than in a thread somebody has to scroll back through.
Attaching
Drag files onto the panel, or click Drop files here, or choose them and pick them. Several at once is fine. Each one gets a progress bar while it uploads, and a file that is refused says why on its own row instead of failing the whole batch.
Uploads go straight from your browser to storage, not through sjTasks and back out again. Practically, that means large files upload at the speed of your connection rather than ours, and a slow upload never ties up the page.
What you can attach
| Kind | Extensions |
|---|---|
| Images | png jpg jpeg gif webp svg |
| Documents | pdf doc docx txt md |
| Spreadsheets and data | xls xlsx csv |
| Presentations | ppt pptx |
| Archives | zip |
| Media | mp4 mov mp3 |
Up to 2 GB each, on every plan — a practical ceiling for an upload from a browser; what a plan sells is total storage. The panel tells you the limit as you upload.
We check both the extension and what the file actually is, so renaming something to .pdf will
not sneak it through. Anything not on the list is refused with a plain reason. If you need a kind
of file that is not here, ask — the list is a decision, not a technical wall.
Seeing what a file is
Attachments show as pictures, with the name, size and who added it underneath. A photo shows the photo, a PDF shows its first page, a Word or Excel file shows its first page too, and a video shows a frame with a play mark on it.
The picture is drawn a second or two after the upload lands, so a file you have just added shows a plain icon marked preparing… for a moment. It fills itself in — you do not need to reload.
A zip has no picture to show and keeps the plain icon with its file type under it.
Opening one without downloading it
Click a tile and it opens in a viewer over the page:
| Images | shown large, with Full size in the corner — the original, in a new tab |
| PDFs | shown page by page, scroll through them in place |
| Video and audio | played in place, with normal controls |
| Word, Excel, PowerPoint | opened as a readable copy, in the same reader as a PDF |
txt, md, csv |
shown as text — a CSV is laid out as a table, up to 512 KB |
About Word and Excel files. What opens is a readable copy we make when the file is uploaded —
your original is untouched and is what Download always gives you. Layout is very close but not
always exact, so for anything where the formatting matters, download it. A csv larger than
512 KB is download-only rather than shown as a table.
Each tile also has Download under it, and the viewer has Download in its top corner — always your original file, untouched. A PDF or a document never opens in a new tab on purpose: the viewer is the reader, and a browser set to download PDFs would download it instead.
Every view and download link is generated fresh, for you, and lasts a few minutes. Copying one out of the address bar and emailing it to somebody will not work, which is the point: files are readable by the people who can see the task, and by nobody else. The small preview pictures are protected the same way — a thumbnail of your file is still your file.
Notes on a file
Every file has its own notes, beside it in the viewer. Open a file and they are on the right;
write one the same way you would on a task — the box is at the top, Markdown works, and
@name brings someone in. A file the viewer cannot show, such as a zip, opens to its notes and
its Download.
Use them for what is about the file itself: this is the wrong version, page 4 has the old price, use the second logo, not the first. The tile says how many notes a file has, so a teammate knows there is something to read before they open it.
Who can read and write them is who can open the file. A note on a file goes to the people watching the task the file is on, on the bell and by email, and the link in that email opens the viewer on the file. Notes on files turn up in search with everything else.
Removing
Remove takes a file off the task. Files are stored once and can be attached in more than one place, so removing one attachment takes the link away and leaves the file alone.
If that was the last place the file was used, the file goes to a 30-day trash rather than disappearing — a file attached to nothing is a file nobody can find again, but an accidental removal is still recoverable.
Putting one back
The Trash link at the foot of a task's or project's Files panel lists what was removed in the last 30 days (an admin sees everything; anyone else, the files they could put back): what it was, how big, who took it off, and the day it goes for good. Restore puts it back exactly where it was — on the task or the project you took it off — with its notes and its previews.
Each row says where it would go back to before you press anything. Where it cannot, it says why instead of offering a button that fails: the task it was on has itself been deleted, or the 30 days have run and the stored copy is already gone.
A file in the trash does not count against your plan's storage, so putting it back counts it again. If the team has filled that room in the meantime, the restore says so and nothing moves; delete something nobody needs, then restore it.
Restoring one is the same permission as removing it: the person who added the file, anyone who can work in the project it is going back to, and the team's admins.
After the 30 days the file is gone for good, its previews and its notes with it.
Folders, on a project
A project's own files — the contract, the brand kit, the things every task refers back to — can be put into folders. Open the project, find the Files card, and use New folder. A folder can hold folders, five deep, and the trail across the top says where you are.
Move a file into a folder with the two pickers under the files: which file, and where to.
Removing a folder never deletes anything. What is inside moves up one level — to the folder above, or to the top of the files — and the confirmation tells you how much is about to move before you press it.
Two things worth knowing. Files attached to a task are not filed: they belong to the task, show in their own half of the card, and follow the task rather than a folder. And a folder is a shelf, not a lock — everyone who can see the project sees every folder in it, so which folder a file sits in never changes who can open it.
Arranging folders is the same permission as uploading: admins and members, not guests.
Who can
Anyone who can work in the project can attach and remove. Guests can see and open files, but cannot upload or remove them — see People, roles, and who sees what.
Worth knowing
- Attaching a file tells the people watching the task, on the bell.
- Attaching and removing files is recorded in the task's history, with who did it and when; so is a note written on a file.
- Files are stored once, so a file attached in two places has one set of notes, read from either.