A default folder is where your new documents go when you create one without choosing a place. You can keep one for each of these, listed under New documents that open as:
- Diagrams: documents that open in Diagram mode.
- Whiteboards: documents that open in Draw mode.
- Sessions: documents that open in Workshop mode.
- Pages documents: documents that open in Pages mode.
- Plan boards: documents that open in Plan mode.
- Event Storming boards.
- Retrospectives: documents made from any retrospective template.
- Kanban boards: documents made from the Kanban template.
A document goes to the most specific default that fits it: an Event Storming board's default first, then a retrospective's or a Kanban board's, then the one for the mode it opens in. So a retrospective goes to your Retrospectives folder even if you also have one for Diagrams. With none set, it lands in My Documents. Your defaults are your own: teammates choose theirs. Default folders are stored with your account or guest identity, not in the browser.
Setting a default from a folder
Open a folder's menu (its ⋯ button, or right-click the folder) and choose Use as Default for. Under New documents that open as, tick the kinds of document that should land there; the list stays open so you can tick several in one go. Each kind points at one folder, so ticking it here moves it from wherever it was; unticking it sends those documents back to My Documents.
My Documents has the same menu: a ticked entry there means those documents land in My Documents. Choosing an unticked one clears its default folder.
You can use a team's folders too, as long as you are a member of the team. A team's own top level cannot be a default: create inside the team to put a document there.
Seeing your defaults
A folder that is one of your defaults shows a small mark after its name, in the sidebar, the Explorer's lists and cards, and the editor's Explorer panel: the icon of each kind it receives (two at most, then +N). Hover it to read, for example, "Default folder for new whiteboards".
When you create a document
The New Document wizard never asks where a document goes: choose what you are making, and the document is filed in your default folder for it, or in My Documents when you have none. Pick a template on its start afterwards, and a document made a moment ago moves to that template's default folder, if it has one (a toast says so).
- Starting from inside a folder or a team keeps you there: that folder wins over your default.
- To file one document somewhere else, use Change Folder on it afterwards.
- While you try things out as a guest, new documents are saved in this browser instead, so they have no folder until you move them to your account.
In Settings
Settings > Documents > Default Folders lists every kind with the folder it goes to, or My Documents. Change picks a folder; Clear sends that kind back to My Documents.
If a default folder has been deleted, or belongs to a team you have left, the row says so, for example "Workshops (deleted), using My Documents", and new documents go to the next default that fits, or My Documents. Deleting a folder that is one of your defaults warns you first.
Defaults only decide where a new document starts. Moving a document later, or changing a default, never moves documents you already have.
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