Where your files live

Find your library folder

Settings › Where your manuals are kept › Open folder

Unless you chose somewhere else, your library is in Documents\Sopycat. If Windows keeps your Documents folder in OneDrive, it is in the Documents folder inside OneDrive instead.

To see the folder in File Explorer, open Settings › Where your manuals are kept and press Open folder. The full path is shown there too.

To open the folder of one item, open it and choose ⋯ › Show the files (for a manual) or ⋯ › Show the file (for a document).

What is inside the library folder

Each manual and document has its own folder. The folder names start with the date the item was made, followed by its title, so they sort by date in File Explorer.

Beside them are a few files and folders whose names start with an underscore. They hold the things that belong to the whole library:

• your empty folders and the search index
• Follow along completions and reading confirmations (the Records)
• the audit log
• saved form profiles
• _trash, which holds Recently deleted

Inside a manual's folder

• A small file with the title, summary, labels, folder, steps, owner and review date, plus who saved it last and on which computer.
• The screen recording and what was clicked and typed during it.
• A steps folder with the picture for each step. Next to each picture is the untouched frame it was drawn from, so boxes, blurs and numbers can be redrawn later.
• The tutorial video, if one was made.
• A history folder with the earlier versions of the manual. Sopycat keeps the newest 30.

Inside a document's folder

• A file folder with the file exactly as you added it. Sopycat never writes over it.
• Each edited copy you save, next to the original. Up to 20 edits are kept, and the newest is the one you see. The Versions menu goes back to any of them or to the original.
• The text of the document, so search can find it, and a small preview picture.

A lock file while someone is editing

While someone has an item open for editing, a small lock file sits in its folder. It tells other computers who is editing. It goes away by itself. See Share a library with your office.

Point Sopycat at another folder

Settings › Where your manuals are kept › Change…

1. Open Settings › Where your manuals are kept.
2. Press Change….
3. Choose the folder in the window that opens.

Sopycat now shows what is in that folder.

Move your library somewhere else

To move the items you already have, for example into OneDrive or onto a new drive:

1. Close Sopycat, so nothing is being saved while you copy.
2. In File Explorer, copy the whole library folder to the new place. Copy it, do not cut, until you have checked the new copy works.
3. Open Sopycat, go to Settings › Where your manuals are kept › Change…, and choose the new folder.
4. Check that your manuals, documents, folders and Records are all there.
5. Then delete the old folder if you want to.

You can also make a backup and restore it into the new folder. See Restore from a backup.

Using OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive or a network drive

Because the library is plain files, a sync program or a network drive handles it like any other folder. Putting it inside OneDrive or Dropbox gives you an extra copy in the cloud, and lets other people use the same library. Records, the audit log and folders are inside the library folder, so they travel with it.

• If you see Couldn’t read the library folder, the folder is not there right now. The drive may be disconnected, or the sync program has not finished. Reconnect it, or go to Settings › Where your manuals are kept › Change… and choose the right folder.
• When two people save the same item at the same time, the sync program may keep both copies. Sopycat spots this and asks which one to keep. See conflict copies.

To share a library with your office, read Share a library with your office.

Sopycat's own settings folder

Your preferences are kept separately from the library, in a folder named Sopycat inside your Windows AppData folder. It holds your settings, the log, unsaved PDF edits kept for crash recovery, your saved signatures and stamps, and any extras you downloaded, such as the writing helper, voice transcription or the Office pack.

This folder belongs to one Windows user on one PC. It is not part of the library and is not shared. Uninstalling Sopycat normally leaves it behind. See What uninstalling keeps.