---
title: How to find a document and link it to your work
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/documents/link-and-find
description: Documents are listed newest edited first. Link one into a record, a task or a message so it is found in context.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to find a document and link it to your work



A document nobody can find is a document nobody reads. This page covers getting back to one
and, more usefully, connecting it to the work it belongs to. Start at <Ref to="documents" />
for what documents are.

## How is the list ordered? [#how-is-the-list-ordered]

**Documents** in the sidebar shows every document in the workspace, most recently edited
first, with who last touched it and when.

That order is the useful default, because the thing you want is usually the thing somebody
was writing this week. It also means a document nobody has touched in a year sinks, which is
a fair signal about whether it is still true.

Everyone sees the same list. Documents are workspace-wide, so there is no personal view to
get out of step with anyone else's.

## How do you link a document to your work? [#how-do-you-link-a-document-to-your-work]

By mentioning it from wherever the work is. Typing &#x2A;*@** in a chat message, a comment, or
another document brings up a menu you can pick a document from.

This is the habit worth forming. A returns policy linked from the record that needed it is
found by the next person automatically; the same policy sitting in the list is found only by
somebody who already knows it exists.

Records carry links to documents in their **Related** panel, which shows what points at what
in both directions. See <Ref to="records/link-a-record" />.

## Can you link from inside a document? [#can-you-link-from-inside-a-document]

Yes. Mentioning works inside the editor too, so a shoot brief can point at the products it
covers and at the project it belongs to.

Those links go both ways. The thing you mention shows the document back, which is what makes
the connection worth making rather than just typing a title.

## How does a document get created alongside work? [#how-does-a-document-get-created-alongside-work]

A planned item on a project can create one automatically when it becomes a task, already
linked to that task.

For a content calendar this is the whole trick: every post arrives with its brief attached
rather than somebody making a document later and hoping it gets connected. See
<Ref to="projects/plan-what-goes-out" />.

## Why can I not open a document somebody sent me? [#why-can-i-not-open-a-document-somebody-sent-me]

Two possibilities, and they look the same from a broken link.

The **Documents** module may be switched off for your workspace, which makes every document
unreachable including one linked from a message. That is an admin setting, covered in
<Ref to="workspace-admin/modules" />.

Or the document was removed. Removing takes it out of the list for everybody, so an old link
to one stops resolving.

## Is there a Documents screen on the phone? [#is-there-a-documents-screen-on-the-phone]

Documents are written and read on the web. The iPhone app covers the things you do away from
a desk, which is chat, tasks and notifications.

That split is deliberate rather than temporary, and <Ref to="documents/write-and-format" />
is where the writing happens.