Previewing Files, Opening in Editors, and Managing Versions

StretchDrive lets you inspect files without downloading them, open editable files directly in StretchSuite's editors, and roll back to earlier versions when needed. This article covers all three.

Previewing files in the browser

Select a file and choose Preview. StretchDrive renders a clean, read-only view right in your browser for these types:

• Plain text (.txt, .log) — shown as-is.
• Markdown (.md, .markdown) — rendered with headings, lists, links, quotes, and code blocks.
• CSV and TSV — rendered as a formatted, scrollable table.
• Code files (JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, PHP, HTML, CSS, SQL, JSON, YAML, and more) — shown with syntax highlighting.

Text previews cover the first 2 MB of a file; if a file is larger you'll see a note that the preview is truncated. In addition, common image formats (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, BMP) display inline so you can view them without downloading. Other formats — such as PDFs, video, and office documents — don't have an in-browser rendered preview and will download so you can open them locally.

Opening files in StretchDocs and StretchSheets

Text-based files aren't just viewable — they're editable. From a supported file you can choose Open in editor:

• Text and Markdown files open as a StretchDocs document, with the file's contents imported so you can start editing immediately.
• CSV files open as a StretchSheets workbook, with rows and columns parsed into cells.

This turns Drive into an on-ramp for the rest of the suite: park a raw export in Drive, then promote it into a full document or spreadsheet when you're ready to work on it.

How version history works

Every time you upload a new copy of an existing file, StretchDrive saves it as a new version and keeps the previous ones. Versions are immutable — they're never altered after the fact — so you always have a reliable history.

1. Select a file and open Version history.
2. You'll see each version listed newest-first, with its version number, size, who created it, and when.
3. To roll back, choose Restore on the version you want. That version becomes the current one, and the file's size and checksum update to match. Nothing is lost — the version you were on remains in history.

A realistic example

Your team maintains pricing.csv. On Monday you upload it; that's version 1. On Wednesday a colleague uploads a corrected copy over it — version 2 — but the Monday copy is still preserved. You preview version 2 as a table right in the browser and spot that a discount column was deleted by mistake. You open Version history, see both versions with their authors and timestamps, and restore version 1. To finish the edits properly, you then open the file in StretchSheets, fix the discount column, and save. Throughout, no data was ever truly lost.

Tips

• Preview before downloading to confirm you have the right file — it saves time and bandwidth.
• To keep history, upload replacements over the existing file instead of creating a new duplicate.
• Use version history as a safety net before making risky changes — you can always roll back.
• Open in editor is the quickest way to turn a stored CSV into a working StretchSheets model.
• For large text files, remember the preview shows the first 2 MB; open the full file in an editor if you need the rest.

Troubleshooting

"This file type cannot be previewed." The format isn't supported by the in-browser renderer (for example a PDF or video). Download it, or if it's a text-based file, open it in an editor.

My image won't show inline. Only PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, and BMP display inline; other image formats download instead.

The preview looks cut off. Text previews are limited to the first 2 MB. Open the file in StretchDocs/StretchSheets or download it to see everything.

Restoring a version — did I lose my current one? No. Restoring makes an older version current but keeps every version in history, including the one you moved away from.