The Library (organization documents and lists)

Project document folders live inside a single project. The organization Library is the company-wide counterpart: document folders and lists that belong to the whole organization, not to any one project. It is the right home for things like company policies, templates, brand assets, onboarding checklists, and shared trackers.

Open it from Library in the left sidebar (the URL is /workspace). It has two sections you switch between with the toggle at the top: Documents and Lists.

Note

Available on every plan. Everyone in the organization can see the Library by default; an administrator can lock individual folders and lists down to specific people and teams (see Restrict and share below).

Documents: organization-wide folders

The Documents tab works exactly like a project’s document folders, only the folders belong to the organization instead of a project.

1. On the Library page, stay on the Documents tab.

2. Create a folder. Name it for what it holds, for example “Company Policies” or “Brand Assets”.

3. Select Upload files, or drag files from your computer onto the folder. Each file can be up to 100 MB. Common types (PDF, Office, spreadsheets, images, text) preview in the browser.

4. Add metadata columns to a folder (for example Owner, Status, Review date) so every file carries structured information, not just a name.

Built-in columns and file history

Every folder and file shows five built-in system columns, the same as SharePoint: Title, Created, Created By, Modified, and Modified By. The Created and Modified values include the time of day, and you can show or hide the system columns from the Columns picker.

When you re-upload a file with the same name, Onplana keeps a version history instead of creating a duplicate. You choose Save as a new version (the previous file is kept in history), Keep both, or Cancel. Open a file’s history to see each version with its author and time, and Restore any earlier version, the restore itself is reversible.

Lists: organization-wide trackers

Switch to the Lists tab for company-wide spreadsheet-style lists, the same grid used inside projects.

1. On the Library page, select the Lists tab.

2. Create a list and give it columns (text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox, rating, and more). Starter templates are available.

3. Add rows and fill in cells inline. Each row also tracks who created and last modified it.

Find and sort rows

Large lists have two display-only controls, they change what you see, never the stored row order:

• Search rows (in the list toolbar) filters across every cell value and the Created and Modified columns, and shows how many rows match (“12 of 340 rows”).
• Sort a column with the sort button on any column header: ascending, descending, or off. Number, currency, rating, and date columns sort by value (not as text), and empty cells sort last.

The same search and per-column sort also work on project lists in a project’s Documents tab, not just in the Library.

Restrict and share a folder or list

By default, a Library folder or list follows your organization roles, anyone who can see the Library can open it. To limit a specific folder or list to certain people, an administrator (or the item’s creator) uses Manage access.

1. Open the folder or list and select Manage access (the shield / lock icon in the header). This is available to organization Owners, Admins, Managers, and the item’s creator.

2. Turn on Restrict access. The item now follows explicit grants only, everyone else loses access, except organization Owners and Admins and the creator, who always keep full access.

3. Under Share with, choose a Person or a Team, pick an access level, and select Add:

   • Can view: read the folder/list and its contents.
   • Can contribute: view plus add and edit documents, rows, and metadata.
   • Can manage: contribute plus manage sharing for this item.

4. Change a grantee’s level inline at any time, or remove them. Sharing a folder to a Team grants access to its current members and anyone added later.

Caution

Restricting an item is enforced everywhere, not just in the UI: a person who is not a grantee cannot open, read, or change a restricted folder or list through the app or the API. Organization Owners and Admins and the creator can never be locked out of their own content.

Who can do what

• View the Library and unrestricted items: every member by default (governed by the org.library.view permission).
• Create and edit folders, lists, documents, rows: members with the contribute permission (org.library.contribute).
• Create or delete a folder/list, and manage sharing: the manage permission (org.library.manage, Managers and above by default), the item’s creator, or anyone you grant Can manage.

An administrator can tune these defaults in Organization Settings → People → Permissions.

Recovering deleted items

Deleting a Library folder or list moves it to the Recycle Bin, the same as project content. Restore it from there and it comes back with its documents, columns, rows, and organization scope intact.

FAQs

What is the difference between the Library and a project’s Documents tab? The Library is a single tenant-level area visible to every member by default. A project’s Documents tab lives inside one project and is visible to the project’s members. Same content shape (folders, documents, lists); different visibility boundary.

Can guests see the Library? No. The Library is for members and above. Guests, who are project-only by design, only see content inside the projects they are explicitly added to. Use the project’s Documents tab instead when guests need to see shared files.

How do team grants update when members join or leave the team? Team grants are resolved at access time, so if you share a folder with a Team, every current member of that team has access immediately, including people added later. Removing someone from the team revokes their access on the next page load.

Can I move a document from a project’s Documents tab into the Library? Not in one click today. The closest path is to download the document from the project’s Documents tab and upload it to the Library. Live collaboration history (editor sessions, versions) does not survive the move; attachments and content do.

Who counts as a Library “manager”? The org.library.manage permission, which defaults to Owner, Admin, and Portfolio Manager. The Permissions matrix lets administrators retune this default. The item’s creator can always manage their own item; this is not something the matrix can take away.

Best practices

1. Use the Library for company-wide shared content; use a project’s Documents tab for project work. Don’t put project deliverables in the Library; don’t put company policies in a project. The boundary makes discoverability work.
2. Add metadata columns to high-value folders. “Owner”, “Status”, “Review date” make a policies folder useful at scale. Without them, a file dump is just a file dump.
3. Restrict by default for sensitive folders. Brand assets = unrestricted. HR policies = restricted. Compensation data = restricted + shared with specific Team.
4. Use Teams for grants, not individual users. Team membership changes; per-user grants become stale. Team grants auto-update.
5. Keep the two scopes straight. The Library is org-scoped; a project’s Documents tab is project-scoped; both use the same restrict and grant mechanism. Don’t conflate them.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

• Library missing from the sidebar. Three causes, in the order worth checking: (a) you are a Guest, and the Library is members and above; (b) your organization’s permission matrix has taken org.library.view away from your role; (c) an administrator hid the item with navigation customization, in which case /workspace still works. It is on every plan, so an upgrade is never the answer.
• Restricted folder visible to someone. They may be Owner/Admin (always retain), the creator (always retains), or have an explicit person or team grant.
• Team grant not propagating. Team membership resolves at access time; refresh.
• Metadata column not saving. You need at least Can contribute on the folder or list.
• Can’t move a file between a project and the Library. Today: not a one-click action. Download and re-upload. See FAQs.

How this combines with other features

• The Library and a project’s Documents tab. Both use the same UI, restrict and grant mechanism. The scope differs. See Organize document libraries.
• Library + Sharing. Per-resource restrict + grant works for both organization
  • project resources. See Share libraries and lists.
• Library + Office editor. Same in-browser editing experience. See Edit Office documents in browser.
• Library + External sharing. Documents can be shared externally via email-gated links. See Share reports and documents externally.

Coming from another tool

Tool	Mapping
SharePoint Online	Direct concept; tenant-wide site collections
Google Drive shared drives	Direct
Box Enterprise	Direct
Confluence Spaces	Direct
OneDrive for Business shared with organization	Direct

Related

• Organize document libraries, project version
• Share libraries and lists, restrict + grant mechanism
• Edit Office documents in browser, in-place editing