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In pensiv a single document doubles as a folder. You can put other documents or sheets under a document, and the two tabs in the header choose which of the two you see. The left one is the icon for the current file’s type, the right one a folder icon. There is no text, only icons. Documents, sheets, plotboards, and canvases have these tabs, and so does the folder screen.
A crop of just the right side of the header on the default screen with a document open. Of the two tabs the left file icon is active, and the two icons are large enough to tell apart. About one line of the manuscript's first line comes in below.
A crop of just the right side of the header on the default screen with a document open. Of the two tabs the left file icon is active, and the two icons are large enough to tell apart. About one line of the manuscript's first line comes in below.

The two tabs in the header. The left is the file itself, the right the list of files under it.

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What each view shows

File view is the file itself. For a document you get the manuscript, for a sheet the table, for a plotboard the card board, for a canvas the drawing surface. Folder view lays out the files hanging directly under that file. The four tabs, Grid, List, Freeform, and Timeline, are exactly the same as on the folder screen. Right-click empty space and New Document, New Sheet, New Plotboard, New Canvas, and New Folder come up, so you can make a child file on the spot.

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Continuous reading — scattered chapters in one scroll

With a folder it is the other way around: folder view is the default. Switch a folder to file view and the documents directly under it run on in one scroll. It is the screen for reading from beginning to end without opening chapters 1, 2, and 3 separately. Think of it as sitting in the same place as Scrivener’s Scrivenings. The difference tells most when you are revising. Whether the rhythm breaks between chapters, whether the same phrase repeats across two of them — you see that only by reading straight through. You can do it with several files you have picked, too. Cmd/Ctrl click a few documents in the tree and change the view, and only what you picked runs on. The order follows the tree order shown on screen, not the order you clicked. At the top, the number you picked and the combined character count come up together. When you are matching the length of an instalment, there is no need to add the chapters up one by one.
A folder holding three or more documents opened and switched to file view. The bodies of several chapters run on in one scroll with the boundaries between chapters visible, and the number picked or the combined character count is caught at the top.
A folder holding three or more documents opened and switched to file view. The bodies of several chapters run on in one scroll with the boundaries between chapters visible, and the number picked or the combined character count is caught at the top.

Continuous reading. The documents under a folder join into one scroll.

The same document switched to folder view. The folder icon on the right is active and three or four child-file cards are visible in the Grid tab.
The same document switched to folder view. The folder icon on the right is active and three or four child-file cards are visible in the Grid tab.

The same document in folder view. The files hanging under it come up as cards.

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The view you pick is remembered for each file

The choice is kept for each file separately. If you are working with a split screen, even the same file is remembered separately for each pane. It stays that way when you restart the app. This memory stays only on the device you are using, though, so it does not follow a link you hand over to someone else.

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What is locked in folder view

The AI Review and Comments buttons dim and carry the note “Not available in folder view”. The moment you move to folder view, those panels close if they were open. File Notes opens in both views. Turn on Focus mode, or press a search result or a citation marker to jump to this file, and it returns to file view on its own.

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You can also hide the tabs

Open Customize from the more button at the right end of the header and “View Toggle” is on the list. The eye icon hides it, and the handle on the left drags it to another place.
Hide View Toggle and there is no way left to change the view. There is no shortcut and no menu to stand in for it, so turn it back on in Customize.