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Standalone Files

Standalone Files holds files that none of your open projects contain. When you open a file such as ~/.gitconfig, a note in your Documents folder, or a config file somewhere on disk, Zide opens it in Standalone Files instead of adding its folder as a project tab.

How Zide chooses where a file opens

File > Open File…, File > Open Recent File, dragging a file onto Zide from your file manager, and Open as Text in Settings > Git all follow the same rules, in order.

  1. If the file is already open anywhere in Zide, Zide brings you to that tab. You never end up with two editable copies of the same file.
  2. If an open project tab contains the file, Zide opens it in that project. When more than one open project contains it, the innermost one wins.
  3. Otherwise Zide opens the file in Standalone Files.

Zide never adds a project tab just because you opened a single file.

The Standalone Files tab

Standalone Files appears on the left of the tab bar, next to the Open Folder button. Like Open Folder and Settings, it shows just its icon while the tab bar is horizontal and its name once you switch the tab bar to the vertical sidebar; hover it to confirm what it is. The tab’s own header names it and says what it is for.

Standalone Files sits outside the Project Tab Bar, so your projects keep the same Ctrl+1–9 shortcuts. The tab appears when you open the first standalone file. Later standalone files open in the same tab.

The position of Standalone Files is fixed. You cannot drag it or drop a Project Tab beside it.

Standalone Files is not a project, so it looks deliberately plain:

  • A header with the tab’s name and a Close button. There are no branch, remote, push, or pull controls.
  • No activity bar and no side panel. Your files span the full width of the tab.
  • One pane. You cannot split it or apply a layout preset to it.

Each file you open is a content tab, with the usual unsaved-changes dot and deleted-file marker. The tab shows the filename, and hovering it shows the complete path. The file header shows the folder the file lives in as plain text.

What you can do with a file in Standalone Files

Everything that does not depend on a project works exactly as it does elsewhere: Preview, Edit, Hex, and Details, saving, Save As, Open in File Manager, renaming, deleting, formatting, indentation, encoding, line endings, and word wrap. Zide still warns you when a file changes on disk underneath you, and still asks before discarding unsaved changes.

Anything that needs a repository is not shown, because there is no repository behind the file: no History view (the only view that can be absent), no Git status badge or blame, no link to GitHub or another host, no Script Runner, and no dashboard conversion.

A file open in Standalone Files can only read and write inside its own folder. Language servers and .editorconfig lookups stay inside that folder too, so opening one standalone file never gives Zide the run of your home directory.

Files move out when you open the project that contains them

When you open a project that contains a standalone file, Zide moves the file into that Project Tab.

This happens whenever you open a project, not just from one command: Open Folder, Open Recent Project, opening a worktree as a project tab, and Open Containing Folder as Project… all do it. If several standalone files belong to the project you opened, all of them move, keeping their order. Files that project does not contain stay where they are, and if a file belongs to some other, more specific project you already have open, it is left alone rather than handed to the wrong one.

Files move whole. Unsaved changes, undo and redo history, your cursor and selection, scroll position, folds, the current Find, the mode you were in (Preview, Edit, Hex, or Details), and settings such as word wrap and line endings all come with the file. You can continue where you left off. Once the file is in the project, everything the project brings with it starts working: History, Git status and blame, the link to GitHub or another host, and .editorconfig and language-server lookups that now cover the whole project instead of one folder.

If the project you opened claims every file Standalone Files was holding, Standalone Files closes itself.

Zide opens a project only when you ask it to. Opening a standalone file does not open its folder as a project.

Open the containing folder as a project

To open the file’s project, right-click its name in the file header or its tab, then click Open Containing Folder as Project…. Zide opens the file’s Git repository as a Project Tab. If there is no repository, it opens the file’s folder instead. Zide moves all standalone files that the project contains into that tab and focuses the file you right-clicked.

If that folder turns out not to contain the file after all, the project still opens and Zide shows you the file in the project’s Files browser instead.

If a file is already open, Zide focuses its existing tab. It does not open a second copy.

Closing Standalone Files

Standalone Files closes itself when you close its last file. You can also click Close in its header, which closes every file in it at once. If any of them have unsaved changes, Zide asks first and lets you save them all, discard them all, or cancel.

Standalone Files is not restored when you restart Zide. It exists only for as long as you have standalone files open, so save anything you want to keep before you quit.