Navigating Copera
Copera is organized into four areas that you reach from the top bar: Channels, Work, Drive and AI Chat. Channels holds your conversations, Work holds your boards and pages, Drive holds your files, and AI Chat is where you work with Copera's AI. Each area has its own color and its own left menu, while the top bar, search and the right rail stay with you everywhere.
The Four Areas
| Area | What you find there | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | Text channels, direct messages, meeting channels, classroom channels, inboxes and your agents' channels | Purple |
| Work | Boards, Pages, whiteboards, templates and My Tasks | Green |
| Drive | Your files, folders, Office documents, Markdown files, PDFs, Artifacts, DocSign and Sparks | Blue |
| AI Chat | Conversations with Copera's AI, AI Workforce, automations, artifacts and AI notes | Orange |
Click an area in the top bar to switch to it. Copera remembers where you were in each area, so clicking Drive takes you back to the last folder you opened, and clicking Work takes you back to the last board or page.
Some areas and features have new names. Nothing else changed: your channels, boards, pages and files are exactly where they were.
| Previous name | New name |
|---|---|
| Communicate | Channels |
| Collaborate | Work |
| Ask Copera.ai | AI Chat |
| Docs | Pages |
| My Work | My Tasks |
Drive used to live inside Collaborate. It is now an area of its own.
The Top Bar
The top bar is the same in every area:
- Area buttons — Channels, Work, Drive and AI Chat, each with its own icon.
- Search — Find messages, pages, boards, files and people from anywhere. Press Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+K (Mac).
- Menu button (☰) — Appears at the left of the top bar only when the left menu is closed. Click it to open the menu again.
In the desktop app, the top bar also holds your open tabs.
The Left Menu
Each area has its own left menu:
- Channels lists your channel categories, direct messages and inboxes.
- Work lists your boards, Pages, whiteboards and templates.
- Drive lists Home, DocSign, Sparks, Artifacts, Shared with me, Starred, your disks, Unfiled and Trash. See Drive Overview.
- AI Chat lists your conversations and AI tools.
Every left menu starts with Recents, the items you opened most recently in any area, so you can jump back to a channel, board or file without searching.
To give your work more room, close the left menu with the collapse button at the top of the menu. The ☰ button appears in the top bar; click it to open the menu again. Copera remembers whether the menu is open or closed separately for each area.
The Right Rail
The right rail is the narrow column of buttons on the right edge of the screen. It is available on every page, including when you are editing a document, spreadsheet or presentation in Drive.
From the right rail you can open, among others:
- AI Chat — Ask the AI to work across your files, boards and chats without leaving the page you are on.
- Agenda and To-dos — Check your schedule and your tasks.
- Pages — Open a page for quick reference.
- Chats — Reply to a conversation you pinned, without leaving your page.
Each item opens as a drawer next to your work. On wide screens the drawer pushes your page aside; on smaller screens it opens on top. Nothing you are editing is lost when the drawer opens or closes. See Drawer Mode for every item the rail can show.
In the desktop app, a chat in the right rail can pop out into its own tab. See Tabs and Windows in the Desktop App.
Opening Files in the Browser
In the web app, Office documents, Markdown files and Artifacts open in a new browser tab, so you can keep Drive open next to them. The file tab has the same top bar and right rail as the rest of Copera.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did Communicate and Collaborate go?
They were renamed. Communicate is now Channels and Collaborate is now Work. Everything they contained is still there, except Drive, which now has its own area.
Where is Drive now?
Click Drive in the top bar. Drive is the third area, between Work and AI Chat.
Why is "Work" not translated in my language?
Work and Drive are product names, so they stay the same in every language. Channels and AI Chat use your language, for example Canais and IA Chat in Portuguese.
Can I still use keyboard shortcuts to switch areas?
In the desktop app, press Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+4 (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+1 to Cmd+4 (Mac) to jump to Channels, Work, Drive and AI Chat. These shortcuts are not used while you are typing in an editor or a text field.
Does closing the left menu hide it in every area?
No. Each area remembers its own setting, so you can keep the Drive menu open and the Channels menu closed.
Related Features
- Drive Overview — Your files, disks and folders in the Drive area
- Work Overview — Boards, Pages, whiteboards and more
- Channels Overview — Text, meeting and classroom channels, direct messages and inboxes
- AI Chat — Chat with Copera's AI across your workspace
- Tabs and Windows in the Desktop App — Open anything in a tab