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Knobs Docs

Import & export

Documents rarely start or end their lives in one app. Docs imports the formats your files already use and exports to everything your recipients expect — including PDF.

Import a document

Section titled “Import a document”

  1. Click the upload icon in the document title bar, beside New.

  2. Pick a file — supported formats:

    Format Extensions
    Word .docx
    OpenDocument .odt
    Rich Text .rtf
    HTML .html
    Markdown .md
    Plain text .txt

  3. The import runs in the background; the new doc appears in your list moments later, private to you until you share it.

Files up to 20 MB import. Headings, lists, tables, links, basic styling, and embedded images carry over.

Tracked changes and comments (Word)

Section titled “Tracked changes and comments (Word)”

A .docx that arrives with tracked changes keeps them: insertions, deletions, and formatting changes import as pending suggestions in the doc, with their original authors and timestamps. Comments import too — threads, replies, and their resolved state land in the doc’s comments panel, attributed to the Word author’s name, with a quote of the text each comment covered. Tracked moves import as a delete + insert pair.

What happens to images

Section titled “What happens to images”

Images embedded in the file (the usual case for Word/ODT/RTF) are re-uploaded as the new doc’s own images, so they inherit the doc’s sharing. One exception: an HTML or Markdown file that merely links to an image on the web gets a placeholder instead — Docs never hot-links external images into a private document.

When something can’t convert

Section titled “When something can’t convert”

Features beyond the editor (footnotes, text boxes, embedded objects) degrade to placeholders, and the import reports what it had to leave behind — the document always arrives, with honest warnings, rather than failing outright.

Export a document

Section titled “Export a document”
  1. Open the doc and choose Download from its menu.
  2. Pick a format: Word (.docx), OpenDocument (.odt), RTF, HTML, Markdown, plain text, or PDF.
  3. The export is prepared server-side from the latest state of the doc, and the download starts when it’s ready — a few seconds for typical documents.

Anyone who can view a doc can export it.