poka.sh

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Preview your first file

tutorial

This tutorial gets you from nothing to a file previewed in Poka, first in the web app and then, if you want it, on the desktop. It takes about five minutes. Poka is a light file previewer (about 20 MB on the desktop): select a file, trigger a preview, and a borderless window draws it. Images, PDFs, 3D models, CAD drawings, spreadsheets, fonts, archives, code and many hundreds of other formats work.

In the browser

  1. Go to poka.sh. There is nothing to install.
  2. Drop a file on the page, or use Open file, or paste a link to a public file and press Enter. With no file to hand, choose surprise me on the start screen: it opens a random example file, a different one each time, to show how many kinds of file Poka can preview. The examples are public sample files (listed on the 50+50 page's data), never your own.
  3. The preview appears. The file is read in your browser and never leaves your device; a pasted link is fetched by the browser too, so a site that blocks cross-origin requests needs the file downloaded and dropped instead.

If the preview is not what you expect, see Install Poka and troubleshoot a preview.

On the desktop

  1. Install the desktop app (Install Poka and troubleshoot a preview).

  2. Preview a file in whichever way suits your system:

    Where How
    Linux with GNOME and Nautilus Select a file and press Space
    Windows Select a file in Explorer or on the Desktop and press Ctrl+Space
    Any system Run poka <filepath> in a terminal. If Poka is already running, the path is passed to it, so repeat previews stay quick
    Any system Left-click the tray icon to show or hide the window, or choose Open file... in the tray menu
    Any system Open with Poka in the file manager. The installers register Poka as a viewer for common formats

  3. Look at the preview. If the format's extension is not installed yet, Poka shows a card with the extension and size and offers to install it with one click.

  4. Press Space or Escape to dismiss it. The window hides and the app keeps running in the tray.

Moving between files

While a preview is open:

Key What it does
Space or Escape Dismiss the preview
Left and Right Step to the previous or next file in the same folder, in alphabetical order. A format Poka cannot preview shows a "preview not available" card instead of stopping

Where to go next