File Viewer Guide

GolemDrive can preview 8 file types directly in your browser, so you don’t need to download a file just to see what’s inside. All previews happen client-side: the file is decrypted in your browser, never on our servers. When you close a preview, the decrypted data is cleared from memory.

For a quick overview of previewing, see Previewing Files. This page goes deeper into each viewer and what you can do with it.

PDF documents

The PDF viewer lets you read documents right in GolemDrive without needing a separate PDF reader.

• Scroll through pages — navigate page by page or scroll continuously through the entire document
• Zoom in and out — get a closer look at details, diagrams, or small text
• Annotations and bookmarks — if your PDF has bookmarks or annotations, they’ll be visible in the viewer
• Multi-page navigation — jump to a specific page number for longer documents

PDFs are one of the most common file types, so this viewer is built to handle everything from one-page receipts to hundred-page reports.

Videos

The video player gives you a full playback experience without leaving GolemDrive.

• Standard controls — play, pause, seek through the timeline, and adjust volume
• Fullscreen mode — expand the video to fill your entire screen
• HLS streaming — for larger video files, GolemDrive uses HLS streaming so playback starts quickly without waiting for the entire file to download first

Whether it’s a quick screen recording or a longer video, you can watch it right where it’s stored.

Music and audio

The audio player is built for listening to music, podcasts, voice memos, and any other audio files.

• Waveform visualization — see the audio waveform as the track plays, making it easy to spot sections and skip to specific parts
• Playback controls — play, pause, skip forward or back, and adjust volume
• Background playback — keep listening while you browse other files in GolemDrive

The waveform view is especially useful for longer recordings where you want to jump to a specific moment.

Photos and images

The image viewer is designed for browsing through photos and graphics.

• Gallery view — when a folder has multiple images, you’ll see thumbnails you can browse through
• Click to enlarge — click any image to view it at full size with zoom support
• Keyboard navigation — use the left and right arrow keys to flip between images without using the mouse
• Zoom — pinch to zoom on mobile, or use scroll/controls on desktop to get a closer look at details

This viewer handles common formats like JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, and WebP.

Office documents

GolemDrive can preview Microsoft Office files so you can check the contents without opening a separate application.

• Word documents (.docx) — view the formatted text, headings, lists, and basic layout of your Word files
• Spreadsheets (.xlsx) — see your Excel data laid out in rows and columns, with sheet tabs if the workbook has multiple sheets
• Presentations (.pptx) — flip through your PowerPoint slides one at a time

These are read-only previews. You can see what’s in the file, but editing happens in your preferred office app (Microsoft Office, Google Docs, LibreOffice, etc.). The preview is great for a quick check before sharing or downloading.

Archives (ZIP, TAR, and more)

The archive viewer lets you look inside compressed files without extracting them.

• Browse contents — see the full list of files and folders inside the archive
• File details — view file names, sizes, and the folder structure within the archive
• No extraction needed — you can check what’s in a ZIP file before deciding whether to download and extract it

This is useful when someone shares an archive and you want to know what’s in it before committing to downloading the whole thing.

Code and text files

The code viewer makes source code and plain text files easy to read.

• Syntax highlighting — code is color-coded by language (JavaScript, Python, Go, HTML, CSS, and many more), making it much easier to read than plain monospace text
• Line numbers — every line is numbered for easy reference, which is handy when discussing specific parts of a file with others

The viewer auto-detects the programming language based on the file extension, so highlighting works automatically.

Other files

For file types that don’t have a dedicated viewer, GolemDrive shows you the basic file information:

• File name
• File size
• File type
• Date uploaded

You can always download any file, regardless of whether a preview is available. The viewers cover the most common formats, but if you have a specialized file type (like a CAD drawing or a proprietary format), you’ll want to download it and open it in the appropriate application.

Tips

• Previews are private. Since decryption happens in your browser, nobody else — not even GolemDrive — can see what you’re previewing. It’s as private as downloading the file.
• Large files may take a moment. The file needs to be fetched and decrypted before the preview appears. Very large videos or high-resolution images might take a few seconds to load.
• Use previews before sharing. It’s a good habit to preview a file before sending a share link, just to confirm it’s the right file and the right version.