Copy a file or folder

This article is for:

Workspace Owners, Content Managers, and Copy Managers

You can create copies of files, folders, and processes to make duplicates or roll forward from one reporting period to the next. This lets you keep the original file intact and work with the new file going forward.

The Copy window contains several settings that let you customize how your files are copied. Copying a file maintains its original permission settings but resets revision history.

Note: Only Workspace Owners, Content Managers, and Copy Managers can copy files—if you need to copy a file, contact a Workspace Owner. To find a Workspace Owner, see Find members and admins.

Choose copy settings

When you copy a file, you can adjust copy settings to select what's included in your copy.

Note: If your file has any automations, they will automatically be included in the copy. To reduce errors in the copied automations, be sure to include anything else that's needed for your automations to run.

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All comments: Check this box to copy all comments (including Resolved and Open comments) to your new files.
Outline labels: Outline labels are colored dots in the Document Outline that signify different statuses. Check this box to copy any outline labels, including any custom label sets you've created.
Links and Process References: This setting manages how links and their sources files appear in your copied files. If you're copying a process, this also means that actions in your copied process will include file and section references. To learn more about these options, see Settings for Links and Process References below.
Note: Unchecking this box means your new files will have no links to sources outside of your selection and your new processes will have no reference files. Also, if the content also had an XBRL tag, it'll be removed as well in the copy.
Connections: If you're using Wdata, you can choose to keep Wdata connections in your copy.
Input cell values: This option includes any values within input cells. If you don't select this option, the cell values are cleared, but the input cell designation is maintained in the copy.
Input mode in enabled sections: When including this option, sheets with input mode enabled in the original spreadsheet will have input mode enabled in the copy of the spreadsheet.
Create destination folder: This option is enabled by default, but you can uncheck this option if you don’t want to create a new container folder for your copied files.
New folder name: If you choose to create a destination folder to hold your copies, this will be the name of the new folder.
Location: If you choose to create a destination folder, this will be its location. If you don’t create a destination folder, this will be the location for your copied files. By default, the location will be All Files.

Settings for Links and Process References

The options under Links and Process References let you customize how your copied items handle links for files and references for processes.

Create copies of all source files means that all files that provide source links for your selected files will also be included to the copy. The links in your copied file will now come from the new source copies.

For typical roll-forwards, we suggest using Create copies of all source files to ensure your source and destination files are copied for the new reporting period. Broken links will result in different results for tables and text values. Tables will be preserved, while text values will not be preserved, they will be displayed as "###."

Keep links to original source files means your new files will be linked back to the original source files, rather than creating copies of source files. The source files should not be listed in your selected files if you don’t want copies to be made.

We suggest using Keep links to original source files if you want to have the same source for both a brand new destination and the current destination. For example, we recommend this option when adding a new reporting entity or a new fund.

Unchecking Links and Process References ignores any linked sources outside of your selection and removes those links. The new file will contain the data from the last published linked value, but the links will no longer update.

We only recommend removing links if there are unnecessary links outside of your selected files that you would like to shed.

Note: Link settings only affect sources that are not already included in your selected files. If a source file is in your selection, it will be copied regardless of which option you select.

Copy an item

To copy a folder:

From Files, find the folder you want to copy.
Right-click the folder and select Copy .
Review the selected folder and click Next.
Note: Projects or filings in the folder won't be copied.
Adjust copy and location settings.
Click Copy to finish. You’ll receive an email with a link to the copied folder.

You can see the status of the copy in the lower right. Click Open Folder to view your copied folder.

To copy a file:

In Files or Home, find the file you want to copy.
Right-click the file and select Copy .
Confirm your selection and click Next.
Adjust any copy and location settings.
Click Copy to finish. You’ll receive an email with a link to the copied files.

You can see the status of the copy in the lower right. Click Open Folder to view your copied file.

Note: If you copy a locked file, the copied version will be unlocked.

To copy a process:

In Files or Home, find the process you want to copy.
Right-click the file and select Copy .
Confirm your selection and then click Next.
Adjust any copy and location settings.
Click Copy to finish. You’ll receive an email with a link to the copied files.

You can see the status of the copy in the lower right. Click Open Folder to view your copied file.

Best practices

Comments:

If you have comments in your selected files that might be relevant in your copied files, we recommend including all comments in the copy.
If your comments will no longer be relevant in the copied files, like questions for a specific reporting period, uncheck the All comments box to remove them from your copied file.

Tracked changes:

If you have tracked changes that haven't been approved or rejected in the original file, the copied file will have those tracked changes as approved with no prior history.

Outline labels:

If you've created a custom label key and want to reuse it in your copied files, we recommend including outline labels.
- Once you open your copied file, you can clear all outline labels to reset the status of each section while maintaining the same outline label key.
If you want to start your status' over in your new document and don't need to reuse the outline label key, don't include them in the copy.
Learn more about using labels in Workiva.

Content placeholders:

When copying a folder that contains files with placeholders, connections will only be updated if the placeholder spreadsheet is also in the same folder.
- If the placeholder spreadsheet is not included in the copied folder, no changes will be made to placeholder connections and they will all remain linked to the original source.
When copying a file containing placeholders, no changes will be made to placeholder connections. Any existing connections will remain linked to the original source.

Linked Files Report:

We recommend copying from the Linked Files Report when you have multiple linked files in your selected copy.
From the Linked Files Report, you can granularly choose which (if any) linked files you would like to exclude from the copies. This can be helpful when untangling a complicated linking situation!
Note: Copies from the Linked Files Report currently neither replicate the folder structure nor include processes and uploaded files (such as PDFs) in the folder. Copy from Home instead of the Linked Files Report if you need to include these items in your copy.

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