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Feature guideGuide 2 of 20 in Data room

Workspace and Dataroom

The two places a document can be, why both exist, and what each one means for what buyers see.

Updated 29 Sep 20263 min read
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Every project's Files page has two tabs, and the difference between them is the one idea everything else builds on. The Workspace is where uploads land and where your team works. The Dataroom is the numbered index buyers navigate. A document lives in the Workspace from the moment it is uploaded, and appears in the Dataroom only when someone places it there.

Essential concepts

  • Workspace. Your team's working area. Every upload is kept here in its original form, in whatever folders it arrived in, and nothing here is visible to external users. Think of it as the drive you sort from.
  • Dataroom. The curated, numbered structure: sections such as 1 Corporate & Governance, folders inside them, and placeholders for the documents each folder expects. This is what a buyer group sees, filtered by the folders it has been granted. Its state chip reads Preparation, Published or Locked.
  • Placing. Mapping a Workspace file onto a folder or placeholder in the Dataroom. The upload stays where it is; the Dataroom shows the file under the placeholder's name with its own index number. A file can be placed by hand, or the AI can propose the slot for review.
  • Both tabs, one file. A placed document appears in both tabs. That is not a second copy and it does not widen access: buyers only ever see the Dataroom, and only the folders their group holds a role on.

Uploads land on the left tab; buyers only ever see the right one.1.Workspace tab2.Dataroom tab3.Index column

Why the split exists

Uploads are messy: a folder from a client's drive, three checklists from advisers, a batch of scanned statements. The Workspace lets all of that arrive without decisions. The Dataroom lets you build the structure buyers expect, name documents the way readers should see them, and share only what is ready, while the originals remain traceable in the Workspace. It also means you can upload late documents at any time, including after publication, and decide separately when they enter the index.

What this means day to day

  • Upload first, organise second. A first upload can go to the Workspace only; nothing is shared by it.
  • Sharing decisions are taken on the Dataroom side, per folder and per external group; see Invite buyers to a data room.
  • The Index column in the Workspace shows where a file sits in the Dataroom, or stays empty while it is unplaced; the Workspace filter can show only files Not in Index.
  • Renaming a file in the Dataroom changes the name buyers read; the original filename stays visible in the Workspace.

Availability and limitations

  • The Dataroom changes freely in Preparation. After publication, files, folders and placeholders can still be added and moved, and files are retracted rather than deleted; a retracted document can then be deleted from the Workspace. After locking nothing changes. See The data room lifecycle.
  • A colleague given access to a single document in the Dataroom also sees that document in the Workspace tab of the internal app. This is expected: the Workspace is the internal view of the same file. External groups invited through the Deal Portal never see the Workspace at all.

Next actions

Up nextUpload documentsGet files and folders into the project's Workspace, where your team prepares them before anything is shared.
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Related guides
How the Dataroom index worksFolders, placeholders, index numbers and mapped files: the model behind the Dataroom, and every control that shapes it.Invite buyers to a data roomCreate an external group, add the buyers, choose which folders they can see, and send the invitations by publishing the data room.