Let’s be clear: we built Air to make work easier for the people, teams, and businesses who rely on visual assets to do their jobs. The Creative Directors corralling design teams, the Growth Marketers commissioning ad units to distribute on Facebook, the Founders working with agencies to create a brand identity, and everyone in between.

A powerful visual identity and a well-executed visual marketing strategy (on social, on paid, on billboards, you name it) is crucial to success for so many modern businesses. Air exists because no other tool offered a visual-first experience. Folks were digging deep in cloud storage folders looking for assets named IMG_23918.jpg, an experience only marginally better than digging through a file cabinet for a printout 30 years ago.

We’ve always prioritized visual assets and the visual experience, but two years ago, just a few months into our product’s public launch, we opened the gates to allow our users to upload just about every kind of file in the books: .csv, .doc, .ppt, .mp3…the list goes on.

You could upload those files to Air, but you couldn’t see the information they contained without leaving the platform. They looked like this:

If you opened any of these files, in the asset view you’d be left with just the file icon, filename, and file size — whereas with a .jpeg or other previewable visual file, you could see the image, zoom in on it, and add annotations. Yes, you could still share non-visual files, comment on them, and otherwise take actions in-platform — but you’d have to download or transfer said files to another application to access the information within.

Allowing users to upload additional, non-visual file types to Air was a matter of urgency — users working with visual assets in Air had a need to store project-relevant, non-visual files alongside their visual assets. We were happy to ship this fix, but knew it would need revisiting down the line. That time has come.

Expanded file preview capabilities

As of July 22, 2022, you can now fully preview .doc, .ppt, and .key files (and their derivatives) in Air — no need to download. Treat these files previews just like you’ve always treated .pdf files in the platform — scroll through pages, add comments and annotations; take any action you would normally take on a .pdf stored in Air.

Our users tend to utilize PowerPoint and Keynote files for pitch decks and moodboards, text files for creative briefs — for many parts of their workflows. Adding these file preview capabilities is meant to enable you to become more efficient in your work without expending effort to create that efficiency. Here are a few suggested use cases:

• If you work at an agency (or you’re working with an agency), ship a full suite of briefs, assets, and other collateral, all within Air — turn on passwords and expiration dates to keep your share links secure

• Bring your creative projects into Air earlier, starting with moodboards (.ppt or .key files) and creative briefs (.doc) files.

• Build an archive of text-based files in Air, right where you already store your visual archive

Full list of file types previewable in Air

New as of July 22, 2022 update

• doc

• docx

• ppt

• pptx

• key

All others as of July 22, 2022

Images

• jpg

• png

• heic

• jpeg

• svg

• psd

• psb

• webp

• jfif

• ai

• eps

• gif

Videos

• avi

• flv

• m2v

• m4p

• m4v

• mov

• mp2

• mp4

• mpeg

• mpg

• mxf

• mts

• webm

• wmv

• mpegts

• asf

• ts

PDF

• eps

• pdf

Are there any file types not currently previewable in Air that you would like to be able to preview in-platform? Let us know — in the future, we will be adding preview functionality to more file types. Send your suggestions to hello@air.inc.