---
title: "A tour of the dashboard"
description: "Where everything lives in the PDFBetter dashboard: the sidebar, search with ⌘K, the New menu, uploads, Create with AI, notifications and the help menu."
url: https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/dashboard-tour/
collection: "Getting started"
section: "The dashboard"
updated: 2026-10-18
publisher: "PDFBetter (AI Generated Inc.)"
---

# A tour of the dashboard

> The dashboard at /app/ is home base. The sidebar holds **New**, **Create with AI** and your lists; the top bar has search (⌘K), the AI menu, notifications and help. The home page shows what needs your attention, quick tools and your recent documents.

Do it in PDFBetter: https://pdfbetter.com/app/

## The home page

- **Needs your attention**: documents waiting for your signature, requests about to expire, declines, and a **Pick up where you left off** link to the last document you worked on.
- **Start something**: an **Upload or drop** card plus quick tools (**Rearrange**, **Merge**, **Fill link**, **Sign yourself**, **Request signatures**, **Split**, **Compress**) and **All tools**.
- Your recent documents, with tabs for **Recent**, **Action required**, **Drafts**, **Waiting for others** and **Finalized**, then a strip of templates to explore.

## The sidebar

| Section | What's in it |
| --- | --- |
| Top | **Search** (opens ⌘K), **New** (**Upload files**, **Blank document**, **From a template**) and **Create with AI** |
| **Dashboard** | The home page |
| **Personal** | **My documents** (with your folders), **Templates**, **Fill links**, **Shared with me**, **Sent**, **Received**, **Contacts** |
| **AI & automation** | **Workspaces**, **Extractions**, **Workflows**, **Link activity** |
| **Team** | Team **Documents** and **Templates** (only when you're in a team) |
| Bottom | **Trash** and **Settings** |

The name at the top of the sidebar is the workspace switcher. If you're in a team, use it to show **Everything**, only your **Personal** documents, or only the team's ([how the switcher works](https://help.pdfbetter.com/teams/switch-personal-team-documents/)).

## The top bar

- **Search documents, tools, pages…** opens the command palette. Press `⌘` `K` (or `Ctrl` `K`) from anywhere. It finds documents, tools, templates and official forms, and runs actions like **Upload files** or **Plan & usage**.
- The sparkles button opens the **AI assistant** menu: **Create a document**, **Chat with a PDF** and **Summarize a PDF**. The pill next to it shows your [AI credits](https://help.pdfbetter.com/ai/ai-credits/).
- The bell shows **Notifications**: who opened, signed or declined what you sent, and new form responses. Click **Mark all read** to clear it on all your devices. Guests don't have notifications ([more about notifications](https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/notifications-and-emails/)).
- The question mark opens the **Help** panel: search articles, see **Help for this page**, **Browse topics**, or use **Contact support**, **Keyboard shortcuts** and **What’s new**. The sidebar's **Help & support** opens the same panel ([how the help panel works](https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/get-help-in-the-app/)).
- The account menu has **Profile**, **Plan & usage**, **Data & privacy** and **Log out**.

> **Tip:** Drop files anywhere on any dashboard page to upload them, or press `U`. The **Uploads** tray at the bottom shows each file's progress and an **Open** button when it's **Ready**.

On a phone, the sidebar becomes a tab bar with **Home**, **Documents**, **Inbox** and **Account**, and **Create** adds **Scan with camera**.

## Related articles

- [Find and organize your documents: folders, tags, search and trash](https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/find-organize-documents.md): Everything you upload, create, sign or send is in My documents. Sort it into folders and tags, filter by status or name, and search everything with ⌘K. Deleted documents stay in Trash for 30 days, where you can restore them.
- [Keyboard shortcuts](https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/keyboard-shortcuts.md): Press ? anywhere in the dashboard or the editor to see the shortcuts for that screen. The essentials: ⌘ K to search, U to upload, T for text, S to sign, ⌘ Z to undo and Tab to move between form fields.
- [What PDFBetter is and the fastest way to start](https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/what-is-pdfbetter.md): PDFBetter is a PDF editor in your browser: edit text, fill forms, sign, request signatures, convert, organize pages and ask AI questions with page citations. The fastest start is to drop a PDF on the home page or the dashboard; it opens in the editor.
- [Open the AI assistant and what each tab does](https://help.pdfbetter.com/ai/ai-assistant-overview.md): In the editor, click the yellow ✨ AI assistant button in the top bar (or More (⋯) → AI assistant). From the dashboard, use the ✨ AI assistant menu and pick a document. The panel has nine tabs, from Ask to Scan.
- [Switch between personal and team documents](https://help.pdfbetter.com/teams/switch-personal-team-documents.md): Click your name at the top of the sidebar and, under Show documents from, pick Everything, Personal or your team's name. The sidebar's Team section also links straight to team documents and templates.
- [Get help inside PDFBetter: the help panel, search and support](https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/get-help-in-the-app.md): In the dashboard, click the question mark in the top bar or Help & support in the sidebar. The panel shows Help for this page, a search box and every topic. In the editor, use More (⋯) → Help center. A person answers at support@pdfbetter.com.
- [Notifications and the emails PDFBetter sends you](https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/notifications-and-emails.md): The bell in the dashboard shows the last 30 days of activity on what you sent: opened, signed, declined, completed, expired and new form responses. We also email you about signatures, form responses and shared documents; turn those off in Settings → Notifications.

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Source: https://help.pdfbetter.com/getting-started/dashboard-tour/ · PDFBetter Help Center · Last checked against the product 2026-10-18. Questions: support@pdfbetter.com