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A Bower spreadsheet is a full workbook you edit in the browser, with formulas, multiple sheets, charts, and pivot tables. Your team can edit it together, and Bower can read it and change it when you ask. Spreadsheets are available in every workspace except Restricted mode ones.

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Get a spreadsheet into Bower

  • Start from scratch: Create (+) > Spreadsheet > Start from scratch.
  • Import a file: Create (+) > Spreadsheet > Import a file, then pick a .csv or .xlsx file.
  • Upload it: a .csv or .xlsx file you import into a workspace or collection, or attach in Bower Chat, becomes a spreadsheet.
  • Convert an attachment: open a .csv or .xlsx attachment and choose Convert to spreadsheet. Bower creates a new spreadsheet with the same sharing settings and leaves the file as it was.
A file always becomes a new spreadsheet; you can’t import into an existing one. Bower keeps the original file with the spreadsheet.

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What stays a file

A .csv with more than 200,000 cells uploads but fails to import. You can still download any of these files and ask Bower about them.

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Setting up

Setup takes a few seconds, and you can keep working: a spinner on the spreadsheet’s icon shows it isn’t ready yet. If an import fails, open the spreadsheet to see why, then choose Download original or Retry import. From Excel, values, formulas, named ranges, and tables come across. Pivot tables, links to external data, and printer settings don’t, and some charts may not. A CSV keeps values like 007 and SEPT2 as text.

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Work in a spreadsheet

Edit cells and formulas, format, sort, filter, add charts, pivot tables, and images, and work across sheets, as in any spreadsheet tool. Changes save as you go, and everyone with edit access can work at once. You need to be online to edit. From the spreadsheet’s menu:
  • Version history lists every version by person and time. Restoring one adds a new Reverted from version, so a restore can be reversed too.
  • Manage access sets who can view and who can edit.
  • Export as Excel (.xlsx) (the whole workbook) or CSV (this sheet). Exporting needs edit access.
  • Copy makes an independent workbook. Print, Move, and Delete work as elsewhere in Bower.
Search finds spreadsheets by title, not by cell contents.

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Ask Bower

Bower reads the live values, including formula results, charts, and filters, and names the sheet and range each answer came from. With a spreadsheet open, the chat box includes your current selection, so “summarize these” means those cells. You can also name a spreadsheet that isn’t open. Bower treats cell text as data and never follows instructions written in a cell.

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What Bower can change

Ask in chat, and Bower can:
  • enter values and formulas, or add or update a row by its first-column key (such as a sample ID)
  • format numbers and style cells (bold, italic, colors, alignment)
  • insert a column, bar, or line chart
  • sort a range, add or clear a filter, and add conditional formatting
  • add or rename a sheet
Bower acts on a clear request without asking first. It asks when the target is ambiguous, or before overwriting a value when it updates a row. It won’t sort a range that holds formulas. For anything else, such as inserting rows or columns, pivot tables, or merging cells, Bower tells you it isn’t available yet. Each change appears on a Spreadsheet updated card in the chat, showing what landed and what didn’t. Changes also show up live in the grid and in version history. Guests can ask about spreadsheets they can see, but can’t have Bower change them.

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Undo a change Bower made

Press Undo on the card, or ask Bower to undo it. The spreadsheet goes back exactly as it was, and version history records a Reverted from entry. Undo works:
  • within 24 hours
  • only if nobody, including you, has edited the spreadsheet since
  • only for the person Bower made the change for
  • only for Bower’s latest change to that spreadsheet
Otherwise, the card offers Open version history so you can restore a version yourself. Row updates by key don’t offer undo; use version history. Teammates with the spreadsheet open need to refresh to see the result.

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Live agent mode and AI apps

Live agent mode and apps connected through AI app access can read spreadsheets but not change them. Make changes in Bower Chat.

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Restricted mode

Workspaces in Restricted mode don’t have native spreadsheets. There’s no Spreadsheet option in Create and no Convert to spreadsheet, and uploaded .csv and .xlsx files stay attachments. Spreadsheets created before Restricted mode was turned on still appear in lists but don’t open.