Core concepts

The handful of things TableDI does differently from Excel. Once these five pages land, every feature after them follows.

1. A table is organised by column — fields, codes and rowsA table here behaves more like a database table than an Excel canvas: each column is one kind of data, with a type and a code; each row is one record. Understand this and the formulas, views and linked tables all follow.
2. A formula belongs to a column, not a cellWrite one formula per column and every row calculates, including rows added later. This is the largest single difference from Excel, and the reason a change in the detail table shows up in the summary.
3. Tables, views and dashboards — three layersA table holds the data, a view is one way of looking at that same data, a dashboard puts views from several tables on one canvas. Each layer does one job, and there is only ever one copy of the data.
4. Linked tables — how tables connectThere is no separate "relationship" setting. Tables connect through formula references, in three shapes, and that is what makes a summary table grow out of a detail table and a dashboard update by itself.
5. Where your data lives — local, offline, no accountOne folder on this machine holds every table, formula, dashboard and setting. Nothing is uploaded. The one exception is AI, which goes straight from your computer to the model provider you configured. Backing up is therefore yours to do.