Help · Getting started

Getting started with TableDI

Ten minutes, start to finish. By the end you'll have your own file in TableDI, a column that calculates itself, and a chart that updates when the numbers do.

First launch takes a moment

TableDI carries its own data engine, and the first launch starts it for the first time — expect five to ten seconds behind a splash screen, and longer on a slow disk or with an antivirus watching. After that it opens straight into your workspace. There is no account to create and no email to confirm; the app has nobody to sign you in as.

Start with the sample data

On an empty workspace the home screen offers Start with sample data. Click it and you get a quarter of sales orders exactly as they come out of a CRM — mixed capitalization, stray spaces, three different spellings of "paid" — plus three formula columns that clean it up, a monthly summary table, and a dashboard reading off both.

It's worth five minutes even if you have your own file waiting. Change an amount in the orders table and watch the summary and the charts follow: that's the part that's hard to picture from a feature list. When you're done, delete the tables and the dashboard like any others — deleting the sample dashboard also gives you back the free plan's dashboard.

Import your own file

Upload file on the home screen, or Import in a table's toolbar. Excel and CSV both work, and there is no row cap on importing — getting data in is never limited, on any plan. Point it at your messiest file; that's the one worth testing. More on importing, including JSON and photographs of printed tables.

Make a column that calculates itself

Add a column, then open Formulas in the toolbar. Rather than typing a formula from memory, use one of the guided panels — Sumif, Match, Split, Merge, if — which walk you through it in four steps and write the formula for you. The formula stays visible and editable afterward, so you can read what it did. How the formula panel works.

Formula columns recalculate for every row, including rows you paste in next month. That's the difference from dragging a formula down a column in Excel: there's nothing to re-drag.

Pivot it, then chart it

Click + View above a table to add a second way of looking at the same data: a pivot report, a bar chart, a line, a pie. Views read the table live, so they're never a stale copy.

For something you'd show another person, make a dashboard: New Dashboard at the bottom of the left sidebar, then drop views onto the canvas. The free plan includes one dashboard, which is enough for a weekly report.

Where your data lives

In a folder on your disk, in TableDI's own format. Nothing is uploaded, which is why the app works on a plane and why there's no account. The flip side is that backups are yours to take: Desktop settings (the entry below Setting in the left sidebar, or Cmd+, on macOS / Ctrl+, on Windows) → Data backup packs everything into one encrypted .tdbk file. How backups work.

What to do next

• Turn on AI with your own API key — setup guide
• See what the free plan does and doesn't include — pricing
• Hit an export limit and want to lift it — what the cap actually is

Still stuck? Email us — one inbox, read by the people who build TableDI.