Preview Mode

If you’ve ever built a spreadsheet with a bit of complexity, you’ve probably experienced this feeling of accomplishment when it all ties together. You know how to use it precisely so that it doesn’t break because you’ve written every formula yourself. It may not be perfect, but you know this house inside and out, and you should be proud of it! 

Then you share it with someone, and suddenly it feels like a house of cards. Without any context on how it all works, we expect collaborators to perfectly dance around all the nuances. Inevitably, they add a single row and everything #REFs out.

They give up, ask you for help, and now you have to make a copy so they don’t do any permanent damage and walk through it live.

They obviously didn’t build it with you, but they still need to use it without breaking it. You want them to find it useful and appreciate this amazing spreadsheet you’ve built, without having to hand hold them through it all. That’s why we built Preview Mode — a simplified interface to focus on using the spreadsheet, not building it.

Preview Mode

Enable collaborators to use the file without needing to know how it all works! We’ve hid the toolbars, removed the row numbers, and added guardrails around accidentally breaking the sheet, so everyone can focus on their own changes.Whenever you do want to edit the structure, you can simply switch back into editor mode Will adding a row or column break some formula? You can lock blocks and prevent that from happening. Have a giant table with a bunch of complex calculations? Hide it from preview mode. We want you to be able to create powerful automated spreadsheets that you can share with others.

A toolbar closer to the action

The other big change you’ll notice this week is that we changed how the toolbars look. We’ve moved them closer to where you’re working. Formatting toolbars are now above the block you’re currently editing, instead of always at the very top of your screen. We also simplified the block creation toolbar to only show you icons for things you can add to the canvas.