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DataMind Oda reads your workbook freely, but a change to it either runs on its own or waits for your answer on an approval card. Your permission mode decides which. This page covers the three modes, the approval card, and which cells Oda treats as your data. For what Oda can read and write, see How Oda works in your workbook; to undo a change, see Review and undo Oda's changes.
The same three modes are under Permissions in Settings, which More in Settings at the bottom of the menu opens; see Settings. While Skip all permissions is on, a Skip all permissions tab sits on top of the message box and the Permissions button is marked as a warning, so you see it before you send.
A new mode applies from Oda's next step, also in a reply that is already running. The pane remembers your choice for your account on this computer, in every workbook.
| Change | Ask before edits | Accept edits | Skip all permissions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading the workbook, listing its objects, tracing formulas, finding errors, recalculating, asking a Mind, asking you a question, updating its steps, reading a skill, reading memory, a setting or a stored result | Runs | Runs | Runs |
| Searching the web, and reading a web page whose link you gave, a search found or a page Oda read links to | Runs | Runs | Runs |
| Writing into empty cells, formatting, adding notes to cells without one, copying into empty cells, a merge that drops no values, adding a sheet, pulling data into a new sheet with its source note, or a table whose first row already holds distinct text names | Asks | Runs | Runs |
| Renaming, copying, moving, hiding, showing or protecting sheets, inserting, hiding, grouping or sizing rows and columns, freezing panes, page setup, filters, adding names, data validation, conditional formatting, notes, comments and replies, resolving comments, adding or changing charts and pivot tables | Asks | Runs | Runs |
| Changing cells that still hold what Oda wrote there in this chat, sorting them, and Revert turn | Asks | Runs | Runs |
| Overwriting your data, replacing a note, or a table that turns your header cells into text names | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Sorting your data, inserting cells, table rows or a column that moves your data out of line, taking your data into a table by a resize or a totals row, replacing totals | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Replacing data validation, editing a note or comment that is there, changing what a defined name refers to, hiding a name, refreshing a pivot table that can grow over data | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Clearing cells that hold data, even cells Oda wrote, a merge that drops values, or removing conditional formatting, data validation, notes or comments | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Deleting sheets, rows, columns, cells, tables, table columns, charts, pivot tables, defined names or duplicate rows, emptying table totals, unprotecting a sheet | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| A table without column names, which moves your data down one row | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Changing how Excel calculates | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Inserting all the sheets of an attached workbook that reaches nothing outside itself | Asks | Runs | Runs |
| Inserting only some sheets of an attached workbook, or sheets that reach outside the workbook, such as through data connections or links to other workbooks | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| A change by Oda's Office.js code that lands only on sheets the same code added | Asks | Runs | Runs |
| Any other change by Oda's Office.js code, even to cells Oda wrote | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Refreshing pulled data, which runs the query kept in the workbook and replaces its rows | Asks | Asks | Asks |
| A pull of more than 100,000 rows | Asks | Asks | Asks |
| A link that Oda's Office.js code puts on cells | Asks | Asks | Asks |
| Reading a web page whose link came from the workbook, a Mind, your company knowledge or a connector | Asks | Asks | Asks |
| A connector tool the service marks as only reading | Asks | Asks | Runs |
| Any other connector tool, and every tool of a connector your administrator treats as writing | Asks | Asks | Asks |
| Saving, changing or deleting a memory note, with a notice and Undo | Runs | Runs | Runs |
| Changing or deleting a note you wrote, or any memory change in a chat that received a web page, a search, an attached file or image, a connector result, a Mind's answer, company knowledge or a stored result | Asks | Asks | Asks |
| Changing your instructions | Asks | Asks | Asks |
| Changing the text size, or turning off web search and pages, Office.js code, Python, file attachments or the Data Sources sheet, with a notice and Undo | Runs | Runs | Runs |
| Turning a setting on, switching Memory or Instructions, or changing the permission mode, the model, connectors or skills | Refused | Refused | Refused |
| A formula that can reach outside the workbook | Refused | Refused | Refused |
| Inserting sheets from a file with macros, ActiveX controls, DDE links or the like, and Office.js code that asks for something Oda never does | Refused | Refused | Refused |
| Reading a web page whose link appeared nowhere Oda may read from, such as only in its own text | Refused | Refused | Refused |
The pages on sheets, rows and tables, sorting, filters, rules and comments, charts and pivot tables and formulas, names and errors say what each of those steps asks. Oda's Office.js code runs without a card in Accept edits only when every change of a sync lands on sheets the same code added; any other change it makes asks, and one that removes something asks as a removal. A write by Python asks as Writing cells does. Reading an attached file, looking at a picture of the workbook and running Python's analysis change nothing, so they run without a card. Inserting sheets is covered in Attach files in Excel. Web pages are covered in Which pages Oda reads, and connector tools in When Oda asks before using a connector. While a connector is connected, each mode's hint adds how connector tools ask. Memory notes and your instructions are covered in Memory and instructions in Excel, and the settings Oda may change in Settings Oda can change.
Before a write or copy replaces a value or a formula, Oda also checks with you in the chat, in every mode: unless your message asked to change those very cells, the step stops, and Oda tells you what the cells hold and asks. Only after you agree does the table above apply. See Before Oda replaces your data.
With Skip all permissions, no card asks before writes, clears, merges or deletes: Oda clears and merges cells, deletes rows, sheets and objects, and replaces the data you agreed to in the chat, without asking again, and no card offers a snapshot sheet. For a sheet delete the pane tells Oda to copy the sheet to a snapshot sheet first, and nothing enforces that, so copy a sheet you may need yourself. Before it replaces or removes anything you did not name, it asks in the chat first. Keep a copy of a workbook that matters before you choose it.
When a change needs your answer, a card takes the place of the message box, and Oda waits. The card has no time limit. If Settings or History is open, it closes so you see the card.
Sales!B2:D9, with how many
cells it covers and how many hold data, such as 24 cells · 6 hold data. Select on sheet
selects that range in Excel, so you can look before you answer.<U+200B>, also in sheet, table and query names.<U+200B>; see
Memory and instructions in Excel.Answer with the buttons at the bottom of the card:
After Always allow in this chat, a short message says Oda will not ask again in this chat for this kind of change. After Allow the rest of this run, it says Oda will not ask again during this run for changes that remove nothing. Neither has Undo: Always allow in this chat holds in that chat until the pane closes or you delete the chat, and Allow the rest of this run until the code ends.
If you were typing in the message box when the card appeared, your keys go to the card itself, not to one of its buttons, so a key you meant for your message answers nothing.
When several changes wait, the cards come one at a time, oldest first. Stop answers every card that is still waiting with Don’t allow. When the last card is answered, the message box comes back, with what you had typed in it.
If what the card is about changes while it waits, for example because you typed in one of the cells
or edited the note it replaces, nothing is changed even after Allow, and the step row reads
Something Oda was going to change was edited while it waited for your approval, so Oda changed nothing.
When you ask, Oda can read the pane's settings and change a few of them, in every permission mode, without a card. Each change shows a notice with Undo, and a line under the answer that keeps its own Undo:
| Setting | What Oda may do | Notice |
|---|---|---|
| Text size | Set it to Small, Default, Large or Larger | Text size: Larger |
| Web search and pages, Office.js code, Python, File attachments | Turn it off | Oda turned off Python |
| Data Sources sheet | Turn it off | Oda turned off the Data Sources sheet |
Everything else is yours alone, and Oda refuses it and tells you where to change it yourself:
The step row reads Changing a setting, with a detail such as Python: off, or Reading a setting when Oda only looks. Undo puts the setting back, unless it changed again since.
Accept edits, the default, suits most work: Oda writes into empty cells and adds sheets and tables on its own, and asks before it overwrites your data or removes anything. Choose Ask before edits to approve every change, and Skip all permissions only for a workbook you have a copy of.
Yes. The pane remembers the mode for your account on this computer, so it applies in every workbook you open there.
In Accept edits, writing into empty cells, formatting, adding sheets, tables, charts and pivot tables, inserting rows and columns, filters and other changes that replace or remove nothing of yours run without a card, and so do changes to cells that still hold what Oda wrote in this chat. In Skip all permissions, every change runs without a card, except refreshing pulled data and pulls of more than 100,000 rows. Choose Ask before edits to approve every change. Each change is listed in the Changes panel under Oda's reply.
Oda no longer counts them as its own: you edited them, rows or columns were inserted, deleted or sorted on the sheet, by you or by Oda, the pane was closed and reopened since, or Oda wrote them in another chat. Or the change clears them: clearing filled cells always asks outside Skip all permissions.
The same kind of change by the same step, with the same action, in this chat, in the current permission mode, until the pane closes. It does not carry over to other chats, other modes or the next time you open the pane.
The card removes or deletes something, such as cells that hold data, rows, a sheet, a table, a chart, a rule or a note, or it moves cells, such as a sort or an insert, unprotects a sheet, changes how Excel calculates, refreshes pulled data or pulls more than 100,000 rows. The same goes for inserting only some sheets of a file or sheets that reach outside the workbook, links set by Oda's code, changes only its code makes on a sheet it did not add, web pages whose link came from the workbook, a Mind, company knowledge or a connector, connector tools that can change data in the service, and changes to your memory notes or instructions. Each of those changes is asked separately, so More ways to allow does not list Always allow in this chat. For code that moves cells, it lists Allow the rest of this run; otherwise the card has only Allow and Don’t allow.
Nothing is written for that step, and the step row reads You did not allow this. Oda then asks what you want instead of trying the same change again.
The cells, or what else the card was about, changed while the card waited for your answer, so Oda
changed nothing. The step row reads
Something Oda was going to change was edited while it waited for your approval, so Oda changed nothing.
Ask again, and Oda reads the cells before it tries.
Stop, at the top of the card, cancels the reply and answers every waiting card with Don’t allow, so nothing more is written.
No. Formulas that can reach outside the workbook are refused in every mode; see How Oda works in your workbook.
Your instructions go with every message in every workbook, so a change lasts well beyond one reply. Oda therefore asks with a card in every mode, showing the lines it adds and removes, and the card never offers Always allow in this chat. See Memory and instructions in Excel.
Only a few settings, and only to narrow what Oda does: it can change the text size, and turn off web search and pages, Office.js code, Python, file attachments or the Data Sources sheet, each with Undo. It never turns anything on, and never changes Memory, Instructions, your permission mode or the model. See Settings Oda can change.