Table Cards and Formulas

A table card is a .csv file on the board that you can edit like a spreadsheet. Use it for shot lists, budgets, price comparisons, prompt matrices or any data that belongs next to the visual work. Cells can hold formulas: they are calculated live in the editor and on the canvas card, while the file keeps the formula exactly as you wrote it.

Add a table

Right-click empty canvas and choose Add table. An empty 2×2 table card named Table appears where you clicked. It is a real .csv file in the board folder from the start.
Or drop any .csv file on the board. It becomes a table card too.

Select the card and click Edit on its toolbar to open the table editor. Preview in lightbox shows the table large without editing it.

The card on the canvas

The card shows the table with its values:

Formulas show their result, not the formula.
When Header row is on (the default), the first row is styled as the table’s heading and stays in view as you scroll the card.
Numbers are right-aligned. Errors are shown in red, and hovering one shows the reason.
A very long table shows its first 500 rows, with a note saying how many rows there are in total. The editor always shows the whole file.

The table editor

Edit opens the table editor over the canvas. Along the top:

Return to canvas — goes back to the board. It waits for the last change to be saved first.
The file name, with a pencil (Rename file) next to it. See Rename the file.
The save status: Saved, Unsaved changes, Saving…, or Save failed — changes kept here with a Retry save button. The editor saves by itself a moment after each change. If a save fails, your changes stay in the editor and Return to canvas keeps it open until a save succeeds.

The toolbar holds:

Button	What it does
Undo / Redo	Step back and forward through your edits.
Row	Adds a row below the selection.
Column	Adds a column to the right of the selection.
Header row	Decides whether the first row is the table’s heading, in the editor and on the card.
Copy / Paste / Clear cells	Work on the selected cells.
Sort A → Z / Sort Z → A	Sort the rows by the selected column.
ƒx	Insert a function. See Build a formula.
Download .csv	Saves a copy of the file to your computer.

Below the toolbar is the formula bar: the selected cell’s name (for example B3), and a field that shows the cell’s raw content, the formula rather than its result. Edit a cell there too. When the selected cell holds an error, the reason appears next to the field.

Select and edit cells

To	Do this
Select a cell	Click it, or move with the arrow keys.
Select a block	Drag across cells, Shift-click, or Shift + arrow keys.
Select rows or columns	Click a row number or column letter. Drag across them, or Shift-click, for several.
Select everything	Click the top-left corner, or press ⌘A / Ctrl+A.
Replace a cell’s content	Just start typing.
Edit the content that is there	Double-click, or press Enter or F2. The cursor starts at the end, so nothing is replaced by accident.
Confirm and move	Enter moves down, Shift+Enter up, Tab right, Shift+Tab left.
Cancel an edit	Esc.
Clear cells	Delete or Backspace.
Add a row or column at the end	The + under the row numbers or after the column letters.

Rows and columns

Right-click a row number, a column letter or a cell for its menu. The entries act on everything selected, so with three rows selected they read “Insert 3 rows above”, “Delete 3 rows” and so on.

Right-click on	Menu
Row numbers	Insert rows above or below, Duplicate, Copy, Clear, Delete.
Column letters	Insert columns left or right, Duplicate, Sort A → Z, Sort Z → A, Copy, Clear, Delete.
Cells	Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear, insert rows above or below, insert columns left or right, delete the rows or columns.

Sorting keeps the header row in place and orders the rows beneath it: numbers first, then text (in natural order, so “item 2” comes before “item 10”), then errors, with empty cells always last. Sort Z → A reverses the order within the numbers and within the text. Each row keeps its own formulas, so a row that multiplies its own quantity and price still does after it moves.

Column width — drag the right edge of a column letter. Widths are for the editor only; a .csv file has no column widths, so they return to the default next time you open the table.

Copy, cut and paste

⌘C, ⌘X and ⌘V (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V on Windows) work inside the sheet and with Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets:

Copy puts the selected cells on the clipboard as tab-separated values, the displayed results, ready to paste into another spreadsheet.
Paste a block from another spreadsheet and it lands at the selected cell. The table grows if the block is bigger than the space left.
Paste a single value into a selection of several cells and it fills every one.
Copy and paste within the editor keeps formulas, and their references shift to the new position the way a spreadsheet’s do.

Undo and redo

⌘Z undoes and ⇧⌘Z or ⌘Y redoes (Ctrl on Windows), up to 200 steps. The Undo and Redo buttons do the same.

Rename the file

Click the pencil next to the file name, type a new name and press Enter (or click away). Esc cancels. The .csv extension is kept. If another file in the board folder already has that name, -2 is added. The card’s title follows the new name.

Formulas

A cell that starts with = is a formula. It is calculated live in the editor and on the canvas card, and the .csv file keeps the formula as written, for example =SUM(D2:D5).

References: B2, fixed references $A$1 (also $A1 and A$1), and ranges D2:D5.
Operators: +, -, *, /, ^ (power), & (joins text), % (percent), and comparisons =, <>, <, >, <=, >=.
Text goes in double quotes, for example ="Total: "&SUM(B2:B9). TRUE and FALSE are values too.
Typing something that is clearly a formula without the =, such as B2*C2 or SUM(A1:A4), is treated as a formula, and a message says so. Start a cell with an apostrophe, as in 'B2*C2, to keep it as text.

Build a formula

While a formula is open, click a cell to insert its reference. Shift-click to turn it into a range. Click a column letter or row number to insert that whole column or row. The cells a formula reads are highlighted.
ƒx on the toolbar offers Start a formula in the selected cell, then the common functions grouped as Math, Logic and Text, each with its arguments shown. Picking one starts the formula for you.
AutoSum — select a range first, then pick SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX or COUNT from ƒx. The result is written in the cell just below the range (or just to its right for a single row) and selected.

References follow your edits

Inserting, deleting, duplicating, copying and sorting rows or columns rewrite formulas the way a spreadsheet does:

Inserting rows or columns shifts references past the insertion point.
Deleting shrinks ranges that lose rows or columns. A reference to a deleted cell becomes #REF!.
Duplicating, copying and sorting move relative references with the cells. The parts fixed with $ stay put.

Functions

Group	Functions
Math	SUM, AVERAGE (also AVG), MIN, MAX, PRODUCT, MEDIAN, ROUND, ROUNDUP, ROUNDDOWN, INT, ABS, SQRT, MOD, POWER, PI
Counting	COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, COUNTIF, SUMIF
Logic	IF, IFERROR, AND, OR, NOT, ISBLANK, ISNUMBER, ISERROR
Text	CONCAT (also CONCATENATE), LEN, UPPER, LOWER, TRIM, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, TEXTJOIN

Useful signatures:

IF(test, value_if_true, value_if_false) and IFERROR(value, fallback).
COUNTIF(range, criterion) and SUMIF(range, criterion, sum_range). A criterion can compare, as in ">500" or "<>done", and text criteria can use * and ? wildcards, as in "shot*". Text matching ignores case.
ROUND(number, digits), LEFT(text, count), MID(text, start, count).
TEXTJOIN(separator, skip_empty, values…), for example =TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, A2:A20).

Errors

Error	Meaning
`#REF!`	The formula points at a cell that was deleted, or a range is too large (over 100,000 cells).
`#NAME?`	An unknown function, or a name that is not a cell, range or function.
`#VALUE!`	The wrong kind of value, such as text where a number is needed, or a range where one value is expected.
`#DIV/0!`	Division by zero, or an average or median of nothing.
`#NUM!`	An impossible number, such as the square root of a negative number.
`#CYCLE!`	The formula refers back to itself.
`#ERROR!`	The formula cannot be read, for example a missing bracket or closing quote.

Hover an error cell, in the editor or on the card, to see the reason. The formula bar shows it for the selected cell.

Agents and shared boards

Agents can create and rewrite table cards through the board API. They send the table as CSV text with formulas as written, and the card refreshes on its own; a separate call renames the file. See Boards and Elements.

On a shared board, a table card appears as a CSV file card that opens the file itself.

Where to go next

Notes and Markdown Blocks — text notes and Markdown documents on the board.
Adding Media Elements — every kind of card you can put on a board.
Frames and Layouts — keep a table together with the media it describes.
Boards and Elements — the API agents use to work with cards.