Create and edit a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet belongs to Personal or the team that was selected when it was made. Open Spreadsheets and select New Spreadsheet. The new spreadsheet opens with one sheet, Sheet1. To rename it, select its title in the page bar.

The Spreadsheets page lists the spreadsheets in Personal or the selected team, and Shared with me lists ones shared with you directly from elsewhere.

Formulas and functions have their own page: Use formulas and functions in a spreadsheet. Sorting, filters, dropdowns, conditional formatting, tables and find and replace are in Sort, filter and check spreadsheet data.

Enter and select cells

Click a cell and type to replace its contents. Press Enter to finish and move down. Double-click a cell, or press Enter or F2 on it, to change what is already there. Esc cancels the edit. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line in a cell's text; the cell then wraps so every line shows.

Use the arrow keys to move, Shift with an arrow key to extend a selection, and Tab or Shift+Tab to move along a row. Delete clears the selected cells without removing their rows or columns.

The box above the grid shows the selected cell's address, such as A1. Type an address or a named range there and press Enter to go to it. The formula bar beside it shows a cell's formula rather than its result.

Copy, paste and fill

Copy and paste ranges with the usual keyboard shortcuts. Cells copied from another spreadsheet program, or tab-separated text, are placed into rows and columns. Copying between Magpie spreadsheet cells also keeps their formatting, and a copied formula adjusts its references to its new place. One paste can fill up to 10,000 cells.

Drag the square at the corner of a selection to repeat its cells down or across; formulas adjust their references as they would when pasted.

Undo and Redo cover the changes made since you opened the spreadsheet. A paste, a fill, a format change or a deleted row is one step. If the same rows or columns have changed again since, Magpie refuses to undo the row or column change rather than overwrite the newer one.

Menus and right-click menus

Commands are in five menus above the grid:

• File: All spreadsheets, Export CSV, Move to another team and Move to Trash.
• Edit: Undo, Redo and Find and replace.
• Rows and columns: insert and delete rows and columns, group, ungroup, collapse and expand, and freeze.
• Format: Bold, Italic, Wrap text, the merge commands and Conditional formatting.
• Data: Sort A–Z, Sort Z–A, Filter, Filter views, Data validation, Tables, Named ranges and Named functions.

Undo, redo, bold, italic and the number format are also on the bar below the menus. Tab to a menu name and use the arrow keys to move through the menus.

Right-click a row or column heading for insert, delete, group and freeze; a selection for merge, wrap, sort, data validation and conditional formatting; and a sheet tab to rename, duplicate, move, hide or delete that sheet. Right-clicking outside the current selection selects what you pointed at first.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? to list every shortcut.

Format cells

Select cells, then use Bold, Italic or the number format on the bar: Automatic, Number, Integer, Currency, Percentage or Date. A number stays a number when you change its format. Currency uses the team's base currency: the one chosen in the team's settings, or the currency its invoices, payments or Store already use, otherwise US dollars.

Text stays on one line and is cut off at the cell's edge. Choose Format → Wrap text to break it into lines at the column's edge instead; the row grows to fit. When the cell is already wrapped, the command reads Unwrap text.

Drag the edge at the right of a column heading to change the column's width.

Merge cells

Select two or more cells and choose Format → Merge cells to show them as one. Merge horizontally makes one merged cell per row of the selection, and Merge vertically one per column. The merged cell keeps the top-left cell's value and formatting, so Magpie asks you to clear the other cells first. Unmerge cells splits it again.

Freeze, group, insert and delete

Select a cell and choose Rows and columns → Freeze through selected row or Freeze through selected column to keep the rows above, or the columns to the left, in view while you scroll. To freeze the top row, select a cell in row 1. Unfreeze panes removes both.

Insert row above, Insert column left, Delete row and Delete column act on the selected rows or columns. Formulas keep pointing at the same cells when rows and columns move.

Select two or more rows or columns and choose Group rows or Group columns. Collapse group hides the grouped rows or columns without deleting them, and Expand groups shows them. Ungroup removes the smallest group in the selection. Groups can be nested.

Sheets

Select + beside the sheet tabs to add a sheet, and select a tab to switch to it. Double-click a tab to rename it, or right-click it to rename, duplicate, move, hide or delete the sheet. All sheets lists every sheet, hidden ones included; choosing a hidden sheet shows it again. A spreadsheet always keeps at least one visible sheet.

Saving

Changes appear at once and are saved in the background. The page bar reads Saved once Magpie has saved them. If a save fails, it says so and shows the error. If the spreadsheet was changed in another tab, reload before you continue, so that you do not overwrite the newer version.

Share a spreadsheet

Members of the spreadsheet's team open it through the team. To give someone else access, select Share, enter their handle, choose Viewer, Commenter or Editor, and select Add collaborator. Spreadsheets do not have comments, so a Commenter can do what a Viewer can: open the spreadsheet, use Find, save their own filter views, but not change cells.

Someone who is not on the team will be invited. Once they accept, they join the team as a guest who can open this spreadsheet and nothing else in the team; see Guests on a team. Until then Share lists them as Invited, waiting, with Cancel. A guest of the team is added at once, and members of the team cannot be added because they have access through it. The person finds the spreadsheet on the Spreadsheets page when its team is selected, and under Shared with me otherwise.

Only people who can edit the spreadsheet through its team can add or remove people. Removing someone who has nothing else in the team also removes them from it, and the confirmation says so.

Import and export CSV

Select Import on the Spreadsheets page to create a spreadsheet from a CSV or TSV file. To bring in an Excel or Google Sheets file, save or download it as CSV first. Magpie detects comma, tab or semicolon separators, or you can choose one. A file can be up to 5 MB, 100,000 rows, 1,000 columns and 1,000,000 cells.

Choose File → Export CSV, or press Ctrl/⌘ E, to download the sheet you are on. A CSV file holds one sheet, so export each sheet separately. A formula cell exports its last calculated result. Values that another spreadsheet program would read as a formula are written with a leading apostrophe.

Move or delete a spreadsheet

To move a spreadsheet created in the wrong team, choose File → Move to another team, choose the destination and select Move spreadsheet. Sheets, filter views, history and the people it is shared with go with it, and the destination team's members get access. Someone it is shared with who is not on the destination team becomes its guest; when that team has no room for more guests, the move is refused and nothing changes.

To delete one, choose File → Move to Trash. It moves at once; select Undo in the message to put it back, or restore it from Trash within 30 days. Only people who can edit the spreadsheet through its team can move it or move it to Trash.

Spreadsheets in the mobile app

The mobile app lists the spreadsheets in Personal or the selected team, and those shared with you. Add creates one and Import creates one from a CSV or TSV file.

A spreadsheet shows 20 rows and 10 columns at a time. Use Previous rows, Next rows, Previous columns and Next columns, or enter a cell such as B120 in Go to cell. If you can edit, tap a cell, or Add cell, to enter a value or formula. Formulas are not calculated on the phone: a formula cell shows the result last calculated on the website, or its formula when there is no result yet. If the spreadsheet changed since you opened it, the save is refused rather than overwriting the newer version.

The spreadsheet's menu has Share spreadsheet link, Export CSV for the sheet you are on, Find, Manage sheets (rename the spreadsheet; add, rename, duplicate, reorder, hide, show or delete sheets), Filter Views (your own filters for the first 20 rows and 10 columns), Collaborators and Move to another team.

Spreadsheets and the assistant

The assistant can create a spreadsheet, import CSV or TSV text into a new one, change cells, move a spreadsheet to Trash, save your filter views, and add or remove the people it is shared with; adding someone who is not on the team invites them. It imports, changes cells, moves to Trash, deletes a filter view or changes access only when you confirm it in your message.

If values do not come back after reopening, or saving keeps failing, Contact support.