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Excel and PDF export

Strata generates fully-styled Excel workbooks, PDF reports, PowerPoint decks, Word documents, and Markdown files on demand. This page covers the most common formats — Excel and PDF — and how to push them to OneDrive or email them out.

Requesting an export

Use natural language. Any of these work:

  • "Export this to Excel."
  • "Give me a PDF report."
  • "Download this as a spreadsheet."
  • "Build a one-pager PDF of the last quarter."
  • "Make a slide deck of these findings." (PowerPoint)
  • "Write this up as a Word memo." (DOCX)

Strata loads the matching skill, then generates the file server-side and returns a download card in the chat.

Excel exports

Downloading

When Strata produces an Excel file, a card appears in the chat with a download button. Click it to save the file locally.

What's in a styled workbook

Strata's Excel engine produces institution-grade output, not raw rows. Depending on what you ask for, your workbook can include:

  • Styled headers with bold and accent fill.
  • Per-column number formats — accounting, currency, percentages, millions, parentheses for negatives.
  • Auto-sized columns based on header and content length.
  • Frozen panes on the header row (or both row and column) so headers stay visible while you scroll.
  • AutoFilter dropdowns on header cells.
  • Conditional formatting — color scales, data bars, top/bottom highlights.
  • Data validation dropdowns built from a column's distinct values or a named list.
  • Formula totals — SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, MAX rows under the data.
  • Defined names for ranges so the workbook is usable by analysts.
  • Native Excel charts drawn alongside the data — bar, column, line, pie, combo, stacked.
  • Multiple sheets for breakdowns or supporting tables.

The same styled workbook is produced whether you download it from chat, save it to OneDrive, or attach it to an outgoing email — Strata builds one file and reuses it.

Reusing the same file across destinations

When you ask Strata to "Export this to Excel and save it to my OneDrive" or "email me this workbook", Strata generates the styled file once and reuses it as both the OneDrive upload and the email attachment. You do not need to do anything for this to work — Strata handles it. A workbook Strata saves to OneDrive straight from a table, without a separate export step, is built by the same styled engine, so it looks the same as one you download.

PDF exports

Strata generates polished PDF reports server-side. A typical report contains:

  • A title page or section header with the report title and subtitle.
  • Executive summary or narrative sections.
  • Tables of detail data.
  • Charts.
  • Callout boxes for important findings.

To request a PDF:

  • "Make this a PDF."
  • "Write a one-page PDF report of Q1 vs Q2."

The result appears as a download card in the chat.

PowerPoint, Word, and Markdown

Strata also produces:

  • PowerPoint (.pptx) — slide decks with titles, bullets, charts, and images.
  • Word (.docx) — formatted memos, proposals, and longer narrative documents.
  • Markdown (.md) — plain-text documentation, runbooks, and notes.

Ask for the format you want — "as a deck", "as a Word memo", "as a markdown file" — and the right skill is loaded and the right file is produced. For a PDF, Word doc, or slide deck, you can also ask for a color theme — for example "use the finance palette" or "make it ocean" — and Strata applies it consistently across the document.

Note

Slide decks have a practical size ceiling. Decks up to roughly 35 slides generate reliably; much larger decks take a long time and may not finish. If you need more, ask Strata to build a focused deck or to split the content across several decks.

Your organization's branding

When an admin turns on Put our logo on files Strata creates (Organization › Profile), every PDF, Word document, PowerPoint deck and Excel workbook Strata generates carries your organization's logo: a mark in a report's header, a footer mark on each slide, a banner on a workbook. If the admin also sets an Accent color, it is used for rules, banners and highlights. When the logo would be hard to see on the color it is drawn on, Strata sets it on a small white or dark plate automatically. The switch is off by default, because these files often leave your company.

CSV and Markdown files never carry branding. Files you create in Analysis are written by the analysis code itself and carry none either; when you need a branded deliverable, ask for an Excel, Word, PowerPoint or PDF file.

Automatic quality review

Before a generated PDF, Word document, PowerPoint deck, or complex Excel workbook reaches you, Strata renders it to page images and runs a vision model over the result — the same way a person would flip through the file to check it. The reviewer looks for text overflow, broken or misaligned tables, clipped content, unreadable labels, and similar layout problems that a text-only step cannot see. When it finds a high-severity issue, Strata fixes it with the surgical update tools and re-checks, then hands you the corrected file.

This happens automatically; you do not request it. A few things worth knowing:

  • Simple workbooks skip it. Excel review runs only when the workbook is non-trivial — multiple sheets, 50 or more rows, or charts and formulas present — so a small table downloads immediately.
  • It adds a little time. Rendering and reviewing a large deck or report takes longer than producing it alone. The action-step trail shows the review while it runs.
  • It is a safety net, not a substitute for direction. If a report is laid out tightly, the fastest fix is still to tell Strata what to change (see Iterating on a generated file).

Iterating on a generated file

After Strata produces a file, you can ask for targeted changes without regenerating from scratch:

  • "Add a column for last year's revenue."
  • "Reformat the totals as accounting style."
  • "Move the chart to its own sheet."
  • "Update slide 3 to use bullet points instead."

Strata uses dedicated update tools that surgically modify the file, returning a new version download card.

This works on any file from earlier in the same conversation, not only the latest one: a report from this morning or a workbook from a session last week. Refer to it in plain words ("the Q3 workbook you made yesterday") and Strata edits the stored file rather than making it again. See Files from earlier in the conversation.

Saving to OneDrive

If OneDrive is connected in Settings, ask: "Save it to my OneDrive" or "Save to my OneDrive in the Reports folder." Strata uploads the same styled file, with its own file type. The file can come from any earlier turn or session of the conversation, so "save the deck you made yesterday to OneDrive" works too. See /docs/integrations/onedrive.

Attaching to email

If Outlook is connected, ask: "Email this report to alice@example.com." Strata drafts an email with the file already attached, and it can attach a file from earlier in the conversation the same way. You can review the draft, change the body, then click Send. See /docs/integrations/outlook.

What can go wrong

  • "Generation failed" or a partial workbook. Strata logs a corrupted-OOXML error if a generated sheet has an invalid structure. Re-ask the question; if it happens twice, simplify the request (fewer columns, fewer formulas) and report the case to your admin.
  • Download card never appears. The model may not have invoked the generation tool. Be explicit: "Use the Excel export tool to give me this as an .xlsx."
  • A wide table looks cramped or clipped in the PDF. Reports are laid out on portrait pages, so a table with many columns can feel tight. Ask Strata to "drop the less important columns," "break the table into two sections," or "put the full detail in an Excel file instead."

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