Strata for Excel (add-in)
Strata for Excel is a task-pane add-in that runs Strata next to the workbook you have open. Ask about the workbook, or have Strata change it in place: it writes formulas and values, formats cells, adds sheets, turns ranges into tables and adds charts, in the open file, where you can see them change.
It is the same pane as Strata for Outlook, Strata for Word and Strata for PowerPoint, with the same sign-in, chat, model menu and history. In Excel it works on the workbook.
#What Strata sees
Each time you send a message, the pane reads a snapshot of the workbook and hands it to Strata with your message:
- the workbook's name, and each sheet with the range it uses;
- the active sheet and your selection;
- the cells of your selection, up to 400 of them, with their formulas. With a single cell selected, the top-left of the active sheet instead.
That is not the whole workbook. When Strata needs other cells it reads them itself, and in a big workbook it can search for a header, a total or a name.
#What Strata can do in the workbook
| Ask for | What happens |
|---|---|
| Reading cells | Values and formulas of any range, up to 5,000 cells at a time |
| Writing | Values or formulas, up to 10,000 cells at a time; Strata prefers formulas, so results stay live |
| Formatting | Bold, italic, colours, number formats, alignment, wrapping, borders, column widths |
| A new sheet | Added after the last one |
| A table | An Excel table from a range, with its header row |
| A chart | Column, bar, line, area, pie, doughnut or scatter, beside the data or where you say |
| Finding | Up to 50 cells holding a value or text, in one sheet or all of them |
When a formula Strata wrote comes back as an Excel error (#NAME?, #REF!, #DIV/0!), Strata is told which cells, so it can fix them.
#Undo
Under an answer that changed the workbook, the pane lists what changed and offers Undo. Undo puts the cells back as they were before that answer: their values, formulas, number formats and formatting. It also removes the sheets, tables and charts the answer added.
If you have edited a cell after Strata wrote it, Undo leaves that range as it is and says so, rather than overwrite your edit. A sheet you have typed into is kept the same way.
If your organization's data policy withdraws an answer, the changes that answer made to the workbook are undone with it, without waiting for you to choose Undo. The same rule applies: a range you have edited since is left as it is.
#Installing the add-in
In Strata, open Settings then Apps and choose Set up beside Excel: the setup has the add-in file, the steps for yourself and, for an admin, the steps for the whole organization.
- For yourself: choose Download in that setup (the same file is at
https://app.strata.kronisys.com/outlook/manifest-excel.xml). In Excel, choose Home then Add-ins then More Add-ins (More Settings in Excel on the web), then My Add-ins then Upload My Add-in, pick the file and choose Upload. On the web, an add-in you upload stays in that browser only. If Upload My Add-in is missing or grayed out, your organization has turned it off, and an admin can deploy Strata to you instead. - For your organization: in the Microsoft 365 admin center, choose Settings then Integrated apps then Upload custom apps, then Office Add-in, give the manifest's link, and assign it to the people or groups who should have it. Strata then appears on their Home tab in Excel on Windows, Mac and the web; it can take up to three days to appear.
Once it is installed, Strata is on the Home tab. Excel 2019 or later, Microsoft 365 and Excel on the web all run it. Finding, and undoing formatting, need Excel 2021, Microsoft 365 or Excel on the web.
#Privacy
The cells Strata reads go to the AI model your organization uses, in the turn that asked for them, like a file you attach to a chat. The pane sends Strata's answer from Excel straight back to the turn that is waiting for it; it is not stored on its own or written to a log. Your organization's retention settings apply to the chat as they do anywhere in Strata.