Home > Format as Table on a cell or range inside an existing table
failed with "A table can't overlap another table." Excel applies the
picked style to that table instead. The command now returns that table
and its range, as it does for a new table. A range crossing a table's
edge is still rejected.
Without a range, the active area of the selection decides, as it does
for Insert > Table. The native Format menu's Format as Table now runs
home.formatAsTable instead of insert.table.
- automate.trustScripts: only a missing `trusted` defaults to true; a
non-boolean value is an error and leaves the workbook untrusted.
- The refusal message points at Trust Scripts in View > Macros (Alt+F8)
and at automate.trustScripts.
- Catalog row for automate.trustScripts; parity checklist regenerated.
- Script steps run inside an io::ScriptSandbox (thread-local) so
read_file/write_file refuse whatever the parameter is called, and a
step that raises OpenUrl is dropped and stops the script. The id/param
deny list stays as the up-front refusal.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A sheet can hide its outline's level buttons and brackets while keeping
the outline (Excel's Ctrl+8, saved as showOutlineSymbols="0"). It wasn't
modelled, so such sheets showed a wide outline band Excel doesn't.
- model: Sheet::show_outline_symbols (default on, also for older JSON).
- xlsx: read and written on the sheet view.
- engine: view.showOutlineSymbols {on?} (Ctrl+8), undoable.
- ui: no outline bands while it's off.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Every string in `values` went through typed input, which reads it with en-US
rules, and nothing said so:
"05.04.2026" (dd.mm.yyyy) → the date 4 May 2026
"02/11/2026" (dd/mm/yyyy) → the date 11 February 2026
"2.500" (thousands) → the number 2.5
"4.25 %" (text) → 0.0425, formatted 0.00%
A workbook built from Turkish-format exports therefore held different values
than the script put in it, and the only way to notice was to read the saved
file back cell by cell.
`parse: false` stores every string as the text it is. A formula is still a
formula — `=` means a formula in a cell, and the ticket asks for that — and
numbers, booleans and null are unaffected either way. A leading apostrophe is
part of the text rather than the marker that makes it text, since nothing is
being marked.
The default is unchanged: `parse` is absent in every existing call, and those
calls behave exactly as before. A `parse` that is neither true nor false is a
usage error rather than a quiet default.
The test pins both sides — the swapped date, the decimal point and the
percentage under today's default; each of the six strings stored verbatim with
`parse: false`, with `=1+1` still calculating 2; numbers and booleans either
way; and the refused `parse` values. Without the change the first string comes
back as a date.
`col("Amount")` read the header through the cell's display text, which is the formula while
Show Formulas is on, so a header such as ="Amo"&"unt" matched nothing. The header is now the
cell's value as formatted, whatever the sheet shows.
A visible workbook-scope name such as `_gc_macro_0_0` matched the storage key and was read as a
macro and removed when the workbook opened. Macro storage is written hidden, so only hidden names
are read back; a person's own name of that shape stays a name.
`Name:` read a name only up to the first period, so `Name:Sales.Q1` looked up `Sales` and
treated `Q1` as a method, and a workbook name called Sales.Q1 could not be used in a macro,
alone or as `Name:Sales.Q1.cell(1,1)`.
The name now runs through periods, and the longest defined name or table that exists and ends
at a period (or the end) is used; what follows is read as methods. So `Name:Data.row` is a
name called Data.row, and `Name:Sales.offset(1,0)` still moves Sales. When no name matches,
the error names the text before the first method, and a bad method after a dotted name is
still refused. Tests cover direct resolution, reference parameters, `$ref` and `{{...}}`,
with and without a chained method.
Opening a workbook gave each clashing macro name a suffix by trying " (2)", " (3)"... in turn,
and each try scanned every macro accepted so far. A file with 1,000 macros of the same
255-character name made about 300 million name comparisons.
Load now keeps a set of the names in use (ASCII case-insensitive, as find compares them) and,
for each shortened name and suffix width, the next suffix to try, so each suffix is looked up
about once. The result is unchanged: the smallest free suffix, within the name length limit,
and the renamed macro still passes the final checks. unique_name keeps its signature. A test
opens, saves and reopens 1,000 same-name macros in JSON and xlsx and keeps them all, and
another counts lookups instead of timing them.
Approvals were stored as (document, FNV-1a hash of the macro's JSON).
FNV-1a is not collision resistant, so a crafted workbook could hold a
harmless macro and a different one with the same hash, and approving
the first would let the second run without asking.
The key is now the macro's canonical JSON text itself (object keys
sorted), so two different macros never share an approval.
macros::hash is replaced by macros::fingerprint.
col("...") always matched against the first row of the range, whatever
its header flag. On an input declared without a header row,
Input.col("Amount") silently picked the first column whose first data
cell read "Amount". After .data, the natural Input.data.col("Amount")
failed, because the first row was then a data row. The header row is
now carried through data, and col("...") is refused with a message when
there is none (an input without a header, a Name: base, or after any
other method).
Opening a workbook accepted a macro whose format version `v` was above MACRO_VERSION. Serde
dropped the fields this build doesn't know, and the next save wrote the reduced macro back
with `v: 2`, so a newer build would read it as a complete version 2 macro.
A version above MACRO_VERSION is now refused by Macro::check_limits, and parse_macro checks
the raw `v` before reading the steps. Such a macro takes the existing per-macro path: it is
left out with the usual single warning (which now names a newer format), and the rest of the
workbook opens. Tests cover JSON and xlsx hidden names, with current and missing versions as
controls.
The policy denies window.* commands, but the View tab's window commands
are view.*: a macro could run view.newWindow, which adds a window that
the run's rollback doesn't remove, or view.hideWindow and
view.unhideWindow, which change the session's hidden windows.
The policy now denies those three. Arrange All changes nothing in the
engine and Switch Windows only lists windows, so both stay allowed.
is_token looked only at the leading identifier, so on a workbook with a
sheet called Output (or Row, Column, or the name of a declared input),
"Output!A1:B2" was read as the Output token, and the step failed with
"the macro has no output anchor" or "unexpected '!A1:B2'". This hit
reference keys, $ref and {{...}} alike, including references the
recorder writes for other sheets. A base followed by '!' is now a sheet
name, and the text resolves as a plain reference.
footprint always ran its dry run with the default 60 second limit, so
macro.run with timeLimit 5 could run for over two minutes (a dry run,
then another after a shift) and fail with "ran longer than 60 seconds".
footprint now takes the run's clock and limit. make_way starts the
run's clock before the dry runs, so the checks and the run share one
limit, and macro.check takes timeLimit too.
Workbook::macros was read straight into typed macros, so one entry this
build couldn't read (a step type from a later build, an unknown
onConflict value, an entry that isn't an object) failed the whole file
with "not a GridCraft JSON workbook". The field is now read as raw
entries into Workbook::macros_read, and macros::load reads each one
with parse_macro, as for xlsx: short-form steps are accepted, the depth
limit is checked before deserializing, and a bad entry is dropped with
the same warning. Only the first 1,000 entries are read, as in xlsx.
The footprint dry run stops at an approved file step and at Solver, but
make_way took a partial footprint with no conflicts as proof that the
run was safe, also after a shift. A macro that exported a CSV and then
set B1 ran under onConflict fail or ask and overwrote B1 without asking.
When the footprint is partial and the rule is not overwrite, the run's
machine now checks every step as it runs: a step that writes over
cells, sheets or objects that held data when the run started stops the
run and rolls it back, with a confirmation under ask and an error
otherwise. make_way now returns the machine for the run along with
whether it shifted.
Step parameters can name where they act through tokens that are worked
out when the step runs, so a macro made on one block of data works on
another: a declared input (Input, or any other input's name), Output
(the output rule's anchor), Row or Column (the current item of the
Repeat step around the step) and Name:Total (a defined name or a
table's data). Methods narrow or move the range: col(n) or
col("Header"), row(n), cols(a..b), rows(2..), cell(r,c) relative to the
top-left cell, offset(r,c), resize(h,w), data (without the header row),
below(n) and right(n). Methods chain.
A token is written as {"$ref": "..."} anywhere, as the whole string of
a reference parameter (cell, range, target, keys ending in Cell or Range
and similar), or as {{...}} inside any string, which is how a formula
refers to its input. Other text parameters are never read as tokens, so
a cell can still hold the word Row and a chart can still be of type
column.
Every token becomes A1 text, sheet-qualified when it is on another
sheet, before the command runs, so no existing command changes. Plain A1
references in a step stay absolute. A reference that runs past the edge
of the sheet is reported apart from other mistakes, so the footprint
check can tell the two apart.
load listed every _gc_macro_ item, then read each one with a scan of
all the workbook's names, and removed each with another full scan.
Damaged items didn't count toward the macro limit, so a file with
20,000 damaged items took 20,000 scans of 20,000 names (seconds, and
far more for a larger file). The names are now taken out of the
workbook and grouped by item in one pass; only the first 1,000 items
are read, and the rest are counted in the warning without being read.
When a file held two macros with the same name, the second was renamed
"name (2)" without room for the suffix. Two macros with the same
255-character name both opened, but the second name grew to 259
characters, was saved that way, and the next open dropped that macro as
over the limits. unique_name now shortens the name to make room for the
suffix, and load checks the macro again after renaming it.
A path given as a token (`{"$ref": "Input"}` or `{{Input}}`) became a file name only when the
step ran, after the policy had passed it, so a macro without permissions or approval could write
a file, even from macro.check. Exports also wrote to blank paths the policy ignored. Any `path`
other than null now needs the permission and approval, and the runner checks the policy again on
the resolved parameters before the command runs.
Only parse_macro refused a name holding a line break or other control
character. Macros that came from the macros field of a JSON workbook
were checked with check_limits alone, so a file could bring in a macro
named "a\nb" that macro.save and macro.rename would refuse. The check
now lives in Macro::check_limits, so every path applies it, and such a
macro is dropped with the usual warning when the file is opened.
macro.run runs a macro as one undo step ("Run Macro: <name>"); an error
at any step rolls everything back and names the step and its path (3,
2.1 inside a Repeat, 4.then.1 inside an If). It works in four parts:
- Policy (macro_policy). File, app, window, automate and macro commands
and Undo and Redo never run in a macro. Reading or writing files
(data.getData, data.fromTextCsv, insert.picture, Page Layout
Background, or an export with a path) needs the command in the
macro's permissions and the person's approval. A macro in a workbook
opened from a file asks before it runs. Approval holds for the
session until the macro's content changes; it is asked for with the
new EngineError::Approve and given with approve: true. A step that
would open a dialog or a web page fails instead.
- Inputs. Each declared input is bound (given, its default, or the
selection for the first one), whole columns shrink to the used range,
and the shape and column types are checked with messages that name
the cells: "Input column 2 (Amount) must hold numbers; C4 holds text".
- Footprint. Unless the macro may overwrite, it first runs in dry-run
mode on the real workbook inside an undo group that is rolled back,
with the session's clipboard, journal, windows and the document's
trust put back. CellStore::diff on every sheet, plus the cells
commands wrote (DocState::touched), sheets and objects, gives what it
would write outside its inputs; cells that only recalculated do not
count. Writing over data, deleting a sheet or deleting an object is a
conflict: ask (the new EngineError::Confirm, so programmatic runs fail
unless they pass onConflict or overwrite), fail, overwrite, or shift
the data down or right with Insert Cells and check again. A step that
would fail, for example past the edge of the sheet, fails the run
before anything changes. File steps and Solver stop the dry run early
and are reported.
- Steps run on a machine with an explicit frame stack: Repeat over the
rows or columns of a range with Row or Column bound, If on one cell
with Excel's comparisons, and Stop, which keeps the changes or rolls
them back. A run executes at most 100,000 steps within a time limit
(60 s by default, timeLimit to change; the web build has no clock, so
only the step limit applies there).
macro.check reports the bound inputs, the output anchor, the approval
needed, the footprint and the conflicts without changing anything;
nothing from an unapproved macro runs, not even as a dry run.
A macro is plain data in the model (model/src/macros.rs): a name, a
description, an optional shortcut, declared inputs (shape, header,
column types, non-empty, default reference), steps, an output rule
(anchor and what to do on a conflict) and the commands it may run that
read or write files. A step runs a command (id and params) or is one of
three bounded control steps: Repeat over the rows or columns of a range,
If on one cell's value, and Stop with a message. Every step carries
enabled, breakpoint and note flags. These are GridCraft macros, not VBA;
a VBA project in a file stays preserved and is never run.
Workbook::macros holds them. The JSON format keeps the field. In xlsx,
io::save_bytes writes each macro as one chunked hidden-name item,
_gc_macro_<n>, and io::open_bytes takes the items back out of the names,
so the names never linger in the open document.
Limits are checked whenever a macro is read from a file or a command:
at most 1,000 macros, 10,000 steps each, Repeat and If nested 4 deep,
names and notes of bounded length, and at most 4,194,304 characters of
JSON, so that saving a workbook never fails because of a macro; nesting
is checked before the steps are deserialized. What is over or damaged
is dropped with one warning, and clashing names get a suffix.
Automate scripts keep their own storage (_sc_scripts) and are neither
read nor changed by this.
The item store read, listed and removed every workbook-scope name of the `_gc_<key>_<n>` shape,
visible or not, so saving an item removed a person's own visible name that happened to look like
one. Items are the hidden names the store writes; a legacy `_sc_<key>` name still reads. A visible
`_gc_` name is left alone by every operation, and writing an item that would need that name is
refused before anything changes: a hidden name beside it with the same name is the one an xlsx
file drops, so the item would be lost on save.
A command that changed the workbook cleared the redo history even when an open group owned
its step. When the group was then rolled back inside the same command (the debugger's Stop
with Undo Changes), the rollback put the redo history back and the command's bookkeeping cleared
it again. Now only a command that makes a step of its own clears the redo history; a group
clears it when it ends as a step, and a rollback restores it.
The record of the last group step (document, history length, epoch) outlived the Undo of that
step. A later command that opened and closed its own groups at the same history length, after
rolling one back, passed the epoch check (the record's epoch merely differed from the one the
command started with) and took the name of the nested edit it had made instead of its own.
The step must now come from a group ended during the command (an epoch past the command's
starting one), and a rollback drops a record of a step it truncated away.
Brandon Thomas