A recording keeps up to 100,000 commands, and inlined macro and script runs can add more, but a macro holds at most 10,000 steps. Stopping truncated the converted steps to that limit without saying so: dropped counted only the recorder's own overflow, so a 10,005-step recording saved a 10,000-step macro and reported nothing missing. The steps cut at the macro limit are now added to dropped.
Stopping a recording with a name that a macro already has (in any case) saved over that macro's
steps, inputs and description, with only Undo to get them back. A taken name now gets a suffix
("Tidy (2)"), and the save passes replace: false as a backstop.
The catalog went from 274 / 290 to 275 / 291 with View › Macros › Record Macro, and
parity-checklist.md says so, but the ROADMAP.md headline, ui-parity.md and target-app-parity.md
still said 274 / 290 (and 290 catalog ids). They now match, with revision rows.
Stopping a recording converted and saved it against the active workbook. For example, starting a
recording in Book1 and switching to Book2 before stopping saved the macro into Book2, inferred the
input's header and column types from Book2's cells and looked up inlined macros and scripts
there. The recording is now converted and saved against the workbook where it started, and the
active workbook stays active. If that workbook was closed, stopping returns an error and ends the
recording.
An Automate script run while recording was replaced by all of its steps except automate.* ones,
without the policy check that top-level commands get. For example, a script that runs
window.activate or macro.list produced a recorded macro that the runner refused on playback. The
steps of a recorded script run, and of an inlined macro run, now go through the same policy as
top-level commands; refused ones are left out and listed as skipped.
A macro run while recording was replaced by every command in it, including both branches of an
If and the body of a Repeat, whenever it had no inputs. For example, recording a run of a macro
with an If played back both the then and the else commands without a condition, and commands
using Row, Column or Output failed on playback. The run is now inlined only when the macro has no
inputs, no output and only plain commands (its disabled steps are left out); otherwise it is left
out and listed as skipped.
The recorder made every unqualified reference relative to the example input, whatever sheet the
step ran on. For example, starting a recording on Sheet1 with B2:C5 selected, activating Sheet2
and setting C4 recorded Input.cell(3,2), so playback wrote Sheet1 instead; a formula entered on
Sheet2 was changed to refer to Sheet1's cells. Each step now keeps the sheet it ran on, and only
references on the input's sheet become tokens.
Stopping a recording took the recorded commands and where recording started before saving the
macro, so a failed save threw both away. For example, stopping with a name that holds a control
character, or in a workbook at its macro limit, ended the recording, and stopping again with a
good name found nothing to save. A failed save now puts the recording back, so stopping again
saves what was recorded.
Commands: macro.list, macro.get, macro.save (a macro object or its
fields; replace defaults to true), macro.delete, macro.rename and
macro.record, beside macro.run, macro.check and macro.debug. Saving,
renaming and deleting are undoable. The catalog gains View › Macros ›
Record Macro (parity 275 / 291).
The recorder builds on the recording buffer of top-level commands, so
nested commands are never recorded twice and trimming the journal loses
nothing. When it stops, commands a macro may not run are left out and
listed; a macro run while recording is replaced by its steps when it
has no inputs, and an Automate script run by the script's steps;
sheet.activate and selection.set steps are added where the sheet or
selection changed between commands without one, and runs of them
collapse to the last. With relative references (the default) the
selection when recording started is the example input: references in
and near it become tokens (Input.col(2), Input.rows(2..),
Input.col(2).below, Input.row(4).right, Input.cell(r,c)), exact
references in formulas become {{...}}, and the input's width, header
and column types are inferred from the example. A recording replayed on
a longer block of data writes in the matching places.
A toggle such as Bold is recorded with the state it set ("on": true),
as Excel records Bold = True, so a replay sets it instead of flipping
it again.
Automate scripts are unchanged: automate.* keep their commands,
parameters, storage and results, and View › Macros still lists the
scripts and a preserved VBA project.
Session::execute checked the debugger lock only for top-level undoable commands. A command that is not undoable could run edits as nested commands and skip it: stopping Record Actions while a macro in the same workbook was being debugged saved the script inside the run's undo group, and stopping the run without keeping its changes deleted the script again. The lock now applies at every depth, and only the debugged run's own steps go ahead.
The intro said a macro run rolls everything back on an error, but a step that exports or prints to a path writes the file before a later step can fail, and the Running section says that file stays. The intro now limits the guarantee to workbook changes.
The policy summary said file commands never run in a macro, but File >
Properties runs, and exports and printing run: without a path they only
produce bytes, and with one they need the permission and approval. The
summary now names what is denied and what runs, and the paragraph is
wrapped to the file's line length.
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.
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.
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.
`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.
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).
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.
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.
Paste Special › Formats copies cell styles and merged areas. It copies no conditional formats,
formulas or validation, so it carries nothing that runs. It still marked the destination
FromFile: copying a formula cell from an opened file and pasting its formats into a new workbook
made that workbook ask before running its own active content.
Formats pastes now count as passive, like values, column widths and notes. The comment and
docs/architecture.md no longer say that pasted formats carry trust.
execute treated any change in the group epoch as 'the group owns the step'. A command that edited outside its own group, or whose group rolled back before it edited, left that edit with no undo step or only part of it. Now only a group that was open before the command (or is still open after) owns the step; a command that opened and closed its own groups replaces their steps with one entry for the command.
GridCraft keeps workbook data in hidden defined names so it travels
inside the xlsx file. The existing items write one name holding one
string literal, which past Excel's 255-character literal and
8,192-character formula limits gives a file Excel does not accept.
cmd/stash.rs stores an item `key` as hidden workbook-scope names
_gc_<key>_0, _gc_<key>_1, ..., each a formula of string literals of at
most 255 characters (UTF-16 units, as Excel counts them) joined with &,
at most 8,192 characters per name. Reading concatenates the chunks in
order and stops at a gap; it also accepts the older single _sc_<key>
name. Names are matched case-insensitively and only at workbook scope.
Keys are limited to letters, digits, _ and ., items to 4,194,304
characters, and junk around or inside the literals, duplicate or
out-of-order chunks, non-JSON and over-deep JSON all read safely.
keys(prefix) lists the stored items that start with a prefix.
Custom views, scripts, the watch list and scenarios keep their current
storage; nothing reads or writes the new names yet.
docs/architecture.md describes the engine building blocks added in this
series: undo groups, the recording buffer, document trust and this
storage.
range.fill parsed the input once at the active cell, then put back the old
style of every target that already held a cell, so 5%, $5, 3/4/2026 or
=DATE(...) lost their automatic format there (0.05, 5, 46085), and empty
targets took the active cell's style. Each target now gets what
input_to_cell gives for it (parsed once per distinct style), as typing does.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Alt+H, O, A (AutoFit Row Height) and Alt+H, O, I (AutoFit Column Width)
ran nothing when Alt was still held for H, as Excel allows: any key with
Alt down cancelled keytips. KeyTips now tracks the left Alt key, and a
letter typed with it held that continues a known sequence is handled as
a keytip letter. Other Alt combinations still cancel; AltGr (right Alt)
and macOS Option are unchanged (#1864).
fr.rs and sr.rs translated three `context|label` keys with the context
kept ("Options|Général", "Opcije|Opšte", "Options de la feuille|Affichage"
...). `Language::tr` shows a found translation as it is, so File › Options
section headings and the Sheet Options "View" checkboxes showed the prefix.
The values now hold only the label.
Tests: `translations_never_show_the_context_prefix` (no catalog shows a `|`
for any key) and `translated_options_headings_show_no_context_prefix`
(File › Options in French and Serbian); both fail on main.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
rowGrandTotals is the Grand Total row under the report and colGrandTotals the
Grand Total column at its right. Both were mapped the other way round; a
GridCraft round trip hid it, but an Excel file with only one grand total opened
with the other one.
file.open takes {csvAsText: true}: a CSV, TSV or TXT file opens with every field as the text
it holds, with no number, date or boolean conversion, so identifiers such as GTINs, SKUs and
ZIP codes keep their digits and leading zeros and save back unchanged. The default is
unchanged. The CsvOptions.parse_values switch already existed in the reader.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
prxnvt