Build sheets and forms with Dana

Describe what you need in plain words and Dana, Atwork's AI assistant, sets it up: one sheet, a form, or a set of linked sheets with their views. There are three ways in.

Build with AI: review a plan first

1. In the sidebar, click Create and pick Build with AI at the top. You can also type "Build with AI" into the omnibox.
2. Describe what you need, for example "a client onboarding tracker with Clients and Onboarding tasks linked together, and a form for the kickoff questionnaire", and click Build it.
3. Dana drafts a plan beside the chat: each sheet with its fields and their types, the links between sheets (shown as → and the linked sheet), and any views, forms and workflows.
4. Refine it in the chat: "add a Retainer value field to Clients", "drop the Notes sheet", "show Onboarding tasks as a board".
5. If you started inside a space, choose where it goes: New space (the default) or This space.
6. Click Create workspace.

Nothing is created until you click Create workspace. To walk away, close the screen with ×.

After it is created:

• Forms start unpublished, unless you asked for them to be published. Publish one when you are ready to share it. See Share and embed a form.
• Workflows start switched off. Open each one, check it, and turn it on yourself.
• Dashboards are not part of a build. Add them afterwards.

Workspace members can use Build with AI. Guests and portal customers cannot.

Set up an empty sheet

A new sheet that still has only its default columns offers Set up your columns.

1. Click Set it up for me.
2. Answer What should this sheet track?, or pick one of the examples, and click Generate columns.
3. Dana adds the columns straight away, then stays open in a chat so you can adjust them.

For the first 30 minutes, that chat also offers Discard draft. It deletes the whole sheet, including anything you have added to it since. Use it only on a sheet you want gone.

Change a sheet you already have

Ask Dana in the sidebar or on the sheet's Insights tab: "add a Priority field with High, Medium and Low", "rename Owner to Account manager", "make Budget a Number field", "remove the Notes field". Dana reads the sheet first, then makes the change as you, straight away. The one exception is a type change that would lose values: Dana asks first. It can only change sheets you can edit.

Changing a field's type. Dana offers only the types the field can become. When some values would be emptied or shortened, it tells you how many, shows a few before-and-after examples, and asks before going ahead. You can do the same yourself: open the column header menu and click Change type, or open the field's Setting and change Type. Each type is marked Keeps all values or Some values may be lost, and a preview shows the result before you confirm. For 30 days afterwards, Restore previous type in the field's settings brings the old type and its values back. See Field types explained.

Removing a field hides it and keeps its data. A sheet admin brings it back from Deleted fields in the sheet's Fields settings, with Restore. Keep in mind:

• Removing a File List field also deletes the files in it.
• The Title field cannot be removed.

What can Dana build?

• Fields of most types: text, number, date and date range, email, URL, phone, checkbox, status, select and multi-select, people, teams and jobs, files, documents, location, address, duration, link, vote and goal.
• Relation fields that link one sheet to another.
• Views and forms as part of a plan.
• Up to 60 fields per sheet in one plan.

To add a Code field, ask Dana on a sheet that already exists, and name the language: "add a Code field called Snippet, in JSON". Add Formula, Rollup and Mirror fields yourself. There is no currency type: Dana uses a Number field. See Field types explained and Relations, mirrors and rollups.

How do you build a form with Dana?

Ask for a form in Build with AI ("…and a form clients fill in to request work") and Dana builds the sheet and its form together. Change the form afterwards in the form builder. See Build a form and collect responses.

Does it use the AI budget?

Yes. Every message to Dana draws on your workspace's monthly AI budget. When it runs out, the chat shows AI budget used up, and Build with AI tells you the workspace has reached its AI usage limit. See The AI budget.

Related: Meet Dana, your AI assistant · Build a sheet with custom fields · Build a form and collect responses · Relations, mirrors and rollups