Connecting a tab to app data

A tab can be connected to another part of Nemi, and then it fills itself: the responses of a form, the files in a folder, the photos in an album, a tab of another spreadsheet, your events, what your share links have done, your rooms and their request lists, or your upload links. The tab is read only, because its rows are the real data and every refresh writes them again. You build on it from your other tabs, with formulas that point at it, and you can export it like anything else in the workbook.

1. 1

   Press Connect to app data

   In the sheet sidebar, under the list of tabs, next to Add sheet.

2. 2

   Pick the kind of data

   Form responses, Files, Gallery, Another spreadsheet, Calendar, Share links, Rooms, Room requests or Upload links.

3. 3

   Pick which one

   Which form, which folder, which album, which spreadsheet or which room. Something you cannot open is never on the list, and forms, folders, albums and spreadsheets come from the workspace this spreadsheet is in. Kinds with only one thing to offer skip this step.

4. 4

   Shape the data

   Choose the columns to keep, add filters and a sort, and for some sources a window or an automatic refresh. The preview underneath shows the first rows exactly as the tab will hold them.

5. 5

   Press Connect

   A new read-only tab appears, named after what you connected, with the column headings in the first row and the rows underneath.

What each source brings#

Shaping the data#

• Columns: untick the ones you do not need. A tab keeps at most 40.
• Only rows where: up to 5 filters, all of which a row has to pass. A filter compares with the heading you pick, and can say is, is not, contains, is more than, is less than, is after or is before. Dates are written as 2026-01-31.
• Sort by: one column, lowest or highest first. Empty values go last either way.
• Filters and sort look at up to 10,000 rows of the source before the tab keeps its first 1,000, so a filter finds what it asks for even when the source is much longer than a tab.
• A filter or sort on a heading the source no longer has is skipped, so the tab shows every row rather than going blank. Connect the source again to set it up anew.

Using the data on another tab#

You cannot type on a connected tab, change its formatting, paste into it or add rows to it. Try it and Nemi tells you the tab shows live data and is read only. The bar above the grid says so too, and shows a reference to use. That is the whole idea: keep your own work on an ordinary tab and point it at the connected one.

The quickest way is Use in a formula in that bar, or a right-click on one of the tab's column letters. Pick a column and it offers, in words first and as a formula underneath: how many rows the tab has, the total and the average of a column of numbers, looking up a value by the first column, the first value, and the whole column for a formula of your own. Insert puts the formula on the ordinary tab you were last on, in the first empty cell from where you were down, and otherwise on a tab called Summary, which it makes when there is none. Nothing that is already in a cell is overwritten. The copy button puts the formula on your clipboard instead.

• Read one value with a reference such as =Orders!B2, or ='Form responses'!B2 when the tab name has a space in it.
• Add up a column with =SUM(Orders!E:E). A whole column follows the tab as it grows and shrinks, so the total stays right after every refresh.
• Count the rows with =COUNTA(Orders!A:A)-1, which leaves out the heading.
• Look something up with =XLOOKUP(A2, Orders!A:A, Orders!E:E, "").
• While you write a formula on another tab, you can also click the connected tab and click or drag over its cells to add them. See Formulas and functions.
• Every formula that points at a connected tab recalculates by itself when the tab refreshes, for everybody who has the spreadsheet open.

Right-click a connected tab and choose Make an editable copy when you want to work on the rows themselves. The copy is an ordinary tab with the rows as they are now; the connected tab next to it keeps refreshing.

Refreshing#

The bar above the grid says which app the tab is connected to, that it is read only, and how long ago it was refreshed. Refresh fetches the source again. New rows appear in place for everybody who has the spreadsheet open: nobody's page reloads and nobody is moved to another tab. A refresh that finds nothing new changes nothing, so it does not add a version to the history either.

• A tab connected to Form responses, Files, Gallery or Another spreadsheet also refreshes once on its own when somebody who can edit the spreadsheet opens it, so a sheet you come back to is current without pressing anything.
• Those same sources can refresh every 5 minutes, 15 minutes or hour while the spreadsheet is open, if you choose that when you connect. It happens only while somebody who can edit it has it open in a tab they are looking at; nothing refreshes a spreadsheet nobody has open.
• A tab connected to Calendar, Share links, Rooms, Room requests or Upload links holds the data of the person who connected it, so it only refreshes when that person presses Refresh, never on its own and never on a timer. Everybody else sees Only the person who connected this tab can refresh it. in the bar and reads what was last brought in.

Disconnecting#

Disconnect, in the same bar, keeps every row exactly where it is and stops the refreshes. The tab becomes an ordinary tab you can edit, and nothing is deleted. To keep the connection and still have rows to edit, make an editable copy instead.

Limits#