Becoming the owner of an existing doc

Recommendations to help you become familiar with the doc and resolve any broken automations and/or connections.

When you become the doc owner of a transferred doc, we recommend reviewing the following sections to become familiar with the doc, and resolve any broken automations and/or connections.

Video tutorial

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Doc map

The doc map shows you all the tables, views, and other building blocks currently in your doc. You can use it to quickly jump to specific objects and to understand the connections between tables and views in your doc.

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Recommendations

Tables — take note of tables names and views. Clicking the title of a table will take you to it’s location within the doc.

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Note which tables are base tables and which views are created from those tables. Base tables power the doc - removing a base table will, in turn, remove all views of that table in the doc.

Review the underlying data of each table view. If there are any graphs, cards or other special views, briefly turn them back into tables so you can understand the underlying data.

On the table menu, click “columns” to reveal hidden columns. They often house buttons and other doc critical functions.

Other Objects —take note of buttons, controls, and any AI blocks.

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As you become more familiar with the doc’s schema it’s a good idea to name any unnamed objects

Check out other notable setups like filters, sorting, groups, etc.

Usage — To understand

Scroll down to “Usage” to understand what parts of the doc are using up credits or large amounts of data.

Click “see more stats” for a comprehensive overview of the doc’s usage

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Automations

When you inherit a doc, it’s important to ensure all automations are running as expected. To view automations, navigate to document settings then automations. Check the trigger, conditions and actions of each.

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Recommendations

Rules:

Click on each rule and review triggers and actions. Do they match your understand of the doc’s purpose and usage?

If the previous owner had automations you cannot edit then duplicate the automation to recreate them. Remember to delete the previous rule when finished.

Actions: If possible, set your automations to “Take actions as Automation Bot.” This ensure that any actions taken by the automation, such as notifying users, comes from the Coda automation bot and not you.

Test the automations by using the “Test rule” button. Click the the “Activity tab” and review any errors

When finished, name your rules and turn them on

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Packs

See what integrations are running in the doc and verify that data is syncing properly. You will likely have to connect your credentials to the integrations. Consider using a shared account.

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Recommendations

Packs: Navigate to the “Insert” panel in your doc then click Packs to see what Pack are installed

Click on each Pack and then “settings” to select or add your account

Troubleshoot Packs in your doc | Coda Help Center⁠

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Some Packs need an account to sync data from the app or service you’re integrating to Coda — A Pack account. Since the previous owner’s account is no longer available you will have enter a new one.

Cross-doc:

Cross-doc creates a connection between two docs so data can be transferred between both.

If your doc contains Cross-doc you’ll have to set up your own cross-doc account for any buttons or automations that use cross-doc and/or cross-doc actions

Cross-doc | Coda Help Center⁠

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Sharing

Check doc sharing settings to verify who has access to the doc. This is also a good time to consider where in your workspace this doc ought to live - for example, should it live in a specific team folder?

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