The window
Totsum Data Explorer opens as one window, with a left column of three panes, a viewer in the center and the AI Assistant on the right. From top to bottom, the left column follows the order of the work. You load files in the top pane, your results collect in the middle one, and you build the reports for your reviewer in the bottom one. The app can work on a computer with no network connection. No account, no sync, no telemetry, no update check.
The three panes on the left
Section titled “The three panes on the left”Ingest is at the top. It holds the files you loaded, one table per file (or per sheet, for a workbook), and the area where you drop new ones. Loading files is described on the Ingest page.
Explore is in the middle. It holds the results of the questions you asked the AI Assistant, each one a preview you can open, mark and organize. It stays empty until the first question, and says so: “Results of your questions collect here — ask in the AI Assistant.”
Validate is at the bottom. It holds the follow-up reports, the documents you build from the results you shortlisted with ★ and give to your reviewer. It is empty until you shortlist something: “Reports collect the results you shortlist with ★.”
Each pane can be collapsed and expanded with the chevron on the divider beside it. The right pane collapses the same way. Totsum remembers the sizes you set from one session to the next.
The viewer in the center
Section titled “The viewer in the center”At first launch the center shows the welcome page. It states what the app is for in one sentence: “Explore a dataset by asking questions, and leave with a report of the results worth an expert’s time.” Below it, three steps point at the three panes. The first is to drop a file on the left, or to try an example. Then you ask a question in the AI Assistant, and the results appear in the center and collect on the left. Last, you shortlist a result with ★, and the Validate pane turns your shortlist into a report.
After that, the center shows whatever you click. A source table from Ingest opens with its Overview, Data and Schema tabs, a result from Explore opens in the preview editor with its tabs, and a report from Validate opens there too. The welcome page returns when you start a new workspace.
The AI Assistant on the right
Section titled “The AI Assistant on the right”The right pane is titled AI Assistant. You type a question about your data in plain language and the answer arrives as a result in the center and in Explore. The same box answers questions about the app itself: type “How do I create a report?” and the assistant answers from this manual. Help ▸ How to Use Totsum… opens the pane and starts the question for you with “How do I ”.
The Ask page describes what you can ask and how the assistant replies.
Two notices, shown once
Section titled “Two notices, shown once”Before the first file is loaded, a notice titled Before you load data says: “Before working with sensitive data, your computer and its connections to the outside must be secured by a professional.” Before the first question, a notice titled An AI answers this question says: “Your question will be answered by an AI that runs locally on this machine. The generated answer — and the visualizations, data and query steps that come with it — is a first look: before you rely on it, it must be verified by an expert.”
Each notice has three buttons: Continue, Continue and don’t ask again, and Cancel. Choosing not to be asked again records which wording you acknowledged; if the wording changes in a later release, the notice appears once more.
The menus
Section titled “The menus”File: New Workspace, Try an Example Dataset…, Open Workspace…, Recent Workspaces (the last ten files), Save Workspace, Save Workspace As…, Exit. The Workspaces page explains what a workspace holds.
Edit: Number Format Settings…, Report Branding…, Describe My Data from a Document…, Dataset Notes…, Refresh All. The first two are on the Settings page; the next two on the Ingest page. Refresh All reads every source file again from disk and recomputes every result.
View: Zoom…, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Reset Zoom. The zoom changes the size of the text in the whole window, in steps from 80% to 200%. It takes effect after you restart the app.
Help: How to Use Totsum… (see above), License… (your edition, and where to enter a key), About… (the version, the revision of the license agreement you accepted, the license agreement, the privacy policy and the third-party licenses), Security Advisories… (opens our security page in your browser), Report a Problem… (builds a problem report for you to send; the report a bug page says what it contains).
Keyboard shortcuts
Section titled “Keyboard shortcuts”The shortcuts below use Ctrl. On macOS, use Cmd in its place.
| Shortcut | Does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+N | New workspace |
| Ctrl+O | Open a workspace |
| Ctrl+S | Save the workspace |
| Cmd+Shift+S (macOS) | Save the workspace under another name; from the menu on Windows |
| F5 | Refresh All |
| Ctrl+= | Zoom in |
| Ctrl+- | Zoom out |
| Ctrl+0 | Reset the zoom |
| Cmd+Q (macOS) | Exit; from the menu on Windows |
| F2 | Rename the selected table or result |
| Enter | Send the question in the AI Assistant |
| Shift+Enter | New line in the question box |
The status bar
Section titled “The status bar”The bar at the bottom of the window shows short messages as things happen: “Optimizing for this computer…” while the app measures the machine on its first launches, or a note that a new table has the same structure as one you loaded before. On the right it shows how much of the AI’s working memory the conversation uses, as a count of exchanges or of tokens.