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Column Basics

The Building Blocks of Your Ottogrid Tables

Columns are the foundational elements of your Ottogrid tables. They provide structure, organize your data, and define the specific information you want to capture for each entity—whether it's a company, individual, or news article. Understanding how to configure columns effectively is key to unlocking the full potential of Ottogrid's AI-driven capabilities.

Creating and Customizing Columns

Ottogrid makes it easy to create and customize columns according to your research or data analysis needs. Each column can be tailored to ensure your data is captured accurately and efficiently.

  • Column Name: Choose a clear and concise name that reflects the specific data point you want to collect. This makes it easier for AI to understand and populate the relevant information.

    • Examples:

      • "Company Name" for the company's full legal name

      • "Recent Funding Round" for the latest investment stage

      • "Contact Email" for a designated person’s email address

  • Column Type: Select the format of the data you want to capture. Ottogrid offers various data types, such as:

    • Single-line text: For short entries (e.g., job title, company name)

    • Long text: For more detailed information (e.g., company description)

    • URL: For web addresses (e.g., LinkedIn profile, company website)

    • File: For uploading documents, PDFs, or images

    • Single-select: Choose one option from a predefined list (e.g., industry)

    • Multi-select: Select multiple options (e.g., product categories)

    • Number: For numerical data (e.g., employee count, revenue)

    • Date: For capturing dates (e.g., founding date, event date)

These column types allow you to structure your data in a way that fits your analysis goals.

AI Settings and Tools

Ottogrid’s AI capabilities bring your columns to life, enabling them to automatically gather and enrich data based on your specific needs.

  • AI Toggle:

    • On: The AI will actively populate data for this column using selected tools.

    • Off: You can enter data manually, giving you control over inputs, especially useful for custom fields.

  • Tools Available When AI Is On:

    • Web Search: Extracts data from websites based on your prompt.

    • Enrich Company/Person: Leverages APIs like Crunchbase, Apollo, proxycurl to provide structured data.

    • Scrape URL: Pulls specific information from a given URL.

    • File Analysis: Extracts information directly from uploaded files (e.g., PDFs, images, text files) related to your entities, making it easy to populate columns with data that lives inside documents.

    • Instructions Only: Synthesizes an answer using a Large Language Model (LLM) based solely on inputs from other columns. This tool is perfect for generating summaries, performing analysis, or crafting text content based on existing data in your table.

These tools allow you to harness the full power of AI to extract, synthesize, and enrich data, turning your Ottogrid tables into dynamic sources of actionable insights.

Main Entity Column vs. Other Columns

  • Main Entity Column: This is your primary column and represents the main subject you’re researching (e.g., "Company Name" for company data). It’s typically configured as a "Single-line text," "Long text," "file," or "URL" type.

  • Other Columns: You have complete flexibility to choose any of the available column types, enabling you to capture a wide variety of data points related to your main entity.

Column Dependencies and Inputs

  • Inputs: Connect columns to provide context to the AI. By selecting other columns as inputs, you guide the AI to use this data when generating outputs, allowing for more accurate and personalized results. This feature is particularly useful for establishing relationships between different data points in your table.

Additional Features

  • Rerun Column: Trigger the AI to update its analysis for a specific column, ensuring your data is always up-to-date.

  • Hide Column: Temporarily hide a column from view without deleting it, keeping your workspace clean and focused.

From Basic Building Blocks to Powerful Insights

By understanding how to create and configure columns effectively, you can transform Ottogrid into a powerful data analysis tool tailored to your unique needs. Explore the upcoming subpages to learn more about specific column types, tools, dependencies, and how to craft effective prompts to maximize the value of your data.