While there are many different column types you can create in your Coda table, the People column is a particularly useful one. People columns contain auto-populated lists of the people in your doc and the folder it lives in. In other words, you'll see all individuals who have access to your doc as selectable choices.

People columns come in handy when you want to build team tables, assign tasks to teammates, designate owners or subject matter experts - and much more. You can even enable notifications for people columns, so individuals will be notified when you add them to a table. Read on to learn more!

Create a people column

To create a people column, start by adding a new column to your table. In the upper right corner of your table, click on the + add column button. Then, set the column type to People.

If you already have a column that you want to convert to a People column, just right-click on the column header, select Change column type, then choose the People column type.

Now you can simply click into the cells of that column, and a dropdown of selectable people will appear.

People list options

How does the list of users get into the dropdown? This depends largely on who has access to your doc and which folder your doc lives in.

MyDocs folder: The MyDocs folder is your personal folder that you get when you are added to a workspace. This is a private folder that others in the workspace cannot see by default. If you explicitly share a doc from the MyDocs folder with someone (by inviting them to them to the doc), then that person will now appear in the dropdown list.
Other folders: If the doc is in any other workspace folder, then the people list comes from the members that have joined that folder. You will also see any additional people that have been explicitly added to the doc through the sharing dialog.

ℹ️ Learn more about folders here.

Add selectable people

As you look at the people column dropdown, you may decide you want add additional options to the list. To do so, click into a cell of your people column to open the dropdown. At the bottom, you’ll see an +Invite person person option and a more results option.

Use the +Invite person option to invite someone new to the doc. The sharing dialogue will open to facilitate this (click here for a refresher on sharing docs). Once you’ve invited them, they will appear in the people list.
Use the More results option to browse through people in your Coda workspace and in other apps you may have connected, such as Slack, Google, or Outlook*. If you add someone from these sections, they will be added to your people dropdown but they won’t necessarily be invited to the doc (nor will they be notified) unless you also share the doc with them.
- *You can confirm which apps are connected by going to coda.io/account and checking the Other integrations section.

Remove selectable people

If you want to remove people from the dropdown list of a people column, you can right click their entry and select Remove from list.

You can only remove people who haven’t been explicitly added to the doc. For instance, if you’ve directly invited a specific individual to the doc, you won’t be able to remove them from the people list. So to remove someone, you’ll need to make sure they do not have access to the doc, are not referenced anywhere in the doc, and are not a member of the folder the doc lives in.

People column options

The people column format has a few options to customize your column. To open and adjust these options, right click on the column header and select column options. You’ll see the following column settings:

Allow multiple selections: Toggle on if you wish to select more than one person per cell.
Notify when added: When this is toggled on, people will receive a notification any time you add them to the table. This is toggled off by default.
Subscribe to comments: This setting ensures that people will be notified for any comments made on a row that they’ve been added to. This setting is toggled on by default.
Display avatar only: Toggle this on to hide the person’s name and show only their avatar in the table. This is great for keeping your table clean and reducing visual noise.

FAQs

Why can’t I remove someone as a selectable option in a People column?

Confirm that the doc is not shared with that user, and that there are no references to that user anywhere in the doc. The easiest way to check for references to a person is to search for them in the doc’s search bar.

Does adding someone to the people column also share the doc with them?

No - if you add someone without doc access to your people column, this won't share the doc with them, nor will it notify them. To share the doc with then, you must explicitly give them access via normal sharing methods.

I’m seeing fake people I don’t know, or people who work at Coda in my people column dropdown. Why?

You might see people affiliated with Coda if you’ve shared your doc with support. Unless you are actively troubleshooting a ticket with support, feel free to remove any references to Codans and unshare your doc with support, and these people should be removed.

What other information does a people column contain?

When you add someone to a people column, you aren't just adding their name. You're adding a rich reference that contains a few pieces of data about the person. This includes their name, their Coda avatar, and their Coda email. You can even use formulas to extract specific pieces of information, such as emails, from a people column.