With our sync pages feature, you can insert pages, or even entire docs, from one Coda doc into another - then edit content from either end.
Adding sync pages to your Coda doc allows for more versatility, customization, and convenience. Sync pages break down knowledge silos by allowing you to multi-home the content your team uses most in the docs they live in. This means your team won’t have to open another tab to see that brief or status report from another doc, as they can view and even interact with it right in your doc. Sync pages also allow you to share individual pages with the right people, without giving them access to the entire doc.
📣 Looking for more info on your options for syncing data in and out of Coda? Check out this high-level guide to learn more.
Within this article, you’ll find...
Add a sync page
You can create a new sync page by linking to a page in another Coda doc, or picking one from the Browse docs tab. For instance, your team might work out of one doc in Coda but consistently need to reference context from a page in another doc shared by your collaborators. Adding it as a sync page can give your team all the context they need to complete a workflow from start to finish, without constant tab and context switching.
To get started with adding a sync page to your doc, just follow these steps:
Open the doc that you want to add a sync page to.
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At the bottom of your page list (left side of your doc), click on the dropdown (v icon) next to New page. If your page list is collapsed, hover your mouse in the bottom left corner and wait for this to appear. Select New sync page from the options.
Alternatively, you can click the three horizontal dot menu ( ... ) next to the name of an existing page, then choose Add page > New sync page.
You can then either paste the link to the page you want to sync in. Or you can click the Browse docs option to find the doc in question and choose the desired page from that doc.
If the page you’ve chosen includes subpages, you’ll see an Include subpages toggle. Toggle this setting on to also sync in the subpages.
Finally, click Create.
Sync full docs
In addition to syncing single pages or pages with subpages, you can also use this feature to sync entire docs.
To sync full docs, follow the steps in the section above through step #3. Once you've browsed for and selected the doc you'd like to sync in, you should see an Entire doc toggle near the title of your selected doc. Toggle this option on, then hit Create.
Sync page access options
ℹ️ Note that the following information only applies to sync pages, and does not apply to full docs that have been synced. If you want to grant everyone in the container doc access to the full source doc, simply share the source doc with them directly.
It’s important to understand how page access works when syncing pages from one doc to another - especially if people have different types of access to the two docs.
When you add a sync page from one Coda doc (we’ll call the “source doc”) into another doc (we’ll call the “container doc”), you can choose between two types of access to this sync page:
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Allow only those with access to the source doc to view/edit the sync page in the container doc. This is the default setting when you first create a sync page. This means that if someone has view access to the source doc, then they can view the sync page content. If someone has edit access to the source doc, then they can edit the sync page content. And if someone has no access to the source doc, they will have not be able to see or edit the sync page content.
Some edit actions are limited on sync pages. Editors can use buttons, controls and forms, change table values, add and delete rows, and edit page text.
Allow everyone in the container doc to view the sync page, regardless of their access to the source doc. This means that everyone in the container doc can view (but not edit) the sync page, regardless of whether they have access to the source doc. To maintain security and privacy of the source doc, we will filter down the data to show only what’s absolutely necessary to display the sync pages.
Change sync page access
You can change the access option for sync pages at any time. To do so, just follow these steps:
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Find the sync page in your page list (on the left side of your doc), and click on the three dot menu ( ... ) next to the page name. Select Sync page options
Alternatively, just click the icon in the upper right corner, showing a page with a small gear symbol.
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The Sync Page Options panel will open on the right. Under Who can access this sync page?, click into the drop-down and choose your desired access option.
Choose between Everyone in this doc and Only people with source doc access
Click Continue to confirm.
Manage pages synced out from source docs
Want to keep tabs on whether any pages from your doc are being synced out to other docs? No problem. You can do this by clicking on Share in the upper right corner of your doc. If any pages have been synced out of this doc, you will see an alert that “Some pages are synced in other docs.” To learn more, click on Manage to the right of this alert.
This will open a menu on the right that shows you all docs that have sync pages from your current doc. You can use the This page and All pages tabs to learn more about which pages have been synced out. You can hover over any doc you see listed here, and this will reveal details about who created the sync pages and when they were created.
Note that only sync pages which have been made accessible to Everyone in this doc (per the section above) will appear here. Sync pages that are only accessible by Only people with source doc access will not be included.
If you’d like to remove sync page access from any of the docs you see here, simply use the Remove access button.
📣 Org admins on our Enterprise plan have an even more comprehensive view of pages being synced in and out of docs. In the Org Docs Dashboard, you can see the number of Synced pages (in) and Synced pages (out) for each doc in your org. You can even access the same sync pages management menu described above from this dashboard. Just click on the three dot menu to the far right of the doc and select Update access. This will open the Share dialog for that doc, where you can look for any alerts about pages being synced into other docs, and click Manage to learn more.
FAQs
If I add a sync page from another Coda doc in my current doc, will that page be editable?
The answer depends on the option that you’ve selected for the sync page access. If you’ve chosen the default Only people with source doc access option, then anyone with edit access to the source doc can also edit the sync page content directly.
If you’ve chosen the Everyone in this doc option, then no one in the container doc will be able to edit the sync page directly. Anyone who wants to edit this content will have to do it directly via the source doc.
If I have edit access to the source doc, should I be able to edit the content of a sync page?
This depends on the access settings for the sync page. If the sync page access is set to Only people with source doc access, then you should be able to edit the sync page content directly. However, if the sync page access is set to Everyone in this doc, then you will only be able to view the sync page. You will need to go directly to the source doc if you wish to make edits.
Check out the section above to learn more about sync page access options.
Note that some edit actions are limited on sync pages. Editors can use buttons, controls and forms, change table values, add and delete rows, and edit page text.
How can I tell if pages from my doc are being synced out to other docs?
We’ve built tools to help you view and manage pages being synced out from your doc. Check out the Manage pages synced out from source docs section above.
Instead of syncing pages, can I share just specific pages?
At this time, the best way to share only specific pages is to use this sync page feature. This will allow you to pull out pages into a separate doc, and share that separate doc as needed - without needing to grant full access to the original doc. Check out the section above on sync page access options to learn more.
Why am I seeing an error message on my sync page that says “access removed from source”?
Source doc users have the option to remove access to sync pages via the source doc, as explained in the section above. When someone removes sync page access via the source doc, you will see this error message. To resolve this, we recommend re-creating the sync page.
Do sync pages preserve locking settings from the source doc?
Yes. If your source doc or page has locking applied, this locking will be preserved when you add the sync page to another Coda doc. When viewing the sync page, you'll see a locking icon that indicates the page is locked. In order to unlock the page, you'll need to open up the source doc and adjust the locking settings there. You will not be able to unlock or change locking settings from the container doc.
Do sync pages keep the same page names between the container and source doc?
For the top level sync page, it does not stay in sync with the source doc. The top level sync page name by default is copied from the source doc, after which changes to that page name won’t sync to the source doc and vice versa.
If you sync a single page, you can always update the container doc page name and it’ll be different from what you see when you select the page on the canvas.
If you sync pages with subpages...
You can always update the container doc page name and it’ll be different from what you see when you select the page on the canvas.
You can’t update any of the subpage names and they are always in sync with the source doc.
This means, if you want to update the page names on the canvas and for subpages, you can only do this from the source doc.
Can I sync in pages from docs in other workspaces?
Yes - you can sync in pages from any Coda doc that you have access to, even if it lives in another workspace.
If I sync in an entire doc, will hidden pages from that source doc also be synced in?
No - any hidden pages in the source doc will not be included when you sync in an entire doc. Only visible pages are synced into the container doc.
How do sync pages impact performance?
The impact of loading sync pages is similar to having browser tabs, with the caveat that we’re more intentional how much memory we use by applying the rules below.
We only load the sync page once you select or interact with you e.g., click into it to load the content, until then it's not loaded. So, if you have 100 sync pages, it won’t load any of them until you access them.
We keep the last 5 sync pages you've viewed in a cache on desktop, so you can quickly switch back and forth, and don't cache at all on mobile due to memory pressure.
We remove any cached sync page that you haven’t not looked at or is in the background from cache after ~4 hours.
Finally, each sync page is counted as one page in the container doc (no matter if it has subpages included or not), and its tables or views don't count for the number of tables or views in the container doc.
Will deleting a sync page also delete the source page?
No, if you delete a sync page in a container doc, it will not affect the source page or doc.
If I add a sync page with subpages, can I @ mention those subpages in the "container doc"?
Not at the moment. Currently, you can only reference sync page items like tables, people references, and subpages, on the sync page or synced subpages, not within the "container doc."
Will sync pages work on docs published on a custom domain?
Currently, sync pages are not supported when publishing on a custom domain. However, sync pages should still function on standard published docs (published via Coda).
What happens to the sync page if someone copies the container doc?
If you've added a sync page to a container doc, and that container doc is then copied, the sync page will also copy over to the new doc. One thing to note is that the sync page access setting will automatically be set or reset to Only people with source doc access in the newly created doc. You can then choose to change it to Everyone in the doc, if needed.
Related resources
Sync guide: Sync everything into Coda, and back out again.