> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bagofwords.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# BOW for Excel

> Ask Bag of words questions from inside Excel and drop AI-generated results straight into cells

## Overview

Bag of words ships a built-in Excel add-in that runs entirely from your own instance. Users can ask BOW questions about their data from inside an Excel taskpane and paste AI-generated results directly into the spreadsheet — with headers, formatting, and borders applied automatically.

The add-in works in Excel for Windows, Excel for Mac, and Excel on the web.

## How It Works

Your BOW instance serves the add-in from two endpoints:

| Endpoint               | Description                                                                 |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `/excel/manifest.xml`  | The Office Add-in manifest, dynamically configured with your instance's URL |
| `/excel/taskpane.html` | The add-in UI that loads BOW inside Excel's task pane                       |

Icon assets are served from `/icons/excel/`. Because the manifest is generated per-instance, each BOW deployment hosts its own add-in — there's no central plugin catalog to register with.

## Setup

### 1. Download the Manifest

Go to **Settings** → **Integrations** → **Excel Add-in** and click **Download manifest.xml**.

### 2. Upload It in Excel

Open Excel (desktop or web), go to **Home** → **Add-ins** → **More Add-ins**, then click **Upload My Add-in** and pick the `manifest.xml` you just downloaded.

### 3. Open BOW from the Ribbon

A **BOW** button appears in the **Home** tab. Click it to open the taskpane and sign in with your normal BOW credentials.

## Tenant-wide Deployment

For organization-wide rollout, your Microsoft 365 admin can upload the manifest via **Admin Center** → **Settings** → **Integrated apps** — no per-user sideloading needed. Every user in the tenant gets the BOW button in their Excel ribbon automatically.

## What the Add-in Does

* **Opens BOW in Excel's side panel** — the full web app, embedded in the taskpane
* **Sends the current cell selection to BOW** for context-aware analysis
* **Pastes AI-generated results into the spreadsheet** with headers, formatting, and borders applied automatically

<Note>
  Users can override the BOW URL via the settings gear in the taskpane if they need to point the add-in at a different instance.
</Note>

## Configuration

The add-in reads `base_url` from your BOW config (`bow-config.yaml`) to generate all URLs in the manifest. No additional configuration is needed — deploy and go.