12 min read

Preparing your doc for a new owner

You’ve built an awesome doc that has helped you or your team, but now it must now live on without you. Here are our recommendations for a smooth transition to the new owner.

What you'll get:

Checklist and steps
How to organize your doc
Preventing broken docs

What you'll use:

Your workspace
Doc settings
Share settings

When you are no longer a Doc Maker (whether it is because you have left your company or your license has been downgraded to editor), your owned docs become read-only. If you’ve built a doc that your team relies on, we recommend transferring that doc before it becomes read-only to avoid any possible disruption. Your public docs (docs in public folders) or docs that were shared with at least one other person will be available for admins to transfer to the new doc owner. Any docs that were privately owned by you and not shared will be deleted.

Walkthrough from our Customer Success Team

Transfer checklist

Follow these steps to support the new doc owner with a smooth transition:

Identify which docs need to be transferred.
Create a back-end section for each doc.
Ensure all objects in the doc are properly named.
Find a new Doc Maker to take ownership of any automations, Pack connections and Cross-doc connections.
Transfer your doc via the home screen or from within the doc itself.
Share this guide with the new doc owner.

1. Identify docs

Within your workspace, click on the “Owned by me” tab to view all docs owned by you. Any doc that is actively used by other members of your team will need to be transferred to prevent that doc from becoming read-only.

2. Optimize doc organization.

Back-end

The back end is a section of your doc that houses your “base” tables - tables with (generally) no filtering, sorting, grouping, or formatting. You should set this up if you have not already. You can manipulate these tables in other areas in your doc using views that show users exactly the information they want to see, in the way that makes the most sense. The back end will help the new doc owner more easily understand what data is available within the doc, and whether that information is coming from an external source (for example another Coda doc, or a Pack), or lives only within the doc itself. Learn more about back-end setups.

Naming

When you are in the flow of building a doc, it’s easy to forget to name tables, buttons, and controls. Before transferring the doc to a new owner, we recommend going through each object and making sure it has a descriptive name. This will not only help the new doc owner understand what is available in the doc, but also any future user who may be troubleshooting the doc or trying to set up a new reference. Learn more about the doc map.

3. Prevent broken automations.

Automations

When you build an automation, you have the option to take actions as the Automation Bot (default) or take actions as yourself. Any automations that are set to take actions as yourself will break if you are no longer a Coda user. You’ll want to make sure you update these to be “Automation Bot” or have another doc maker in the doc copy the automation and set it to take actions as themselves (they will not be able to update the existing automation). If your automation is triggering an action to be taken by a Pack, you cannot use the Automation Bot. Instead, the new doc owner will need to set up the Pack connection under their account and then copy the automation and set it to take actions as themselves.

4. Adjust Pack settings

When you leave, any Packs that have been connected to the doc via your login credentials will no longer work. This means data won’t sync in or out of the doc.

Settings

First, within Pack settings, check to see what shared accounts are set up for each Pack. If you have the only shared account, you’ll want to get another Doc Maker - who has the same (or better) access to the tool - add their credentials as a shared account. Learn more.

Pack buttons

Any buttons that trigger doc actions will need to be updated to be set as “user’s private account”, or set to a shared account that isn’t yours. When possible, we recommend selecting “user’s private account” - as it means any data pushed to the tool will be logged as the user who pushed the button, rather than whoever owns the shared account. Learn more.

Cross-docs

Similar to Packs, Cross-doc connections that are set up via your login credentials will no longer work.

Cross-doc settings

First, within Cross-doc settings, take note of the access level, then disconnect your account and, if available, have the next doc owner set up their own API connection matching your settings.

Cross-doc buttons

Any buttons that trigger doc actions will need to be updated to be set as “user’s private account”, or set to a shared account that isn’t yours. When possible, we recommend selecting “user’s private account” - as it means any data pushed to the doc will be logged as the user who pushed the button, rather than whoever owns the shared Cross-doc connection. Learn more.

5. Transfer your doc

There are two ways to transfer your doc to a new owner: within the workspace home, and within the doc itself. You can only transfer docs to an individual with a Doc Maker license.

Within the doc

Click “Share” in the top right of the doc. From here, you can update the access of the new doc owner to “owner”. Learn more.

Within workspace home

From the workspace home screen, click the three dots to the left of an owned doc, and click “Share settings”. From here, you can update the access of the new doc owner to “owner”.

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