# Soulver Studio

### What is Soulver Studio?

Soulver Studio is a feature that turns your Soulver sheets into stand-alone apps that can be installed on any Mac running macOS 12+.

<figure><img src="https://1915029247-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Lf0gWBnuB8M1SitWhyk%2Fuploads%2F9F0pHz6uv9oucwD8FFI2%2FSoulverStudio.png?alt=media&#x26;token=76e5c990-f5c1-4bfc-8133-c9c5b60e35aa" alt="Soulver Studio icons" width="375"><figcaption><p>7 fruity icons to choose from for your cool new calculator app</p></figcaption></figure>

### Why would I want to do this?

* Use Soulver Studio to share a sheet of calculations (presumably with some variables and line references) with people who don't have Soulver installed.
* You might use it as an alternative to sending someone an Excel/Numbers spreadsheet, for example.

### How do I use it?

1. Select a sheet and then go to the **Sheet** menu > **Build app from Sheet**.
2. Provide some details about your new app: give it a memorable name, set the version number (1.2.3, etc) and provide a unique identifier that will stay constant across new builds of your app (an identifier is required by macOS for all Mac apps).
3. Choose your preferred icon from 1 of 7 colorful options available.
4. Click **Upload and Build**.
5. Your new app will be ready for download in (typically) less than 5 minutes. It will be around 7 MB zipped, and 15 MB unzipped.

<figure><img src="https://1915029247-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Lf0gWBnuB8M1SitWhyk%2Fuploads%2FK7VCzTijnTT5eooQwLA9%2FScreenshot%202024-05-17%20at%203.06.18%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media&#x26;token=c6e3b82d-b808-4f0a-a335-fb6e46686d78" alt="Soulver Studio setup screen" width="563"><figcaption><p>It really is this easy to turn a Soulver sheet into a stand-alone app.</p></figcaption></figure>

### What happens after my sheet is uploaded?

* After your sheet is uploaded to our servers, it is turned into a Soulver-like Mac app.
* The app is then [sandboxed](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/app_sandbox/protecting_user_data_with_app_sandbox). Sandboxing is an optional security measure on macOS to makes apps technically unable to access your files (for extra peace-of-mind).&#x20;
* The app is then dispatched to Apple's for a process called [notarization](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution). This is a necessary step to make the app installable on other Macs (see [Gatekeeper](https://support.apple.com/guide/security/gatekeeper-and-runtime-protection-sec5599b66df/web)). It typically takes a few minutes, but can take up to an hour if Apple is having a busy day.
* Your app will be deleted from our servers within 24 hours of completion. If you want to share your app with others, you'll need to host it somewhere yourself.

### Limitations

* Soulver Studio apps cannot make new lines. We recommend you set up your sheets with variables & line references to make them useful as standalone apps.
* Soulver Studio apps cannot access live stock prices or do weather queries (but they do have access to live currency rates).
* We are limited by Apple to building [75 apps per day](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution/customizing_the_notarization_workflow#3561440). When this limit is reached, Soulver Studio will be unavailable for some period of time.