Bix, your offline assistant
Ask Bix to query, filter, clean, chart or export in plain words. Bix runs entirely on your computer, so your data never leaves it.
Bix is the assistant built into BigXL. You type what you want in everyday words and Bix does it, instead of you searching through menus or writing SQL. It saves time, and it is a good way to discover what BigXL can do.
Opening Bix
Click Bix in the top toolbar, or click Ask about this file at the bottom of the window. You can also press Cmd+J (Ctrl+J on Windows and Linux). Bix opens as a floating panel that you can drag anywhere and resize.
What Bix does
Type a question or an instruction. Bix works out what you mean, runs the right action and shows you the result straight away.
Here are things you can ask:
- Total sales by region: runs a query and shows a table of results.
- Show people earning over 80000: filters your current view.
- Chart revenue by month: builds a chart.
- What does this file contain?: gives an overview of the columns and data.
- Split the address column by comma: opens the column split.
- Export as Excel: starts an export to an Excel file.
- Remove duplicates by email: opens the duplicate tool.
- Fill down the department column: fills empty cells with the value above.
- Colour the rows where salary is over 100000 in blue: adds a colour. “Remove the colours” takes them off.
- Remove near duplicate rows: opens the near repeats tab. Nothing is removed until you confirm.
- Search all files for Smith: opens search across files with the word typed in.
- Show the quality of each column: turns on the quality bars.
Bix’s faces
Bix’s face in the panel title shows what it is doing, so you always know whether it is working, waiting for you, or finished.
- Sleepy, with a “z”: Bix is starting up. This happens the first time you open it, or after it has been resting.
- Eyes open, smiling: ready for your question.
- Looking at what you type: listening while you write.
- Thinking dots: working on your question.
- A drop of sweat: the question is taking a while. Large files can need a few more seconds.
- Happy, closed eyes: here is your answer.
- Happy with a sparkle: Bix made you a chart.
- Raised eyebrows: there is a preview to check. Review it, then apply the step.
- A wink and a green tick: the step is done. It is on the timeline, so you can undo it.
- A tilted, wavy face: Bix did not understand. Try other words or name the column.
- Flat eyes: you stopped the question.
- Crossed eyes: something went wrong. The message under the question says what.
How it works
Bix runs a small language model entirely on your own hardware. It uses Apple Metal on a Mac, NVIDIA CUDA on supported graphics cards, or your processor. Your file, your question and your data are never sent to any server.
That means Bix works without an internet connection. BigXL first tries to match your question with fast pattern matching. If that does not settle it, the local language model works out the answer.
You can see what Bix did
Every answer comes with a plain explanation, the result table if there is one, and the exact SQL or action that was used. Open Show the query to see it.
If Bix gets something wrong, you can see exactly what it did and correct it. You can also edit the SQL yourself and run it again.
What Bix can do for you
- Queries and totals: shown as tables. See Formulas.
- Charts: a quick picture of your data.
- Filters: hide the rows you do not need.
- Exports: save your work to disk.
- Cleaning: splits, date formats, merging similar spellings, tidying emails.
- Fill down: copy values into empty cells.
- Joins and pivots: combine or reshape data. See Join.
- Find and replace: change values across the sheet.
- Redaction: hide personal details.
- Force to numbers: fix text that should be a number.
Getting good answers
Start broad, for example “what does this file contain”, and narrow down from there. Use the exact column name when you know it, like “average of revenue by country”.
Be specific about what you want to see, for example “top 10 products by total sales”. If Bix gets it wrong, rephrase or add a detail.
Memory
The language model needs memory to run. When you have not used Bix for a while and the app is idle or minimised, BigXL frees that memory for your other programs. Bix wakes up again the next time you open it.