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How-to guides

Generating documents

Create Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files with OOMU's native document engines.

When OOMU produces a file, it does not hand a model a template and hope. Native Rust code builds the file from a structured model, then reopens the finished bytes and checks them before OOMU will say it is done. The Settings panel puts the rule in one line:

"{builder} · files are reopened before OOMU marks them complete."

What OOMU can build

Settings → Documents lists the four engines and whether each is available on this Mac. It checks by actually building a probe file and verifying it, so the status reflects reality rather than a compile-time flag.

FormatEngine
Microsoft Word (.docx)OOMU native document engine 1
Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)OOMU native document engine 1
Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx)OOMU native document engine 1
PDFOOMU native document engine 1

There is no dependency on Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, or a cloud service. The engines are part of OOMU.

Four ways to get a file

1. Ask in a chat

Ask for the document you want. When OOMU produces one, a Deliverables panel appears under the reply with the file and three actions:

Action
Open in {app}Open it in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Preview.
Reveal in FinderShow it on disk.
Copy filePut the actual file on your clipboard, ready to paste into an email.

2. Use a quick action

The five quick actions turn pasted text straight into a finished document. Each is bound in native code to exactly one format: Price List to Spreadsheet produces an Excel workbook, the other four produce Word documents.

3. Export from an analysis

Ask Documents and Comparison both export to Word, carrying their citations and redlines with them. See Analyzing documents.

4. Run a workflow

A saved workflow can include a Create document step.

The two rich compilers

Two capabilities exist specifically for business documents, and they behave differently from a generic text export.

Executive Word document

deliverables.export_executive_docx builds a structured Word document from sections (heading, body, and any tables) rather than a wall of prose. If you ask for a specific page count, the compiler shapes the sections to reach it instead of padding.

Financial Excel workbook

deliverables.export_financial_xlsx is the interesting one. It writes real formulas, not values that look like formulas.

OOMU normalizes the grid, then checks each requested formula against the data it references. A formula that does not agree with its own inputs is rejected. Trailing rows that merely restate a formula's result are removed, so you get a total that recalculates when you edit a cell, not a number that silently goes stale.

Formula content is also validated on the way in. Anything that would make Excel treat the cell as executable is refused at build time.

Verification, in detail

Every file goes through the same sequence before it is recorded:

  1. Build from the structured model.
  2. Verify the bytes. For Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, OOMU reopens the OOXML package and confirms the required parts are present and well-formed. For PDF, it checks the document structure.
  3. Record the artifact with its SHA-256, byte length, and verification state.
  4. Inspect it, producing counts and a preview.

If step 2 fails, no artifact is recorded and the chat says "OOMU couldn't verify that work as completed. Nothing unverified was reported as done."

AI provenance in Word and Excel files

Every DOCX and XLSX file OOMU generates carries three markers in its OOXML package properties:

PropertyValue
cp:categoryAI-Assisted Business Deliverable
OOMU_Generatedtrue
OOMU_GeneratorOOMU Desktop AI Assistant

This exists because a document produced with AI assistance should be identifiable as one, and the EU AI Act's Article 50(2) points at machine-readable marking as the way to do it.

It is metadata, not a watermark. Nothing is stamped across your text, nothing is appended to your spreadsheet, and a colleague opening the file sees the document you asked for. Anything that reads file properties can tell where it came from.

Three things worth knowing:

  • It does not travel through a rewrite. Save-as from another application, a conversion, or a copy-paste into a fresh file can drop it. Provenance metadata is a durable label, not a cryptographic seal.
  • It covers Word and Excel. PDF and PowerPoint output does not carry these properties in this build.
  • It does not discharge a disclosure obligation by itself. If your context requires telling a recipient that AI was involved, tell them. The metadata supports that statement; it does not replace it.

Documents, previews, and drift

The Documents tab (in the sidebar under Projects, and in every project workspace) lists what OOMU has created. Choose a file to see its preview.

Previews are rendered by macOS Quick Look and stored by content key. The record for each inspection keeps page count, sheet count, slide count, formula count, preview dimensions, and the SHA-256 of both the preview and the renderer that made it. No filesystem path is ever part of that record, so a preview cannot leak where a file lives.

Each artifact also carries a verification state:

StateMeaning
VerifiedThe file on disk still matches what OOMU recorded.
ChangedThe file has been edited since.
MissingThe file has been moved or deleted.

Add document brings an existing file into the Documents view so you can preview it alongside the rest.

Sending one

Send Draft… on a deliverable creates an email draft with the file attached, in either Apple Mail or Gmail.

OOMU creates a draft. It does not send. You review it in your own mail client and press send yourself.

If Gmail is not connected: "Connect Google Workspace in Connections & Apps to draft directly in Gmail." If macOS has not authorized Apple Mail automation: "Allow OOMU to control Apple Mail in System Settings, then try again."