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# Introduction

Welcome to the offical documentation pages for of [Celbridge](https://www.celbridge.org/), the free and open source community-driven Python and data pipline workbench application.

This page gives a broad overview of the workbench application and of this documentation,
so that you know where to start if you are a beginner or
where to look if you need information on a specific feature.

## Before you start

You can find help on the the Celbridge community [Discourse forum](https://celbridge.discourse.group/).

## About Celbridge

A multi-purpose workbench application is a complex tool and difficult to present in a few words. However, here are some of the key features of Celbridge:

- **File Explorer**
  : - you work with your own files, on your own computer, privately and securely.
- **Python**
  : - Celbridge allows you to speficy a Python version (and extensions) and uses UV to create a virtual machine to work within for your project.
- **Spreasdsheet Data**
  : - Celbridge allows you to work with Microsoft Excel file formats, with a full visual spreadsheet front-end (curtesy of SpreadJS), so you can edit and format your spreadsheets in a natural always.
- **Spreadsheet validation**
  : - a Python script can be set to run each time you make a change to a spreadsheet cell, automating spreadsheet validation/transformation.
- **Web Viewer**
  : - you can view and interact with web pages and webapps through files ending with `.webapp`, where you specify a URL and the built-in webview of Celbridge presents the interactive webpage you specify in the file properties.

## Organization of the documentation

This documentation is organized into several sections:

- **About**
  : contains this introduction as well as some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
- **Setting Up**
  : provides details about installing Celbridge on your computer.
- **Getting Started**
  : This {ref}`doc_getting_started` section is the best place to start, to get to know Celbridge.
- **Examples of use**
  : here several step-by-step tutorials are provided, illustrating several common Celbridge use-cases.
- **Community**
  : details of how to connect with the Celbridge community.

All documentation content is licensed under the permissive Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
([CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)) license,
with attribution to "*the Celbridge community*"
unless otherwise noted.

*Have fun with Celbridge!*