# Computer Use

> Let Dvina click, type, read and compare in a browser and in apps until the job is done, while you step in only for what's yours to decide.

Dvina uses a browser and a computer the way you do. It clicks, types, reads and compares until the job is done, and you step in only for what's yours to decide.

## How it works

Ask for a job that takes clicking, like checking every August weekend at three campgrounds for an open site, or copying new inquiries into a bookings sheet. Dvina picks where to work:

- **Dvina's browser:** A browser of its own that works from any screen, with nothing to install.
- **Dvina's computer:** A computer of its own, where it can make sheets, docs and slides in real office apps, ready to open and download.
- **Your computer:** With the desktop app, Dvina can use the apps on your Mac, or its browser on your Windows PC.

Searching and ordinary clicks just happen. Your personal details, sending, paying and deleting wait for your OK, every time.

## Watch Dvina work

Dvina's browser and computer show live in the chat, with its pointer and every click on the page. Choose **Watch large** to see it bigger.

Under the page, a timeline has one mark per step. Pick a mark to see that step's picture, then choose **Back to live** to return. A picture of every step is kept for 30 days, and what Dvina made lands in your Library.

## Take over

You can step in anytime.

1. Choose **Take over**. Your clicks, scrolls and keys now go to the page or the computer, and Dvina waits.
2. When you're done, choose **Hand back**. Dvina carries on from there.

## Let Dvina use your Mac

On your Mac, Dvina works in your apps while you keep working in yours. Its clicks go to the app, never your pointer, and its bar says **Dvina is using your Mac**.

1. The first time, Dvina asks to **Let Dvina use your Mac**. Choose **Open Settings**, then turn on Dvina under **Accessibility** and **Screen Recording**. If Dvina asks, choose **Restart Dvina**.
2. The first time Dvina uses an app in a chat, it asks you, for example **Let Dvina use Numbers in this chat?** Choose **Allow** or **Reject**.

Dvina asks for each permission when you first use what needs it. To change them later, use your system's settings.

### When a permission is missing

If Dvina needs a permission you haven't turned on, it says so right away, in the chat and in [Quick Entry](/docs/use-dvina/features/quick-entry), for example **Screen Recording permission needed** or **Accessibility permission needed**. Choose **Open Settings** to go straight to that permission in System Settings, then turn on Dvina in the list.

Screen Recording starts working after a restart. If Dvina asks, choose **Restart Dvina**.

### See your permissions

Go to Settings › **Privacy & Data**. Under **This computer**, you see each permission as your system has it now:

- **Accessibility**, **Screen Recording**, **Microphone** and **Notifications** on a Mac.
- **Microphone** on Windows.

Each one says **On**, **Off** or **Not asked yet**, and notifications can say **Delivered quietly**. Choose one to open it in your system's settings. Just turned on Screen Recording? Choose **Restart Dvina**.

## Work in your Mac's own apps

In some apps, Dvina works through each app's own automation instead of using the screen. There's no clicking and nothing to watch, and you keep working while it's done.

::: tabs

=== Mac

- **Notes:** Make a note, add to a note, search your notes and read one.
- **Reminders:** Add a reminder.
- **Calendar:** Add an event.
- **Word:** Read the open document and what you selected in it, write at the cursor or at the end, make a new document and save it as a PDF.
- **Excel:** See your open workbooks and their sheets, read and write cells, and make a new workbook.
- **PowerPoint:** Read a presentation's slides, add a slide with a title and bullets, and save it as a PDF.
- **Your browser:** In Safari, Chrome, Arc, Edge or Brave, whichever you used last, read the page you're on, what you selected on it and your open tabs, and open a page.
- **Shortcuts:** See your shortcuts and run one.

=== Windows

- **Word:** Read the open document and what you selected in it, write at the cursor or at the end, make a new document and save it as a PDF.
- **Excel:** See your open workbooks and their sheets, read and write cells, and make a new workbook.
- **PowerPoint:** Read a presentation's slides, add a slide with a title and bullets, and save it as a PDF.
- **Your browser:** In Edge or Chrome, see the tab you're on and its address, your open tabs and, where the browser shows it, what you selected, and open a page.

:::

Word, Excel and PowerPoint work when they're installed on your computer. Dvina reads the file you have open and doesn't open Office to read it. A new document or workbook opens in front of you, and saving never replaces a file that's already there.

### What asks first

Reading just happens: searching and reading notes, reading a document, cells or slides, reading your page and tabs, and listing your shortcuts.

Anything that writes waits for your OK: a new note or reminder, adding to a note, a new event, writing in Word or Excel, a new document, workbook or slide, saving as a PDF, opening a page and running a shortcut. The card shows the page's address or the shortcut's name. Choose **Allow** or **Reject**.

When you ask from [Quick Entry](/docs/use-dvina/features/quick-entry) without letting Dvina see your screen, reading your browser's page and tabs asks first too.

### Let Dvina control an app

On a Mac, the first time Dvina works in one of these apps, macOS asks whether Dvina may control it. Allow it to go on.

If it isn't allowed, Dvina says **Permission needed to use** the app, for example **Permission needed to use Notes**, and shows **Let Dvina use Notes**. Choose **Open Settings**. Under Dvina, turn on the app, then ask again.

When Dvina saves a file outside Office's own folders, Office may ask you to grant access to that folder.

### Follow each step

Each step shows in the chat under the app's name and what it does:

- **Notes · New note**, **Notes · Add to note**, **Notes · Search** and **Notes · Read note**
- **Reminders · New reminder** and **Calendar · New event**
- **Word · Read document**, **Word · Write**, **Word · New document** and **Word · Save as PDF**
- **Excel · Workbooks**, **Excel · Read cells**, **Excel · Write cells** and **Excel · New workbook**
- **PowerPoint · Read slides**, **PowerPoint · New slide** and **PowerPoint · Save as PDF**
- **Browser · This page**, **Browser · Read page**, **Browser · Tabs** and **Browser · Open page**
- **Shortcuts · List** and **Shortcuts · Run**

## Approve what matters

When a step needs you, the card says what Dvina wants to do and why, like **Act on this page?** with **Pays, asks every time** or **Enters your personal details**. Choose **Allow** or **Reject**. You can approve from your Lock Screen too.

## Stop Dvina

- **In the chat:** Choose **Stop** on the run.
- **On your Mac:** Press <kbd>⌥</kbd> <kbd>Esc</kbd> to pause. To stop, use Dvina's bar or the menu bar icon's menu, and choose **Stop**.
- **On Windows:** Press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> <kbd>Alt</kbd> <kbd>Esc</kbd> to pause.

A paused run waits until you choose **Carry on**.

## Choose where Dvina may act

In Dvina's browser, open the **Browser menu** and choose **Manage allowed sites…**. Add a site and choose **Allow** or **Block**. On a blocked site, Dvina stops and tells you; you can still browse it yourself.

## Import sign-ins from your browser

In the desktop app, Dvina's browser on your computer can use the sign-ins of a browser you already use, so it doesn't stop at a sign-in page.

1. In Dvina's browser, open the **Browser menu**. Under **Cookies**, choose **Import cookies…**.
2. Choose the browser to copy from.
3. Click **Import**. Dvina says how many cookies it imported.

The sign-ins are copied into Dvina's browser on this computer. Nothing is uploaded. macOS may ask once for your keychain password to read Chrome's cookies.

Imported sign-ins are used while **Keep cookies** is set to **Shared**. To choose how Dvina's browser keeps sign-ins, open the **Browser menu**, choose **Keep cookies**, then **Shared**, **Per chat** or **Don't keep**.

To sign out everywhere in Dvina's browser, choose **Clear browsing data…**. Cookies, site data and the cache of Dvina's browser are deleted, and you're signed out of every site in it.

## When to use

- The job is a lot of repetitive clicking, like checking availability across several sites.
- You need a spreadsheet, document or slides made in a real office app.
- You want Dvina to fill in a sheet on your Mac while you work on something else.

## Tips

- **Bring your sign-ins.** In the **Browser menu**, choose **Import cookies…** to copy the sign-ins of a browser on your computer into Dvina's browser. See [Import sign-ins from your browser](#import-sign-ins-from-your-browser).
- **Test your app.** Building an app? Dvina can test it in an iPhone simulator or an Android emulator, tapping through it the way your users will. Don't sign in to your real accounts on it, since Dvina sees its screen. See [Code](/docs/use-dvina/features/code#test-on-a-simulator-or-emulator).
- **Turn it into a routine.** Describe the job in plain language and turn it into a skill that runs on its own schedule and asks before it publishes.

## Related

- [Code](/docs/use-dvina/features/code)
- [Quick Entry](/docs/use-dvina/features/quick-entry)
- [Tasks](/docs/use-dvina/features/tasks)
- [Install](/docs/use-dvina/get-started/install)
- [Privacy and data](/docs/help/privacy-and-data)