The problem posted by henrikgreger captures something fundamental about how traditional spreadsheets hold users back. You have a single file, multiple data sheets, one overview sheet, and a simple need: filter every table by the same identifier and see the overview recalculate instantly. That should not be a puzzle. Yet it is, because the tools most people rely on were designed for isolated cells, not connected datasets.
What henrikgreger is describing is a cross-sheet filter that respects relationships between tables. In a standard spreadsheet, filters apply to one sheet at a time. To replicate the effect, you would have to manually copy filtered rows from each sheet into a consolidation sheet, or write complex array formulas that break when data shifts, or resort to scripting that most users never learn. None of those are elegant. None of them preserve the overview as a living, reactive view of the filtered data. The user is left managing workarounds instead of focusing on the analysis itself.
This is where an AI-native approach changes the equation. When a spreadsheet understands that each data sheet is a table with a shared identifier column, and that the overview sheet depends on those tables, the filter becomes a single action applied at the data model level. You define the identifier once, apply the filter, and every dependent calculation updates automatically. No manual copying. No fragile formulas. No losing your overview because you had to break it apart to filter each sheet individually. The logic is human: you ask for the data that matters, and the tool respects the structure you already built.
Our view is that this friction is not a limitation of your data, it is a limitation of the tool. The solution henrikgreger needs already exists in tools that treat spreadsheets as interconnected datasets rather than grids of independent cells. If you are maintaining a multi-sheet workbook where filtering one identifier should ripple through every calculation, demand a tool that works the way your thinking does. The overview should never be sacrificed for the filter.