# Dashboard Designer

Dashboards are a way to combine a several related reports into one unified viewing space. You can add preexisting reports to a dashboard, but you can also create new ExpressViews and Visualizations directly in the dashboard itself. You can also add images, text, and embed other web sites side by side with your data. And you can add interactive filters which can work on multiple reports all at once.

The Dashboard Designer

Double-click a dashboard to open it in the Dashboard Designer, or click the Menu icon and select Edit.

For more information about the types of content that can be added to a dashboard, see the following links:

## Adding Reports • ExpressView Visualizations • Interactive Filters

# Grid and tiles

Each element on a dashboard is a rectangular tile that can be resized and dragged to the proper location. Tiles are arranged onto a grid, and they will snap into place next to each other.

Adding tiles

To add a new tile to the dashboard, drag the New Tile icon onto the dashboard grid. You can drag to an empty location to fill the space, to the side of an empty location to take up a portion of the space, or over another tile to place it adjacent and resize the other tile to fit. You can then drag the resizing handles for fine grained control over the tile size.

A new tile placeholder will be added. Select what type of content should be on the tile:

New Visualization

Create a new ExpressView visualization right in the tile. Choose between a chart or a tabular ExpressView. See ExpressView Visualizations for more information.

URL

Embed another web page inside the dashboard. Enter the URL, or web address, to the web page.

> Caution: Some web pages may not be embeddable.

Image

Upload an image from your computer. Drag the image onto the tile or click browse your files and locate the image.

Text

Enter text into a field that can be formatted and styled.

Filter

Add several styles of interactive filters, which can affect multiple reports on the dashboard. See Interactive Filters for more information.

Existing Report

Drag an existing report onto the tile. See Adding Reports for more information.

## Screen fit and scaling

Tiles can resize and adjust their positions automatically to fit different screen sizes. A dashboard can resize to fit on a very large television, or on a very small smartphone screen, so you do not need to make multiple dashboards for different sizes.

You can customize how dashboards will scale to fit different screen sizes. Click the format icon to open the Dashboard Format pane. The following Canvas Fit options are available:

All

Tiles will resize to fit the height and width of the screen (default).

Width

Tiles will resize to fit the width of the screen. Specify the Height of the dashboard.

None

Tiles will not resize. Specify the Height and Width of the dashboard.

Use the Snap to Grid icon to choose if tiles should snap to the grid lines.

Tip: Older dashboards default to Canvas Fit: None and snapping off.

You can also use the Dashboard Format pane to set the default options for the dashboard background color, tile and tile header background colors, and tile border colors and widths. These settings can be overridden for individual tiles.

# Managing tiles

Every tile has a formatted header, background color and border. Some types of tiles can be set to resize differently than the dashboard canvas. And tiles have a menu with some additional options.

Tile menu

Select a tile, then click the tile menu icon to access some additional options for managing tiles.

You can Delete a tile from the dashboard. You can Copy a tile then Paste it next to another. You can Expand a tile to temporarily fill the screen, then Collapse it back into place. And you can Refresh the data in Reports and Visualizations.

ExpressView visualizations can be saved as new ExpressViews by clicking Save as ExpressView. You will be asked to name the report, then taken into the ExpressView Designer.

Tile style

Select a tile, then click the Style tab to access the options for changing its appearance.

Click Tile Fit to choose how the tile scales to fit the screen. This option is not available for Filters or ExpressView Visualizations.

Click Tile Header to add header text to the tile. Then choose the text font and formatting.

Click Background and Border to change the background color of the tile and tile header, and the border color and style.

More information

See Adding Reports, ExpressView Visualizations, and Interactive Filters for more information about their unique features and options.