Build Dashboards

Exploring dashboards

The dashboards list, with search, certification filters and per-dashboard actions.

Everything on this page works with view access only — no edit rights needed. If you build dashboards, see Canvas basics instead.

The steps below were recorded in the product as the demo viewer account.

Enter your email address and password on the sign-in page, then choose Sign in.
Home opens after you sign in: ask a question about your data at the top, and continue with the dashboards you can open below.
The dashboard opens in the viewer: KPI cards above, charts below. This one is Retail Sales Overview.
In a phone browser the same dashboard stacks into a single column.

Browse and find dashboards

The library lists every dashboard you can open. Search, sort, filter, and switch between grid and list.

Choose Dashboards in the sidebar. The library shows every dashboard you can open, each with a small sketch of its layout.
Choose List view for a compact table, or Grid view to go back to cards.
Type in Search dashboards to narrow the library by name.
Use Sort dashboards to order by most recently updated, name, or the number of cards.
Choose Filter to show only certified, published or draft dashboards, or dashboards changed in the last 7 or 30 days.
Select a dashboard to open it in the viewer.

The viewer header

A dashboard opens with one row of actions. Export sits beside Share; Filters opens the filters pane.

A dashboard opens with one row at the top: Back to dashboards, the title, and the actions on the right. The cards fill the rest of the page.
Choose Filters to open the filters pane beside the cards. Changes apply to your view only.
Choose Export to download the dashboard as PDF, PowerPoint, CSV or PNG. It sits beside Share in the same row.
Ask AI opens the assistant with this dashboard as its context. Share and Edit appear here too when your role allows them.

Favorite a dashboard

Starring a dashboard adds it to Favorites on Home and to Favorites in the sidebar.

Select the star on a dashboard, in the library or on Home.
The star turns solid and the dashboard is added under Favorites in the sidebar, so it is one click away from any page.
Select the star again to remove the dashboard from your favorites and from Pinned.

Explore or personalize one card

Each card has its own tools. Personalizing a visual changes it for you only; see Focus and full screen for the full-size view.

Point at a card to see its tools in the top right corner: Personalize, Expand, Show underlying data, copy as image and download.
Choose Expand to focus on one card at full size. Press Escape to return to the dashboard.
Choose Show underlying data to see the rows behind the card as a table.
Choose Personalize to change how this card looks for you: its Chart type, the field on the axis and the measures. Nobody else sees your changes.

Comment on a dashboard

Comments belong to the dashboard, so everyone who can open it can read them. Mention a teammate to notify them.

Choose the More dashboard controls button (the three dots) in the header, then Comments.
The comments pane opens on the right. Comments belong to the dashboard, so everyone who can open it can read them.
Type your comment. Use Mention a teammate to notify someone by name.
Choose Post comment. Your comment appears in the thread, with the time it was posted.

The Dashboards page

When you open Dashboards, the library gives you quick access to all dashboards accessible to your account:

Scopes and stats

Scope toggle — switch between All accessible and Shared with me (dashboards specifically granted to you).
Live stats strip — view metrics for Total accessible, Favorites loaded, Shared with me, and Updated in the last 7 days.

Searching, filtering, and sorting

Search — filter dashboards in real-time by title or description.
Favorites toggle — filter to starred dashboards. Favorites are stored on your account and stay in sync across all your browsers and devices.
Publication facet — filter by All, Published, or Draft.
Certification facet — filter by All, Certified, or Standard.
Updated facet — filter by Any time, Last 7 days, or Last 30 days.
Sorting — sort by Recently updated, Name (A-Z), or Most cards.
Grid and List views — switch between visual card thumbnails and a compact tabular list view.

Dashboard actions

Depending on your permissions, the ••• action menu on each dashboard item offers:

Edit dashboard (requires editor permission).
Duplicate dashboard (creates a personal copy).
Export definition (downloads the complete dashboard .json schema).
Import definition (available via the Import button in the header to upload a .json schema).
Move to Recovery Center (with confirmation: the dashboard moves to the Recovery Center). It needs the delete permission, except for a draft you created and never touched — an Untitled Dashboard with no cards, filters or description that was never published, which you can always delete. See Drafts nobody touched.

The header

Next to the dashboard’s title sit its actions: Filters, Ask AI, Share, Full screen and Edit (when you have those permissions), and More (⋯). More is a menu — open it with a click, or from the keyboard with Enter or ↓; arrow keys move through it, and Esc closes it and puts you back on the button. It holds:

Explore — Comments (and, in the narrow layout, the drill controls).
View — High contrast.
Auto refresh — Off, or every 30 seconds, minute, 5 or 15 minutes.
Export — PDF, PowerPoint, CSV and PNG.

The header lays itself out by the space the dashboard actually has, not by the size of your screen — with the sidebar open, a laptop can get the compact layout:

Wide (1180px or more) — every action is labelled.
Compact (760–1179px) — Ask AI, Share and the drill buttons show as icons; they keep their names for screen readers and on hover.
Narrow (under 760px) — a back arrow replaces the breadcrumb, the actions become one row of icons, the drill controls move into More, and page tabs become a Pages button.

Search the dashboard’s commands, or ask

Press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac), or choose Search workspace in the app’s bar, and type: the dashboard’s own commands come first — its exports, Share when you may share it, Comments, the drill where its model has a hierarchy, Full screen and its pages — then the rest of the workspace, and a question to ask AI. Nothing of the editor is offered there.

Someone who may edit the dashboard, on a window narrower than 1024 px, lands here from the editor, and a line under the header says why: Editing needs a window at least 1024 px wide. You can read, filter and comment here.

The state row

Under the dashboard’s title, one row says how the view you are looking at is set up — and each entry opens what it describes:

Filters — the filter narrowing the view (Filtered: Region: West), or how many when there are several. Open it to see them all: the page’s filters, and the ones you set by clicking a chart — remove any of those on its own, Edit filters, or Clear all (your own filters and cross-filter selections; the dashboard itself is untouched).
Saved views — the view you are on (Default view until you load one). Open it to load a saved view, star your default, delete one, or Save current view.
Refresh — the auto-refresh cadence. Open it to see when the charts on screen last loaded (and whether any failed or are still loading), or Refresh now.

Reset my card changes and any dashboard parameters sit at the end of the same row.

Move between pages

A multi-page dashboard shows one tab per page under the header. Click a tab, or use the keyboard: ← / → move between tabs, Home / End jump to the first and last, and Enter opens the focused page. In the narrow layout (a phone, or a small window) the tabs become a single button — for example Sales · 2 of 3 — that opens a Pages sheet.

The page you are on is part of the address (?page=<page-id>): refreshing keeps it, Back and Forward step through the pages you visited, and a link you copy opens on the same page. A link to a page that has since been hidden or deleted opens the dashboard’s first page instead.

A card’s actions

Point at a card, or move to it with Tab, and two buttons appear in its top right corner: Expand and Show underlying data. Next to them, the three dots open Card actions, which hold everything the card offers:

View — Expand, Show underlying data, Spotlight, Sort (on charts of categories) and Personalize.
Insights — Analyze, Explain this change, and for editors Summarize with AI (it uses AI credits) and Remove AI summary. These read the card’s data model, so a card from a saved SQL query doesn’t offer them.
Export — Copy as image, Download as CSV and Add to presentation.
Alerts — Create alert rule, on a KPI card, for people who can create dashboards.

Right-clicking a card’s frame, or pressing Shift+F10 (or the Menu key) on a card the keyboard is on, opens the same list. On a touch screen the three dots are always shown, at a size made for a finger, and Expand and Show underlying data are in the menu.

Right-click a bar, a slice, a point on a line or a table’s row, and the menu is that point’s instead, under its name (Germany, or Germany · Revenue where the chart names the series):

Include and Exclude — filter the dashboard to that point, or leave it out, as a click on it does.
Drill down and Drill up — on a card with a hierarchy: down to the next level, filtered to the point, and back up once you have drilled.
Copy value — the value you right-clicked, as the card shows it; on a row’s name, Copy name instead.
Show data for this point — the card’s rows, narrowed to the point.

Each is listed only where the card offers it; a point with nothing to offer, and the card’s frame, open the card’s own menu. On a matrix, a first-level row is a point too: Shift+F10 or the Menu key on the focused row opens its menu. Preview, in the editor, has the same menus.

When a card has nothing to show yet

A card that is not showing its data says why, and what you can do:

The card says	What it means
Loading data…	Its query is running.
Waiting for a value	It needs a value for a required parameter first. Choose opens Parameters on that parameter. In an embed, the page it is embedded in sets the value.
No data for these filters	Nothing matches the filters its query ran with; change or clear them.
No data to show	Its data has no rows for it right now.
This card isn’t finished	Its author hasn’t chosen what it shows. Ask the dashboard’s owner, or, if you can edit the dashboard, edit it to finish the card.
This card couldn’t load its data	The query failed. Try again; Details shows the message to pass on if it keeps failing.
You don’t have access to this card’s data	Your permissions don’t reach its data source. Ask a workspace admin.
This card’s data can’t be found	Its data source or saved query may have been removed. Tell the dashboard’s owner; an editor chooses another in Card settings.
A level of this matrix couldn’t load	On a matrix with row levels, a level you opened failed. The rows it already showed stay; Try again loads the missing level, Details has the message.
Couldn’t refresh · last updated …	A refresh failed, so the card still shows the data it had (a chart, a table, a pivot table or a KPI), and how old it is. Try again refreshes it.

While a card refreshes, its corner says refreshing…. On a shared link, the card says to ask the person who shared the dashboard instead.

Interact with the data

Click a data point to cross-filter the rest of the dashboard, use filter cards and per-card controls, and drill down hierarchies or drill through to detail dashboards. All of it is covered in Filters & interactivity — and all of it carries in the URL, so the back button, bookmarks, and shared links reproduce exactly what you were looking at.

A filter card works from the keyboard too. Its list of values is one stop for Tab: ↑ / ↓ move through the values, Home / End jump to the first and last, and Space or Enter chooses the value you are on, as a click does. A dropdown filter card opens with Enter and its list takes the keyboard. In a dropdown that takes one value, choosing it brings you back to the dropdown; in one that takes several, Space or Enter ticks each value and Esc brings you back.

Each chart is read as a picture described in words. When the card’s author wrote alt text for it (in Card settings, Alt text (screen readers)), that is what you hear. Otherwise the chart describes itself from its data, by a fixed rule (no AI writes these words). You hear its title, then each value as the chart writes it, series by series — Orders by region: East 980, West 1,200. A series of more than 24 values is told by its count, its first and last values, and its highest and lowest. Tables are read as tables, and KPI cards as their text. A chart also points you to Show underlying data, which opens its rows as a table (not on shared links or embeds).

Focus on one card — or present all of them

Expand — open any card in a full-canvas overlay (with its own fullscreen toggle) to read a dense table or talk through a single chart. Esc exits.
Spotlight — highlight one card while every other card fades to near transparency: choose Spotlight in the card’s Card actions. Click anywhere else (or Esc) to release. Spotlight is part of your view state, so a saved saved view reopens with it on.
Full screen — the dashboard alone, for a meeting or a wall screen: see Full screen below.

Full screen

Full screen (in the header, just before Edit), or F anywhere outside a text field, shows the dashboard alone in your browser's full screen: no menu, no header, no toolbars or panels. Move the pointer, tap the screen or pressTab (the control is the first stop) to show the small Exit full screen control at the top right; it hides again after 2 seconds. Esc or F leaves, and puts you back on theFull screen button. A screen reader hears it go in and out.

In a desktop browser's full screen the browser takes Esc itself: it leaves full screen first, and a card's Expand, a dialog or a list you opened stays open, to close with its own control or a secondEsc. Where the view fills the window instead (below), Esc closes what is open first.

The filters stay one click away: Filters in the exit control opens them, as a panel over the dashboard, and a dashboard with parameters has Parameters there too; a card waiting for one opens them with its Choose. A dashboard of several pages puts Pages there as well. A card’s Expand works as it always does, and a Spotlight stays on when you leave full screen; the next Esc releases it.

Where the browser doesn't allow full screen (a page embedded without the permission, Safari on an iPhone), the same view fills the window instead, and says so once.

Personalize a visual

Open a chart’s Card actions and choose Personalize to explore without edit rights: switch the visual type, swap the dimension, and add or change measures and their aggregation. Changes are yours alone — the dashboard itself is never modified, and everything stays inside your data permissions. Reset a single visual from its panel, or use Reset my visual changes in the state row to drop them all. Save a view afterwards to keep the personalized view.

Zoom into dense charts

If the author enabled the zoom slider on a chart, drag the slider along its axis (or scroll/pinch inside the plot) to zoom into a dense series and pan across it.

Save your view — and set a default

Arrived at a useful combination of filters, drills, and page? Open Saved views in the state row and choose Save current view to keep it as a saved view. A personal saved view captures the complete state — filters, cross-filter selections, drill path, spotlight, parameters, personalizations, and the active page — and restores it exactly when you return.

Personal vs. shared saved views — saved views made by viewers are private to your account. Saved views made by dashboard editors can be shared with everyone who has access.
Default view — star any of your own saved views to make it your default view. It applies automatically every time the dashboard opens, and your personal default wins over the dashboard’s shared default.
Server persistence — saved views are persisted server-side with conflict-free sibling demotion, ensuring exactly one default per scope.

See the data behind a visual

Choose Show underlying data on a data card (or in its Card actions, or by right-clicking it) to open the row-level table the chart was built from — filtered the same way the chart is, and always scoped to what your row-level security permissions allow.

On a card from a saved SQL query, it lists the rows the query returned for the card, filtered as the card is, with their count and Download CSV: a chart’s or a KPI’s columns are the ones it shows, a table’s every column. When the data source returned only part of the result, it says so. Show underlying data isn’t offered on shared links or embeds.

Export

Per card — in Card actions, Download as CSV exports the card’s data (respecting the filters currently applied), and Copy as image puts a PNG of the rendered card on your clipboard, ready to paste into a chat or deck.
Whole dashboard — More → Export offers CSV, PNG, PDF (every page), and PowerPoint from the viewer.

Export availability is permission-gated; see Exports for the full matrix.

Stay current

Dashboards show per-card freshness badges; the state row’s refresh entry says how often the view re-queries and offers Refresh now (a fresh cache-burst query), and More → Auto refresh sets a timed interval. To be notified when a number crosses a threshold — without watching the dashboard — set a metric alert on a KPI card.

A card that reads a Warehouse dataset also carries a Dataset badge in its title, which says how fresh the dataset is — not just when your browser last asked:

Badge	Means
green · 12m ago	refreshed on schedule; hover for the next refresh
amber · overdue	it missed a scheduled refresh (one schedule period after it was due, at least 2 minutes, at most 15)
red · refresh failed	the last refresh failed; the card shows the previous copy
grey	no refresh schedule (with the time of the last refresh), or not refreshed yet

The badge updates by itself about once a minute. Public links and embeds don’t show it.

Discuss

Open the Comments pane to start a thread on the dashboard — questions, context, decisions — visible to everyone with access.

A top-level comment captures your current view (filters, drills, spotlight, parameters, page). Anyone reading it can hit Open this view to see exactly what you saw when you wrote it.
@mention teammates with the @ button — they get an email with a link that opens the captured view.
Reply under any comment to keep a conversation in one thread.
You can delete your own comments and replies (you are asked to confirm a comment). There is no Resolve action: a thread stays until its author deletes it.
In the Android app, Report on someone else’s comment sends it for review with a reason and an optional note. Your workspace admins are told, and so is DataSquares on the hosted service (on a self-hosted server, the people who run it); its author is not told who reported it.

Accessibility and contrast

More → High contrast switches to high-contrast colors (stronger borders and text) and remembers your choice in this browser; the OS-level high-contrast and dark mode preferences are honored automatically too.

On a touch screen, and whenever the dashboard is in its narrow layout, the header actions, the state row and the More menu’s items are at least 44 × 44px. Screen readers hear a short, polite status message when the dashboard finishes refreshing, when the auto-refresh cadence or the filters change, when the page changes, and when an export starts (its result arrives as a notification).

Ask AI

Viewers can use AI chat too: ask questions about the data in natural language and get charted answers, scoped to your permissions.

Per-card AI summaries — read the author’s AI summary in a note at the foot of a card. When row-level security limits what you see of the card’s data, the note says the summary is hidden for you (who sees a summary).
Card insights — open a card’s menu to run Explain this change and Analyze for period-over-period breakdowns, anomalies, key influencers, and forecasts, all with view access only.
AI-built — a dashboard the AI built says AI-built and the date beside its title, and so does each card the AI added to a dashboard (the cards of a dashboard it built say it too). If it was your conversation that built it, the label links back to that conversation on the AI page; for anyone else it is a plain label. AI-written text — Analyze’s and Explain’s summaries — is labelled AI-written with its date the same way.