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Displaying metrics on a dashboard

Dashboards are used to display a set of related metrics. Whether adding a pre-built dashboard template or building one from scratch, all of our dashboards are fully customizable, empowering you to create unique displays tailored to your specific needs and audience. This flexibility enables you to mold your data to effectively inform others and illustrate progress toward your business goals. A diverse set of editing options means you can individualize each dashboard display.

When interacting with a dashboard, available options depend on whether you are in View mode or Edit mode.

The article includes the following:

Finding your dashboards

The Dashboards page lists all of your dashboards. To open the Dashboards page, in the left navigation sidebar, click Dashboards.

The following details display in your Dashboards page:

  • The dashboard name
  • The dashboard owner
  • When the dashboard was created and when it was last modified (updated)

From the Dashboards page, you can share and delete existing dashboards, create a list of favourites (starred dashboards), or add new dashboards.

You can also search for a dashboard (based on its name or its owner’s name) and filter to find either all of the dashboards or only the ones you created. Note: If you’re doing a string-based search (more than 1 word, separated by spaces) enclose your string in quotes (“ “). Otherwise, your search will filter based on each individual word you enter in your string.

Selecting a dashboard from this list opens it and adds it to your list of dashboards (for quick access) in the left navigation sidebar under Dashboards > Recent. Your 5 most recently opened, unstarred dashboards display there, in alphabetical order. To open a dashboard in a new tab, click "Ctrl + click" (for Windows) or "Command + click" (for macOS).

Creating a list of favourite dashboards

To get quick access to the dashboards you refer to most often, add them to your Starred list. Then, open the dashboard you want by selecting it from the list under Dashboards > Starred in the left navigation sidebar.

There are a few ways to add a dashboard to your Starred list:

  • In your list of Dashboards, click the 3-dot menu for a dashboard. Then, click Add to Starred (or Remove from Starred). Alternatively, you can hover to the left of the dashboard’s name in the list and perform the same actions.
  • In an open dashboard, click the 3-dot menu in the top-right corner of the window and select Add to Starred. Alternatively, you can click the Add to Starred (star icon) in the upper-right corner of the window.

Adding and deleting a dashboard

When you add a dashboard, you can either add a new, empty dashboard and then add metrics to it or add a dashboard template, which comes already populated with essential metrics for popular services. Both dashboard versions are fully customizable. Learn more about dashboard templates here.

To add a dashboard:

  1. In the left navigation sidebar, click Dashboards to open your list of dashboards.
  2. Click + New Dashboard.
  3. Select New blank dashboard or Browse dashboard templates.
  4. If desired, click the default dashboard name (above the toolbar) and enter a new name.
  5. Click Save dashboard.

To delete a dashboard:

  1. In the left navigation sidebar, under Dashboards, click the dashboard you want to delete.
  2. Click the 3-dot menu in the upper-right corner of the dashboard and click Delete.

Note: You can also delete a dashboard from your list of dashboards, accessed by clicking Dashboards in the left navigation sidebar. From here you can delete individual dashboards or select multiple dashboards to delete them all at once.

View mode

Use View mode to set personal options for your dashboard. The customizations you make while in View mode persist locally and are only visible to you. To make permanent changes to a metric on your dashboard, you need to be in Edit mode. The changes you make in Edit mode are visible to you and others.

When in View mode, you can:

  • Select the date range and dimensions by which to filter all metrics on the dashboard (by selecting an option from the drop-down list and calendar at the top of the dashboard). Hover over the filter area to see a tooltip that lists the members for each filter.
  • Enter Edit mode. (This option is only available if you created the dashboard or have been granted Edit access to it.)
  • Share the dashboard. Learn more about sharing. Learn more about sharing a published view of a dashboard.
  • Download the dashboard as a PDF. Learn more about download as PDF.
  • Revert to clear any personal modifications you’ve applied. This resets your view of the dashboard and its metrics to the last saved version.
  • Delete the dashboard. (This option is only available if you created the dashboard or have been granted Edit access to it.)
  • Access the following options for individual metrics on the dashboard (by clicking the 3-dot menu for an individual metric):
  • Expand (and collapse) - When you expand a single metric visualization, you can cycle through all of the visualizations on the dashboard.
  • Open in Explorer - Opens the metric in Explorer. Note: You can also click the button that displays when you hover over the 3-dot menu.
  • Metric name > Open or About - Click Open to go to the metric’s homepage. Click About to display information about the metric, such as the metric owner, when it was last edited and refreshed, and how much data history is being stored. The information you see depends on the metric type (instant, instant (calculated), custom, or calculated). If the visualization includes more than one metric, select the name for the metric you’re interested in.
  • Download as CSV - Download a CSV file version of the metric visualization. Learn more.
  • Add to dashboard - Add the metric to an existing or new dashboard.
  • Sort - Sorting options depend on the selected chart type and style. For example, with stacked area charts, you can sort the x-axis and legend items and, with pivot tables, you can sort the order of rows and columns. For list and pivot tables, you can also apply sorting dynamically by clicking on the column headers in the visualization. If you want to return to the original sort order for your data, you can either re-select the previously selected sort options or click Revert for the dashboard (note that this removes all personalizations you’ve applied). Note: The sorting feature is not applicable to summary, scatter, and bubble charts, or tree maps. Ranked tables have their own built-in sorting.
  • Edit - Puts the metric(s) on the dashboard into Edit mode.

Edit mode

Use Edit mode to author and edit dashboards for you and your team. When you make changes in Edit mode, you are setting the default display that everyone will see when viewing the dashboard and its metrics.

Edit mode options range from simple modifications, like adding metrics, images, and text boxes to a dashboard and modifying the dashboard layout and chart colours, to more integral edits, such as adding multiple metrics to individual visualizations, selecting an alternate date range, choosing a different visualization type, and viewing cumulative data and trend lines.

When you add a dashboard, you enter in Edit mode, where you can interactively make adjustments to your dashboard and each of its metrics. To enter Edit mode for an existing dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner of the dashboard.

Notes:

  • You can only edit dashboards that you created or for which you have Edit access.
  • Your edits only take effect after you click “Save dashboard”. If you previously made personal modifications to the dashboard, those with shared access to it must choose the "Revert" option (accessed from the dashboard’s 3-dot menu) to see the new saved version.

This section includes:

Adding and removing metrics

Each dashboard can display up to 15 metrics.

The following procedures describe how to add an existing metric to a dashboard. You can create and add a new metric by selecting Create a new metric instead.

To add a metric to a dashboard:

  1. In an open dashboard, click theEdit button in the upper-right corner.

Note: You can also add a metric to a dashboard from an open metric by clicking the 3-dot menu in the upper-right corner of the window and then clicking Add to dashboard.

  1. In the dashboard toolbar, click Insert > Metrics.
  2. To filter the list of displayed metrics, use the Display drop-down to choose the category of metrics you want to select from (see below).

  1. Click thebutton beside the metric(s) you want to add to the dashboard.
  2. When you’re finished adding metrics, click Done.
  3. Click Save dashboard.

Note: When you add a metric to a dashboard (and the visualization includes segments), we apply a default metric name that includes a reference to the metric visualization’s segmentation and over properties. For example, if you have a metric named “Hits” and it includes the segments “Channel”, “Media”, and “User Type” and a date column, when you add it to a dashboard its name will auto-update to include the segment that’s currently displayed in the metric, for example, “Hits by Channel Over Time (Weekly)”. If, after adding the metric to a dashboard, you edit it and select different segmentation or over properties, the title will dynamically update to align with the modified settings. If you edit the metric and change its name, the name will no longer be dynamically updated.

To remove a metric from a dashboard:

  1. In an open dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner.
  2. Click the metric you want to remove and then click the Remove button in the dashboard toolbar.
  3. Click Save dashboard.

Adding images

Add colour, context, and vitality to your dashboard with images!

We support the following image file types: PNG, JPEG, and SVG. The maximum file size is 10 MB.

Note: Images don’t count toward your 15 metric limit for a dashboard.

To add an image to a dashboard:

  1. In an open dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner.
  2. In the dashboard toolbar, click Insert, and select Image from the drop-down list.
  3. Select the image to insert.

The image is added to the first available space on the dashboard and can be resized by clicking and dragging its bottom-right corner.

  1. Click Save dashboard.

Note: You can duplicate or remove an image by clicking the image (with the dashboard in Edit mode) and selecting options from the dashboard toolbar.

Adding text boxes

Add titles and descriptions to your dashboard with text boxes. You can also insert UTF-8 characters and emojis. In addition, keyboard shortcuts, such as copy/paste and undo/redo, are supported.

To add a text box to a dashboard:

  1. In an open dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner.
  2. In the dashboard toolbar, click Insert, and select Text from the drop-down list.

The text box is added to the first available space on the dashboard and is ready for you to modify with your own information. You can resize the text box by clicking and dragging its bottom-right corner.

  1. Click the text box to display the properties panel, where you can apply and modify formatting.
  2. Click Save dashboard.

Note: You can duplicate or remove a text box by clicking it (with the dashboard in Edit mode) and selecting options from the dashboard toolbar.

Adding multiple views of a metric

You can add multiple copies of the same metric to a dashboard and then create unique representations of the data by applying different filters and segmentation to each copy.

Note: You can also create multiple copies of an image or a text box on a dashboard by clicking the image or text box (with the dashboard in Edit mode) and selecting the Duplicate button in the dashboard toolbar.

To duplicate a metric:

  1. In an open dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner.
  2. Click the metric you want to duplicate and then click the Duplicate button in the dashboard toolbar.
  3. Click Save dashboard.

Adding dashboard filters

Adding dashboard-wide filters enables you to display related metrics in context and more easily compare and showcase your data.

To add dashboard filters:

  1. In an open dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner.
  2. In the dashboard toolbar, click theAdd and remove filters button to open the Filters panel.
  3. To automatically display all available filters for all metrics on the dashboard, turn on the Display all filters option

Note: This option is turned on by default for new dashboards. When new metrics are added to the dashboard or existing metrics are edited, all new filters will automatically display on the dashboard.

  1. To manually display a selection of filters, turn off the Display all filters option and select the filters to display.

Note: When the Display all filters option is turned off and new metrics are added to the dashboard or existing metrics are edited, you need to manually select filters to display them on the dashboard - they’re not automatically added.

  1. Click Save dashboard.

You'll learn how to choose dashboard date range and filter settings here.

Setting the dashboard name, background colours, and chart colours

In the dashboard settings pane, you can modify the dashboard name, choose dashboard and widget background colours (paid plans only), and select the chart colours you want to apply to the dashboard’s metrics.

Note: The dashboard background custom colours feature is included in all of our paid plans. In a free plan but want to upgrade? Learn how here.

There are two chart colour assignment options to choose from:

  • Apply colours by data label: Colours will be assigned to data labels by name. The same colour will be used for all data labels with the same name for all metrics in your account. For example, if “red” is set for the label called “Canada”, in all charts that include “Canada”, it will display as “red”. This method brings consistency to data labels for charts across all of your dashboards and is the default setting. Note: If desired, you can override this account-wide setting for individual dashboards by selecting the “By display order” option instead for those specific dashboards.
  • Apply colours by display order: Colours are assigned according to their display order. Colours are applied to data labels in a chart in the same order each time (beginning with the first colour in the palette being applied to the first data label in a chart, and continuing through the palette colours and data labels in order). This setting is applied on a per-dashboard basis. Applying this option can improve the dashboard presentation by creating a uniform, harmonious collection of data with a particular colour scheme, for example, one that uses your brand colours (when combined with custom colours).

To set the dashboard name, background colours, and chart colours:

  1. In an open dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner.
  2. In the dashboard toolbar, click Dashboard settings.

The dashboard settings panel opens.

  1. At Name, type a new name for the dashboard. (You can also do this by clicking the dashboard name above the toolbar.)
  2. Under Colours, select the toggle to use custom dashboard colours for your dashboard and widget backgrounds or deselect the toggle to use the default light or dark mode colours.

  1. If you chose to apply custom colours to your dashboard and widget backgrounds, click the colour cube beside each option and select the desired colours: Choose a preset colour, or enter a hexadecimal colour code, or enter R G B values, or use the sliding colour selector scale.

Note: When you toggle on the “Use custom dashboard colours” setting for a new dashboard, you’ll see our default custom colours for light or dark mode. After customizing colours, if you want to return to the default custom colours, click “Reset to default colour”.

  1. At Chart colour assignment, choose how you want to apply colours to metrics on the dashboard: By data label or By display order. (See the description above for more details.)
  2. If you’re happy with the colour choices and assignment, click Save dashboard.
  3. If you want to create custom colours for one or more labels in the dashboard’s charts, click the + button beside Custom chart colours.

Note: Custom chart colours will override the preset colours that were applied when you selected “By data label” or “By display order”.

  1. Select the label name text and start typing the name of the label for which you want to apply a custom colour. As you type, options will display as a drop-down list from which you can select the desired label name.

Note: Enter the text using spelling that matches that displayed in the chart. For example, if the label in the chart is “Canada”, if you enter “Caneda” the custom colour will not be applied. This is because the custom color maps to the label’s text string.

  1. Click the colour cube beside the label name and select the desired colour: Choose a preset colour, or enter a hexadecimal colour code, or enter R G B values, or use the sliding colour selector scale.

Note: Each label can only be assigned to one colour.

  1. If you want to add custom colours for other data labels, go back to step 8 and repeat.
  2. When you’re done making changes, click Save dashboard.

Note: If you want to assign colours to an unsegmented bar or column chart (one with “Data” > “Segment by” set to “None”) select Bar / Column as the Chart Type and either the Bar (colour by category) or the Column (colour by category) as the Style. This chart style assigns colours based on the category you select in the Data tab, under Over. See Applying colours to dashboard charts for more detailed information.

Modifying the dashboard layout

You can modify your dashboard layout by resizing individual metrics and reordering their position on the dashboard.

To resize and reorder metrics:

  1. In an open dashboard, click the Edit button in the upper-right corner.
  2. Click and drag the bottom-right corner of a metric to resize it.
  3. Click and drag a metric to change its position on the dashboard.
  4. Click Save dashboard.

Choosing dashboard date range and filter settings

You choose date range and filter settings at the dashboard level. Your choices will apply by default to all metrics on the dashboard, however, colleagues who view the dashboard can optionally make personal changes to these settings.

Notes:

  • You can set the dashboard date range and modify its filters in either View or Edit mode. To see a tooltip that lists the members for each filter, hover over the filter area.
  • If you modify the filters and want to return to the dashboard’s original settings, click the 3-dot menu for the dashboard and select Revert. 
  • You may notice some date ranges are not available. That's because the range of historical data you can access is dependent on your pricing plan. Learn more.

To choose the dashboard date range:

When you select “Since” as a custom date range setting, you choose a start date. The end date is based on the last day in your metric’s data or the last day that’s available to display based on your plan limit - whichever comes first.

After adding filters (dimensions) to your dashboard, you can further define the information you want to display by choosing members to display for each dimension.

To choose members for a filter:

  1. On your dashboard, click the filter(s) for which you want to include or exclude members.

  1. Select members as desired.
  2. Click either Include or Exclude.
  3. Click Filter.

If there are a lot of members in your metric, use the Search feature to find them.

Note: If your browser window is too narrow to list all of the filters you've applied, click the Filters applied button, to view and modify your list of applied filters.

Editing individual metric settings

Note that the options available to you when editing depend on the chart type and style and the settings you chose when you created the metric.

To edit an individual metric, with the dashboard in Edit mode, click the metric. The properties panel displays on the right and gives access to the following options:

In the Display tab:

  • Title - Rename the metric.

  • Chart Type and Style. Choose a combination of chart type and style to display your data meaningfully. For example, if you want to display data in a chart with stacked columns, select Bar / Column as the Chart Type and Stacked Column as the Style.

Available chart types are: bar and column charts, heat maps, line and area charts, pie and donut charts, radar plot charts, summary charts, tables, tree maps, waterfall charts, scatter and bubble charts, and combination charts. Available styles depend on the chart type chosen.

  • Display Top or Bottom - For ranked tables, choose whether to display the Top or the Bottom rows from your data and the Number of rows to display.

  • Break lines for blank values - When there are gaps in data, for example, if data is not refreshed during a time period, you can choose to break the chart lines to show the gaps in data. Alternatively, you can display a continuous line, where a line is drawn between known data points to fill in the gaps. By default, we break lines for blank values but you can deselect this option if you'd rather see a continuous line.

  • Show values as labels - Display values as labels in your chart. This option is not available for tables or summary charts.

  • Show points - Choose to display points in the visualization. This option is available for the following chart types: Line and combination charts.

  • Line thickness - Choose line thickness for line and area charts. For area charts, you can also choose “none” to remove lines from the chart.

  • Fill area - Choose from a gradient (the default choice) or solid fill area. Applicable to area charts only.

  • Legend position - If your visualization includes a legend, choose to display it at the bottom, right, left, or top of your chart. You can also remove the legend by selecting None.

  • Comparison - Choose to either apply no comparison or to compare your data to other time periods (vs a previous period, vs the same period (last year), or vs a custom period). Comparisons are made between equivalent time period types. For example, if the date range selected is "today", then the previous period will be "yesterday". Note that the date range for the dashboard and for the individual metric you are working with must be set to a time period that enables a comparison. For example, if you set the date range for a dashboard to Auto or Maximum date range, it will not be possible to compare to a different time period. If you choose to display a legend for the chart, the comparative period will display as the last item (when reading from left to right). You can click its name in the legend to show and hide it in the chart.

For line and area charts, the comparative period's data displays as a dashed line. For bar and column charts, the comparative period's data displays as lighter-coloured bars and columns.

Note: The comparison setting is only applicable to bar, column, and line / area chart types. However, this setting does not apply to line charts or stacked bar or column charts when the chart is segmented. For the comparison option to be available, you must set your segmentation to “None” and dates must display on the x axis (unless it's a bar chart, in which case, dates must display on the y axis).

For summary charts and ranked tables:

  • There are a few options to choose from. You can display the percentage change or value change between the current value and the previous value (the delta), or you can show a comparison value (both values display together). Green is used to show a positive trend and red is used to show a negative trend. For more information, hover over the value to see a detailed tool tip.
  • When comparing data from a partial period, we compare it to a previous partial period. For example, if you are halfway through a month and want to compare to the previous month, your metric will be compared to the same period of the previous month. Note: If an asterisk (*) displays after the value, this indicates the comparison period is incomplete. Hover over the value to see a detailed tool tip.
  • When comparing, if there is no difference in values, no data available to compare to, or the time period set for the dashboard, or the metric, is not suitable for a comparison (for example, the dashboard time range is set to “Auto” or "Maximum date range") then the chart displays “--”.

  • Sort - Sorting options depend on the selected chart type and style. For example, with stacked area charts, you can sort the x-axis and legend items, with pie charts, you can sort the order of slices in the pie, and with pivot tables, you can sort the order of rows and columns. For list and pivot tables, you can also apply sorting dynamically by clicking on the column headers in the visualization.

If, after applying sort to a visualization, you want to return to the original data order, re-select your previously selected sort options.

Note: The sorting feature is not applicable to summary, scatter, and bubble charts, or tree maps. Ranked tables have their own built-in sorting.

  • Trend line - To more easily see data trends over time, you can apply a trend line to your visualization. Select Moving Average if you want to smooth out fluctuations in data so you can more clearly gauge patterns and trends. Select Linear if you want to see a straight line, indicating the general direction in which your data is heading. When you select either option, a line is added to your chart. If you also select Show as cumulative, the trend line is drawn using cumulative data. Trend lines exclude data from incomplete, partial periods. Trend lines display as lines made up of long dashes.

Notes:

Trend lines are only applicable to bar, column, and line / area chart types. However, they do not apply to the stacked variations of bar, column, and area charts. If your metric includes trend lines, your visualization will default to a column chart.

For the trend line option to be available, dates must display on the x axis (unless it's a bar chart, in which case, dates must display on the y axis).

In the Data tab:

  • For chart types that support multiple metrics:
  • You can add up to 4 metrics to a visualization, for a total of 5 metrics. When you click the button (as shown below), the Add a metric window opens. Click the + button beside each metric you want to add to your chart. Learn more about multiple metrics.

Note: Some chart types don’t support multiple metrics. If you add multiple metrics to a visualization that supports them and then change the chart type to one that doesn’t support them, data for the first metric listed in the Data tab will display.

  • For chart types that combine metrics (scatter, bubble, and combination charts):
  • For scatter charts, select the metric you want to display for the X-Axis and the Y-Axis by clicking the button. Learn more about multiple metrics.

  • For combination charts, select the metric you want to display as Columns and the one you want to display as a Line by clicking the button. Learn more about multiple metrics.

  • Aggregation - Choose how you want the metric's value to be aggregated over time by clicking the metric name and then clicking the drop-down arrow to see the list of available choices. (See below.)  Available aggregation methods depend on the type of data in your metric. The default aggregation is based on the choice you made when creating your metric.

  • Hide blank periods - For list and pivot tables that include a date/time column, under Columns, choose to hide or display blank time periods.

  • Show as cumulative - Choose to view your metric data as a cumulative sequence.  Viewing your data from this perspective illustrates growth over a time period. To access the "Show as cumulative" setting, click the metric name. (See below.)  Note: This setting is not applicable when aggregation is set to average, count rows, max, or min.

  • Segment by - Choose the dimension(s) by which you want to segment your data. Breaking down your data enables you to see your business performance from different perspectives. For example, you might choose to segment your sales data based on region, sales rep, or product type.

Note: To optimize clarity in your visualization, we recommend building your metric using fewer than 20 members. If your metric includes > 20 members, all members above the first 20 will be grouped together under “Other” in your visualization.

  • Over - Choose how you want your data to be grouped. Klipfolio automatically sets the time periodicity to use for your metric based on the date range you selected. For example, if you're viewing a date range for your data for the "Last 7 days", the auto-periodicity will be set to "Auto (Daily)". If your date range is "Last 8 weeks", the auto-periodicity will be set to "Auto (Weekly)". You can override the auto-selected time periodicity by choosing an alternate option from the drop-down list. By default, the x axis displays time but bar charts enable you to select either a time dimension to group by or a non-time-related dimension.

In the Filter tab:

  • Select a date range. The Use dashboard date range option is selected by default and applies the date range as set at the dashboard level. You can optionally select Custom to set a unique date range for a metric. You may notice some custom date ranges are not available. That's because the range of historical data you can access is dependent on your pricing plan. Learn more.

If you chose Custom and you have applied unique filters to the metric, you can access date range setting details by clicking "x" filter. See below:

  • Click the drop-down arrows to filter your data by selecting the members to include for each dimension.

Note: Dimensional member filtering is done at the dashboard level but you can choose to apply unique filters at the individual metric level. Your individual metric settings override those that are set at the dashboard level. For example, if the dimensional member “Germany” is selected at the dashboard level and you select “Greece” at the individual metric level, the individual metric will display data for “Greece” only. When you apply unique filtering, you can access filter details by clicking "x" filters in the metric tile.

Note: For multi-metrics, if there are filters that only apply to some of the metrics in the visualization, you can see those details by clicking the filter information area, as shown below.

Learn more

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