Creating a Dashboard Sketch

The dashboard designer enables various methods of creating objects:

By using the ribbon:
- Go to the Home ribbon tab and use buttons in the Insert group.
- Go to the Insert ribbon tab and use buttons of the following groups: Containers, Visualizers, Reports, Control, Other.
By using the context menu of a dashboard or the container element. Open the context menu and select the New Block item. Execute the command corresponding to the type of the created block in the menu that opens.
By using the Data Sources tab on the side panel. Select the required data source and click the Create Object button. The type of the created object depends on the selected data source.

An object will be created in the working area last clicked using the mouse cursor.

NOTE. When creating the blocks configured to the same data source, dimension synchronization settings are disabled.

To delete the selected object:

Press the DELETE key.
Select the Delete item in the object's context menu.

The object will be deleted without request to confirm the action.

To select a single object, click on it.

To select multiple objects:

Hold down the CTRL key and click each selected object one after another.
In the web application use a frame to select objects:

1. Determine a group of objects to be selected.
2. Click and hold down the mouse button outside the group of objects to be selected.
3. Start dragging the mouse cursor. A rectangular frame appears.
4. Move the cursor until all required objects are within the frame.
5. Release the mouse cursor. All objects fully or partially located within the frame are selected.

On working with object located on a dashboard, working with clipboard is available.

To copy selected objects to clipboard:

Press CTRL+C.
Select the Copy item in the object's context menu.
Click the Copy button on the Home ribbon tab.

Object copies are placed to clipboard.

To cut selected objects to clipboard:

Press CTRL+X.
Select the Cut item in the object's context menu.
Click the Cut button on the Home ribbon tab.

The objects are cut to clipboard.

To paste objects from clipboard:

Press CTRL+V.
Select the Paste item in the context menu of the working area or container element.
Click the Paste button on the Home ribbon tab.

The objects are pasted to the place of the working area where the user clicked most recently.

Consider the following on working with clipboard:

Copy/cut/paste of multiple objects is available if automatic object layout mode is disabled.
When blocks are copied/cut/pasted, all format settings, including state settings are saved.
On copying, moving or inserting of blocks synchronization settings of linked dimensions are saved.

Select the Duplicate item to create duplicates of the selected objects:

In the object's context menu.
In the drop-down menu of the Copy button on the Home ribbon tab.

Duplicates of the selected objects are created in the working area.

Consider the following on duplicating objects:

Multiple objects can be duplicated if automatic object layout mode is disabled.
On duplicating blocks:

All block format settings, including state settings are saved.
Synchronization settings of linked dimensions are saved.
Synchronization settings of dimension parameters are saved.

To undo or redo operation with objects, see the Undoing/Redoing Operation with Dashboard Objects section.

Selecting Dashboard Layout Mode

By default, dashboard layout is executed automatically, that is, block size is automatically selected to fit the dashboard on one screen without scrollbars. It is also available to toggle to the manual mode, where block size and their position are set by the user. Return to the automatic mode from the manual mode is not available.

Automatic Object Layout

Automatic layout enables the user to arrange objects in the dashboard working area without having to align, bind and change size of created objects.

If borders of objects in adjacent rows coincide, these rows are attached to each other. The dashed line becomes common for these rows:

All objects in attached rows are resized simultaneously. To resize one object in an attached row without resizing other objects, hold down the SHIFT key and drag the object border. The rows will be detached.

Manual Object Layout

Manual layout enables the user to arrange objects in the dashboard working area in a custom way to further align, bind and change size of created objects.

To enable manual layout mode, click the

Manually button in the Blocks Layout group on the Home ribbon tab.

When the manual layout mode is used, working area custom size can be set up by means of the Custom Size checkbox on the Document/Slide tab side panel tab:

Creating a Dashboard Sketch

Basic Operations with Dashboard Objects

Selecting Dashboard Layout Mode

Automatic Object Layout

Manual Object Layout