Create or Edit a Smartsheet Dashboard or Portal

Capabilities

Who can use this capability?

Permission requirements icon The Owner and Admins can create or edit a dashboard, including adding widgets to it. Anyone with Viewer permissions to the dashboard can see the information it contains. A license is required.

In order to add data to chart, metric, and report widgets, you must have sharing permissions to the source sheet or report. Note that each chart and report widget will display data according to the data and settings it was given when it was last edited.

Plan availability iconIndividual, Business, Enterprise, and Premier

A dashboard or portal can help you visualize, summarize, and share important aspects of your work such as project status or whether you're on target with key performance indicators (KPIs). A dashboard can also help you stay organized by providing a hub, or central location, for related resources such as collections of sheets or reports.

Dashboard Example

To get started, create a new dashboard and add interactive widgets to it to meet your needs. Once you've created a dashboard, it's always possible to make changes to it later.

A dashboard also allows you to share information from reports with people who may not otherwise have access. As the dashboard creator, you can control this. For more information about how to configure widgets that pull data from reports, see Control What People See in a Report or Chart Widget.

For information about sharing your dashboard, see Sharing a Smartsheet Dashboard.

Create a new dashboard

  1. Click the Left Panel icon Left Panel icon (upper-left corner of the Smartsheet window), then click the Solution Center (plus) icon.
  2. In the left panel, click Create, and select the Dashboard tile.
  3. Type a name for your dashboard and then click OK.
    A new, blank dashboard appears.
  4. Click Add Widget at the top of the pane to add data to your dashboard.
    Visit the Dashboard Widgets article for more information about widget types and how to configure them.
  5. After you add a widget, you can make changes to its size and location:
    • To move a widget to a new location, you can click and drag it, or you can cut and paste it in a new location. (More on cutting and pasting widgets later in this article.)
    • To resize the widget, click and drag the lower-right corner of the widget.
  6. Click Save in the upper-left corner of the dashboard.

Adjust the dashboard background color

When you have a dashboard open in Smartsheet, you can set the background color of the dashboard to gray or white.

To change the background color of a dashboard:

  1. Select Edit in the upper-left corner of the dashboard.
  2. Click the Settings icon in the upper right corner. Alternatively, you can right click anywhere on the grid background and select the Dashboard Settings option.
  3. Select your background color, and click Close.
  4. Click Save to confirm your changes.

Make changes to an existing dashboard

Add, edit, or remove a dashboard widget

Open the dashboard that you want to edit and click the Edit button in the upper-left corner of the dashboard. Once the dashboard is in edit mode, you can perform the following actions.

To do this Follow this step
Add a new widget Click Add Widget in the upper-right corner of the dashboard.
Edit an existing widget


Select the widget and press Enter.

TIP: You can also double-click the widget to edit it.
Remove a widget

Select the widget and press Backspace or Delete.

TIP: You can also hover over the widget and click the trash can icon.

Copy and paste a dashboard widget

Once you cut or copy a widget, you can paste it in the dashboard in which it exists or in a different dashboard. (You can paste a widget in any dashboard to which you have Owner or Admin sharing permissions.)

  1. Select the widget that you can want to cut or copy.
  2. Click the More Options icon More Options icon and select Copy or Cut.

    Copy or Cut a Widget
  3. To paste the widget, right-click an empty part of the dashboard (or switch to a different dashboard to which you have Owner or Admin sharing permissions) and select Paste Here.

TIP: To paste a widget directly below an existing widget, click the More Options icon More Options icon and select Paste. A shadow the shape and size of the widget shows you where the widget will be placed. Other widgets may move to make space for the new widget.

Paste widget