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.
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. For information about sharing your dashboard, see Sharing a Smartsheet Dashboard.
Create a New Dashboard
- Click the Menu icon (upper-left corner of the Smartsheet window), then click the Solution Center (plus) icon.
- In the left panel, click Create, and select the Dashboard tile.
- Type a name for your dashboard and then click OK.
A new, blank dashboard appears. - 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.)
- After you add a widget, you can make changes to its size and location:
- To move a widget to a new location, click and drag it.
- To resize the widget, click and drag the lower-right corner of the widget.
- Click Save in the upper-left corner of the dashboard.
Adjusting 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:
- Select Edit in the upper-left corner of the dashboard.
- Select Settings in the upper-right corner of the dashboard and, in the Dashboard Settings window, select your desired background color.
The background color will change instantly.
- Click Save to confirm your changes.
Make Changes to an Existing Dashboard
- Open the dashboard that you want to make changes to and click the Edit button in the upper-left corner of the dashboard.
- To add additional widgets, click Add Widget
- To adjust an existing widget, double-click the widget. You can also hover over the lower-left corner of the widget and click Edit Widget
- To remove an existing widget, hover over the lower-left corner of the widget and click Delete Widget.
- To clone a widget, hover over the lower-left corner of the widget and click Clone Widget
- Once you're finished editing the dashboard, click Save.
Add Live Sheet and Report Data to a Dashboard
With the chart, metric, and report widgets, you can add live data from sheets and reports to a dashboard. Your ability to add data using these widgets depends on your sharing permissions to the sheet or report, as well as the dashboard.
- Before you can add data to a dashboard with a metric widget, you must first have access to a sheet. More information on sheets in Smartsheet can be found in Creating Sheets.
- Before you can add data to a dashboard with a chart widget, you must first have access to a sheet. More information on sheets in Smartsheet can be found in Creating Sheets.
- Before you can add data to a dashboard with a report widget, you must first have access to a report. More information on reports in Smartsheet can be found in Creating Reports.
- Before you can add data to a dashboard with a web content widget, you must first have access to the source application where the data exists.
Here's a table to help show you what permissions are needed to add data to a dashboard.
| Widget that you want to add | Permissions that you need on the dashboard | Permissions that you need on the source item |
|---|---|---|
| report widget | Owner or Admin* | Report: Owner or Admin |
| metric widget | Owner or Admin* | Sheet: Owner, Editor, or Admin |
| chart widget | Owner or Admin* | Sheet: Owner, Editor, or Admin |
| web content widget | Owner or Admin* | Varies based on the source application |
*You must also have a license in Smartsheet. More information on licensed users is available in the User Types article.
Report Widget: Who Sees What
People don't need to be shared on the underlying sheets to see data in a report widget. The report widget displays data based on the perspective of the person who created it, including what they’re shared to and their own sharing permissions. The data in the widget will not change based on who is viewing the dashboard.
Here’s a scenario to help illustrate this:
- You create a report from sheets that only you can access.
- You share that report to someone else. If they look at the report directly, it will appear blank to them since they don’t have access to your source sheets.
- Now, you add that report to a dashboard with a report widget, then share the dashboard with the same person. The report widget on the dashboard will not appear blank to them—they’ll see the same information that you see when you look at the report directly.
Current User Report Criteria in Dashboards
The example above also extends to the Current user criteria in reports that are added to a dashboard with the report widget. The person who adds the report widget to the dashboard will be treated as the current user for everyone else who views the dashboard. For more information about current user report criteria, see Creating Reports.