Widget Types for Smartsheet Dashboards

A dashboard gives you a way to share a curated set of data or a collection of resources in a highly visual way. You create the collections with widgets. 

For the basics on how create and edit a dashboard, visit our Creating and Editing a Smartsheet Dashboard article.

Who can use this capability

Permission requirements icon Licensed users with Owner or Admin permissions to the sheet can to add or edit dashboard widgets.  


Plan availability icon All plan types.

With the chart, metric, and report widgets, as a dashboard Owner or Admin you will be able to 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 or a chart widget, you must first have access to the sheet that you want to reference. More information on sheets 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 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 source item
Report Report: Owner or Admin
Metric Sheet: Owner, Editor, or Admin
Chart Sheet: Owner, Editor, or Admin
Web content Varies based on the source application

 

Metric

The metric widget allows you to display content from one or more cells in a sheet. 

NOTE: In order to add data from a sheet using the metric widget, you must have Viewer permissions or higher on that sheet.

After selecting this widget type, click Add Data to choose the sheet and cells containing the data you'd like to display.

You have the option of selecting either Grid data or Sheet Summary data as the data source:

  • If you chose Grid data, select the cells you would like to display in the metric widget and click OK.
  • If you selected Sheet Summary data, check the boxes of the sheet summary fields you would like to display and click OK.

Metric widget source

  • If you want to display the data in a grid format, you'll need to first create a report and use the Report widget type.
  • If you want to display new fields as they’re added to or deleted from the source sheet, then you’ll need to manually add or remove them from the metric widget as well. 

Once you've chosen the data to display, use the steps below to make the widget look the way you want.

To do this

 Follow these steps

Change how the data in the widget is aligned

Click the align buttons to left-align or center-align the information in the widget.

Align Widget

Add a title to the widget

Check the box next to Display Title. By default, this will display the title of the sheet. You can change the default by clicking in the field and typing in a new title.

Adjust the formatting for each field in the widget

To do this, click the field in the widget and then choose from the available formatting options.

Enable the formatting from the underlying sheet to show in a field

Click on the field and then click Use Cell Formatting:

Use cell formatting

Edit the interaction of the widget (interaction is what happens when you click the widget)

Edit the Metric widget and click Advanced Options. Under When this widget is clicked on, choose one of the interaction options:

  • Do nothing (no action)

  • Open the source sheet

  • Go to a URL

  • Open a Smartsheet item

 

After editing the widget, click Done to close the window.

Chart

Add a live chart based on a table of data from your sheet. 

Details on creating a Chart widget for your dashboard are available in the article Compare Live Data with a Chart.

NOTE: If you base your chart on data from a report, you’ll want to ensure that you’ve configured the widget so that it shows data the way that you want. For more information, see Control Widget Content When Source Is From a Report.

To do this

Follow these steps

Switch how columns and rows are plotted on your chart

 

Click Switch rows/columns

Change the chart type

 

Click the tile of the chart type that you want to use
Add a title to your chart and/or axes

Expand the Title & Legend section and enter your titles as needed:

  • When adding a title, make sure that Chart Title is checked
  • To change the format of a title, click in that title’s text box and then use the formatting buttons to make changes to that title

Add or move a legend on your chart

 

Expand the Title & Legend section and select one of the following options:

  • None
  • Top
  • Right
  • Bottom
  • Left

Add gridlines to your chart (except Pie Charts)

 

 Expand the Horizontal Axis or Vertical Axis sections and check the Gridlines box

Label slices of a pie chart with percentage of the whole or actual values

 Expand the Pie Chart section, make sure that Slice Label is checked, and use the dropdown to select one of the following:
  • Percentage
  • Value

Change the colors of data or add labels to data plotted in your chart

 

Expand the Series section and choose which item to apply formatting to.  

NOTE: the Default option will apply to all data in the chart.

Ignore the text labels that you’ve typed in the cells of your table

 

 Check the box for Use column names as labels

Edit the interaction of the widget (interaction is what happens when you click the widget)

 

 Edit the Chart Widget and click on Advanced Options. Under When this widget is clicked on, choose one of the following interaction options:
  • Do nothing (no action)
  • Open the source sheet
  • Go to a URL
  • Open a Smartsheet item

 

After editing the widget, click Done to close the window.

Shortcut

The Shortcut widget allows you to create a link or a list of links to specific URLs, files, or Smartsheet items. After selecting this widget, click Add Shortcut. Next to Select Shortcut Type, choose one of the following:

  • URL: Specify the destination link and display text. This can be any type of link - internal sites, external sites, forms, etc.
  • File: Click Attach to choose the file that is stored online that you'd like to attach.

    NOTE: Only files that are hosted on a supported online storage drive may be attached (Google Drive, One Drive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Egnyte).
     
  • Smartsheet Item: Choose which sheet, folder, report, workspace, or dashboard to link to.

    NOTE: When others view your dashboard, only those users who are shared to the item will be able to access it. (For more information, see dashboard Sharing.)

Once you've specified the shortcuts, use the steps below to make the widget look the way you want.

To do this

 Follow these steps

Change how the shortcuts in the widget are aligned

Click the align buttons to left-align or center-align the information in the widget.

Align Widget

Add a title to the widget

Check the box next to Display Title. Click Edit Custom Title to type the widget title.

Adjust the formatting for each link in the widget

To do this, click the field in the widget and then choose from the available formatting options.

 

After editing the widget, click Done to close the window.

 

Rich Text

The Rich Text widget allows you to enter any text string that you want to use for titles, instructions, updates, or any other type of text.

After adding the text, you can:

  • Add a title to the widget. To do this, check the box next to Display Title. Click Edit Custom Title to type the widget title.
  • Adjust the formatting for the text. To do this, select the text and then choose from the available formatting options.

After editing the widget, click Done to close the window.

 

Report

The Report widget allows you to display a report in your dashboard. Users shared to the dashboard don't always need access to the underlying sheets to see the content of the report. You have control over what viewers can see from the report. For more information, see Control Widget Content When Source Is From a Report.

Click the widget and then click Select Report to choose a report.

You must have Admin-level sharing permissions or higher on the source report to add it to a dashboard with the Report widget.

After selecting the report, use the steps below to make the widget look the way you want.

To do this

 Follow these steps

Add a title to the widget

Check the box next to Display Title.
This will, by default, display the title of the report. You can change the default by clicking the field and typing in a new title.

Adjust the formatting for the title of the widget.

Click on the title field and then choose from the available formatting options.

Remove formatting from the report

Click Remove Formatting Remove formatting.

Edit the interaction of the widget (interaction is what happens when you click the widget)

Edit the Report Widget and click Advanced Options. Under When this widget is clicked on, choose one of the following interaction options:

  • Do nothing (no action)
  • Open the source sheet
  • Go to a URL
  • Open a Smartsheet item
Show or Hide the Gantt chart Edit the Report Widget and then select Show/Hide Gantt Show/hide Gantt.

 

Keep the following in mind when using the Report Widget:

  • A maximum of 150 rows will appear from the report. If you need to display more than that on a dashboard, you'll need to consider creating multiple reports and report widgets.
  • By default, the widget’s data is scoped to the Widget editor. That means the Report widget will display the widget editor’s report results. If you would like the Report widget to show data the Dashboard viewer has access to and their results, especially if the Current user criteria is applied to the underlying report, change the widget’s data is scoped by to Dashboard Viewer.  For more information on using Current user in reports, check out the article on Viewing Your Assigned Tasks.
    If you publish a dashboard and the widget is set to run as the Dashboard viewer, the widget will be blank with the message "This widget has an advanced option applied and cannot be displayed in a published dashboard."
  • If you're using the Current user criterion in your report, the Report widget will always display tasks assigned to the person that added it to the dashboard. For more information on using Current user in reports, check out the article on Viewing Your Assigned Tasks.
  • The Attachments and Comments columns from the report won't appear in the widget.
  • Only Grid and Gantt Views can be displayed in the widget.

After editing the widget, click Done to close the window.

NOTE: If the person who created a report or chart widget becomes removed from sharing from the dashboard or from the source report of the widget, the report data will no longer be displayed and the widget will display an error message instead.

To resolve this, make one of the following adjustments:

  • Create a copy of the dashboard
  • Edit the widget and reselect the desired sheet or report. (Must be an Admin on the dashboard and a Viewer on the sheet or report)

 

Image

The Image widget allows you to add a company logo, employee photos, or other images to your dashboard. Click the widget and then click Insert Image to select an image. You can choose to upload an image from your computer or insert an image from Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, or Dropbox. The accepted file types for images in the Image widget are jpg, gif, or png.  

After inserting the image, use the steps below to make the widget look the way you want.

To do this

 Follow these steps

Add a title to the widget

Check the box next to Display Title. This will, by default, display the image filename. You can change the default by clicking the field and typing in a new title.

Adjust the formatting for the title of the widget. 

Click on the title field and then choose from the available formatting options.

Edit the interaction of the widget (interaction is what happens when you click the widget)

Click Edit Interaction and choose one of the interaction options:

  • Do nothing (no action)
  • Open the source sheet
  • Go to a URL
  • Open a Smartsheet item

 

After editing the widget, click Done to close the window.

Title

With the Title widget, you can give a name to your dashboard and better organize your widgets.

When using the Title widget:

  1. Enter the text for your title and set your preferred formatting. Typically, title text will be a single line, but the widget will automatically expand to accommodate multiple lines as you type.
  2. Select Done in the lower-right corner to place the widget on your dashboard.

Web Content

Add interactive content to your dashboard, such as Tableau charts, Smartsheet Forms, YouTube videos, and more. For more information on this widget type please see Add Interactive Content to a Dashboard with the Web Content Widget.