Building and customizing interactive project dashboards

You must have sharing permissions to the source sheet or report to add data to chart, metric, and report widgets. 

Create a new dashboard

1. On the Home screen, you can create a new dashboard by selecting the +Create button on the left rail.
2. Select Dashboard and select where to save it.
3. Type a name for your dashboard, and then select OK.

The Dashboard Builder opens. Here you have two options: describe what type of dashboard you’d like to create in the prompt box or select Build dashboard manually to start from scratch.

Create a dashboard with AI

This is a guided experience directly in the Smartsheet interface.

1. Describe what you want to achieve with the Dashboard: What do you want to track? Then, select Create.
2. Select your data source. You can select up to five sheets.

Smartsheet generates charts to get you started based on your prompt, which you can select to add to the dashboard or type in another prompt to get a closer result to what you are looking for.

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Create a dashboard manually

1. Select Build dashboard manually to open a blank dashboard.
2. Add dashboard widgets.
3. In the upper-right area of the dashboard, select Save.

Use the AI Chart widget to create your charts at any time. 

Edit a dashboard

If you're the dashboard's Owner or Admin, you can change its background color and add or edit a widget. You can also access extra editing features from the shortcut menu.

You can also use AI to edit your dashboard.

Edit your dashboard with AI

1. In the upper-right area of the screen, select Edit Dashboard.
2. Double-click any AI-created chart to open conversational editing
3. Type a refinement prompt to refine the chart.
4. Select Save.

Edit your dashboard manually

1. In the upper-right area of the screen, select Edit Dashboard  .
2. On the right navigation bar, select any of these panes:
   • Dashboard theme: Select a color theme for the entire dashboard and apply it to all your widgets. You can also customize the canvas color.

Theme colors don’t apply to content within report and web content widgets. 

• Add Widgets: Add the widgets you want to appear on your dashboard. 
• Widget Settings: Edit a widget on your dashboard.

3. Once you're done with your edits, select Save in the upper-right area of the screen.

For details on editing widgets, refer to the article specific to the widget. Find links to them here. 

Use the shortcut menu to edit your dashboard

Right-click anywhere on the grid, and then select any of these actions:

• Paste Here: Paste a widget you copied.
• Dashboard Settings: Change the background color or font.
• Add Widget: Add widgets to your dashboard. 
• Consolidate Empty Space: Delete unused rows between the top and bottom widgets to free up vertical space on the dashboard. This presents the most compact version of the current dashboard, without altering the widget arrangement.

You can use keyboard shortcuts in dashboards.

Apply custom colors

When selecting colors for fonts, charts, titles, and more, you can choose from standard presets or add a custom color using a HEX code, an RGB code, or a color gradient. 

To create a custom color

1. Select Edit > Dashboard theme in the dashboard's top right corner. 
2. Under Dashboard color or Widget color, select Change, and then select the plus icon. 
3. Pick a color or enter the hexadecimal color value. 
4. Select Add.

What you should know about custom colors

• You can save up to 39 custom colors in the dashboard color picker.
• Custom colors are unique to the dashboard; the setting doesn’t apply to other dashboards. You can quickly select the same custom color across widgets on the same dashboard.
• Start a new dashboard from your current one to keep the custom colors and other items in it. To create a copy of the dashboard, select File > Save as New. 
• When viewing a dashboard in the mobile app, custom colors are replaced by the closest available default colors.

You can also create custom themes for your dashboards. After you’ve created them, export them and share them with others in your organization. Learn more about custom themes for dashboards.

Automatic refresh on dashboards

A published dashboard automatically refreshes every 10 minutes. You can’t customize or turn off this behavior.

You can only change the Auto-Refresh feature for your dashboard view. For example, if you turn off Auto-Refresh, it remains enabled for other collaborators who are viewing the dashboard.

To change the frequency or to turn off the Auto-Refresh feature

1. In the menu bar, select View >Auto-Refresh.
2. Select the change you'd like to apply:
   • Select your frequency. 
   • To turn off the Auto-Refresh feature, select Off.

Web content widgets don't automatically refresh on dashboards.

The Add Widget panel provides a brief description of each widget's function.

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Timeline widget

Use the timeline widget to display a sheet or reports's timeline view directly on your dashboard. This allows you to provide a visual representation of your project schedules and key milestones.

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Metric widget

Use the metric widget to display content from one or more cells in a sheet. You need at least Editor permissions on the source sheet from which you want to display information. 

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AI Chart widget

The AI chart widget allows you build visualizations using natural language, and you can refine them anytime through a conversational editor.  Chart types available are the same as the chart widget, but here Smartsheet suggests prompts and charts that you can create and edit just by typing in what you need.

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Chart widget

The chart widget displays real-time data in a dashboard from a table on your sheet. You need at least Editor permissions on the source sheet or report from which you want to display information. 

Explore the one that best suits your needs. Here is an example of a couple of them:

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Shortcut widget

With the shortcut widget, create a link or a list of links to specific URLs, files, or Smartsheet items. 

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Rich text widget

Use a rich text widget to add any text string you want to use for titles, instructions, updates, or any other type of text.

Report widget

The report widget allows you to display a report in your dashboard, but you need at least Admin access to the source report. Users shared to the dashboard don't always need access to the underlying sheets to see the report content.

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Image widget

Use an image widget to add a company logo, employee photos, or other images to your dashboard.

Title widget

With the title widget, you can name your dashboard and better organize your widgets under various headings.

Web content widget

Use the web content widget to add interactive content to your dashboard, such as Tableau charts, Smartsheet Forms, YouTube videos, and more. However, you need access to the source application to do so. 

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Example dashboard

Here is an example of how a dashboard might look with a combination of some of these widgets:

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