When you create a new dashboard, the interface will be slightly different than it is when designing a single view. We'll start designing your first dashboard after a brief look at the interface. You might navigate to the Superstore Sales sheet and take a quick look at it yourself.

The dashboard window consists of several key components. Techniques for using these objects will be detailed in Chapter 7, Telling a Data Story with Dashboards. For now, focus on gaining some familiarity with the options that are available. One thing you'll notice is that the left sidebar has been replaced with dashboard-specific content:

The left side-bar contains two tabs:

• A Dashboard tab, for sizing options and adding sheets and objects to the dashboard
• A Layout tab, for adjusting the layout of various objects on the dashboard

The Dashboard pane contains options for previewing based on target device along with several sections:

• A Size section, for dashboard sizing options
• A Sheets section, containing all sheets (views) available to place on the dashboard
• An Objects section with additional objects that can be added to the dashboard

You can add sheets and objects to a dashboard by dragging and dropping. As you drag the view, a light-grey shading will indicate the location of the sheet in the dashboard once it is dropped. You can also double-click any sheet and it will be added automatically.

In addition to adding sheets, the following objects may be added to the dashboard:

• Horizontal and Vertical layout containers will give you finer control over the layout
• Text allows you to add text labels and titles
• An Image and even embedded Web Page content can be added
• A Blank object allows you to preserve blank space in a dashboard, or it can serve as a place holder until additional content is designed
• A Button is an object that allows the user to navigate between dashboards
• An Extension gives you the ability to add controls and objects that you or a third party have developed for interacting with the dashboard and providing extended functionality

Using the toggle, you can select whether new objects will be added as Tiled or Floating. Tiled objects will snap into a tiled layout next to other tiled objects or within layout containers. Floating objects will float on top of the dashboard in successive layers.

When a worksheet is first added to a dashboard, any legends, filters, or parameters that were visible in the worksheet view will be added to the dashboard. If you wish to add them at a later point, select the sheet in the dashboard and click the little drop-down caret on the upper right. Nearly every object has the drop-down caret, providing many options for fine-tuning the appearance and controlling behavior.

Take note of the various User Interface (UI) elements that become visible for selected objects on the dashboard:

You can resize an object on the dashboard using the border. The Grip, marked in the screenshot, allows you move the object once it has been placed. We'll consider other options as we go.