Dashboard actions

A dashboard becomes interactive through actions: click the Jakarta bar in one chart and the other charts instantly show Jakarta only. There are two ways to set this up: the Use as Filter funnel icon (one click) and the Dashboard → Actions... menu (full control). Carry on with the Sales Dashboard from the previous lesson.

123 Zoom

Click a number on the picture or in this list to highlight that area.

1. 1Add Action The menu of action types: Filter..., Highlight..., Go to URL..., Go to Sheet..., and more.
2. 2Action row The Filter by Region action: it runs on Select (Run On column), comes from Sales Dashboard (Source column), and filters on all fields (All). To check which source and target sheets you ticked, use the Edit... button.
3. 3Use as Filter The funnel icon on the edge of the selected sheet; one click creates a filter action.

Step by step

1. 1

   Step 1: The quickest way: on the dashboard, click the Revenue by Region bar chart until it has a border, then click the Use as Filter funnel icon (number 3) at its top-right edge. Try clicking the Jakarta bar: the KPI (now 0.75B) and the line chart instantly show Jakarta only.

   Tip: To clear the selection, click the same bar again or click an empty area of that chart.

2. 2

   Step 2: To choose for yourself which charts get filtered, open Dashboard → Actions.... Click Add Action (number 1) → Filter..., then fill in: Name = Filter by Region, Source Sheets = make sure only Revenue by Region is ticked, Run action on = Select, Target Sheets = make sure only Revenue by Month is ticked, and Clearing the selection will = Show all values. Click OK: a new row appears in the list (number 2).

   Watch out: The action made by the funnel icon in step 1 is in this list too; its name ends in (generated), for example Filter 1 (generated). Select that row and click Remove, so you don’t end up with two actions filtering from the same chart.

3. 3

   Step 3: Click OK to close the Actions dialog, then test it: click the Jakarta bar in Revenue by Region. Now only the line chart changes, while the KPI keeps showing the total for every city.

   Tip: Run action on has three options: Hover (just point the mouse), Select (click), and Menu (shows up as a link in the tooltip). Pick Highlight... in the Add Action menu when you want to highlight the same data in other sheets without hiding the rest.