🗺️ "Explore" Mode for Dashboards and Reports

  • Updated

What is Explore mode?
 

At Deed, we pride ourselves on providing Admins with a robust library of "out of the box" reports and dashboards that help you manage your impact program and glean strategic insights. We understand that some Admins want to tailor these standard reports and dashboards for their specific uses and programs...and with Explore mode, the possibilities are endless!

Explore mode lets you easily make changes to a dashboard or report so that you can quickly make ad hoc analysis or aesthetic changes, without having to worry about your changes overwriting the original version of the dashboard or report.

Explore mode allows you to make edits to a dashboard or report without affecting saved or shared versions of that dashboard or report. Some great use cases for Explore mode include:

  • A user wants to make temporary changes that are discarded once they leave the page. For example:
    • Changing the colors or title on a chart before a presentation
    • Adding a grouping to a report for an ad hoc analysis
    • Removing columns from a report that are not used
  • A user wants to make changes that only they can access for future use

If you are looking to make updates to a dashboard or report and then share that version with your team, please read about Deed's Edit Ability.

Access Explore mode

From any dashboard or report, click the Explore toggle in the lower right corner of the page. Once the toggle is clicked, it will appear purple. If you do not see this toggle, please speak with your Partner Success Manager about updating your permissions.

Un-clicked toggle:

Clicked toggle: 

 

Access a bookmarked version of a dashboard or report

To return to a previously explored state of the dashboard or report, click the bookmark icon and then “Manage saved views” 

Screenshot 2026-03-17 at 12.48.07 PM.png

A panel will appear to the right of your dashboard/report. Click the saved view that you would like to see.

 

Access unsaved version history

To return to a previously explored state of the dashboard or report that you had NOT bookmarked, click the bookmark icon and then “Manage saved views.” A panel will appear to the right of your dashboard/report. Click the “Custom Views” tab and then the date and time of the version that you would like to view.

Screenshot 2026-03-17 at 12.56.58 PM.png

 

Use Explore mode

Edit existing elements

  1. Click on the element you would like to edit. Click Show customize panels and a bar will show on the right-hand side.
  2.  
  3. Update the colors, format, property fields, or formulas as desired.

Create new elements

At this time, the best way to add a new element to your dashboard/report is to duplicate and then edit an existing element.

  1. Choose the data element closest to what you are looking to create (e.g. an existing table, pivot table, or visualization) and click the 3 dots in the upper right corner. Select “Duplicate.”

2. Edit the duplicated version as explained above.

 

Reset the dashboard/report

If you want to revert back to the original version, click “Reset” at the bottom right of the screen. Reset will only appear after changes are made in Explore more.

 

Bookmark an updated dashboard or report

If you want to easily access the ad hoc analysis or updates that you worked on at a later time, you can Bookmark the dashboard or report. NOTE: only you will be able to see the bookmarked version; it will not be accessible to other team members.

A Bookmark lets you save your favorite filter, settings, analysis, and color schemas so that you can open the dashboard or report in the future with those settings already applied. Some great use cases for bookmarking are listed below:

  • A user oversees employees in California and does not want to keep updating the Employee State filter every time they look at donations data
  • A user downloads the .png version of the volunteering dashboard for a monthly meeting and wants the colors in the dashboard to align with company branding
  • A user wants to see donations data grouped by department, and does not want to need to download the donations report and do this analysis in Excel each month
  • A user wants the employee donations numbers to be called “Associate donations” without having to recreate the chart/table in PowerPoint

 

How to Save a Personal View

Once you have finished making the changes you want included in a new personal version of the dashboard or report, click the bookmark icon and then “Save as new view…”

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Enter the view name you would like to use, and 

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If you want the bookmarked version of the dashboard or report to appear whenever you navigate to this dashboard/report instead of the off the shelf version, click “set as my default view.” This can always be changed by deleting the view in Manage Saved Views. 

Click Save. 

 

More detail on all options in the bookmark menu is below.

Save as new view

Saves the current explored state as a new personal view.

Available only when viewing an explored state that isn't saved as a view.

Manage saved views Opens the Bookmarks tab in the side panel, where you can view and edit saved personal views.
Personal views

Opens a submenu that allows you to select and view any saved personal view.

Available when you have one or more saved personal views.

Clear views

Resets the workbook to the published version.

Available when viewing a saved personal view.

 

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