"Explore" Mode for Dashboards and Reports

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 easily do 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

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 bookmarks.” 

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

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

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 bookmarks.” A panel will appear to the right of your dashboard/report. Click the “Explorations” tab and then the date and time of the version that you would like to view.

Use Explore mode

Edit existing elements

1. Click on the element you would like to edit. The edit bar will open on the left side of the dashboard/report.
2. Update the colors, 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.

If Reset does not appear, click to Clear Bookmark, and the original version will re-load.

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

Steps to create a personal bookmark are below.

1. 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 bookmark…”

2. Enter the bookmark name you would like to use, and
3. 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 default bookmark.” This can always be changed by clicking the three dots to the right of the bookmark name in the Bookmarks menu and selecting “Remove as default view.”
4. Click Save. 

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