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Add Text, Images, and Shapes

This page covers the dashboard objects that aren't visualizations: text, images, and shapes. It's step 5 of the Build a Dashboard Workflow.

For what these containers are and how they fit into a dashboard, see Key Concepts.

Add a Text Field​

  1. In the dashboard's toolbar, click Text Text icon. The text field is automatically added to the dashboard and your cursor placed in the field.
  2. Add text in field by typing the text you want to display.
  3. Click outside of the text field to save your text.

Add Rich Text​

Unlike regular text fields, you can use rich text to apply rich formatting to the individual character level to create compelling infographic style dashboards.

Important: Autosizing stops at a six point font before a scroll bar is introduced. This is to prevent cases where a string of text ends up being shrunk to an unreadable size. To prevent the scroll bar from appearing, expand the container size to give the text more room.

  1. In the top toolbar, choose Text Text icon > Rich Text.

    The Text menu expanded in the toolbar with the Rich Text option shown.

  2. In the text box, type or paste your text.

  3. Highlight your text and use the Format panel to modify your rich text.

    A rich text container on a dashboard with character-level formatting applied to the highlighted text.

Edit, Move, Resize, or Delete a Text Field​

Edit a Text Field​

To edit a text field, click the text field and enter the new text to display.

or

Click More More icon and choose Edit to highlight the current text. Type the new text to display.

Move a Text Field​

To move a text field, drag it to a new location. A blue indicator line appears in the location where you can place the text field. Release the mouse button to place the text field in the new location.

Resize a Text Field​

To resize a text field, hover the cursor over its edge. Drag the edge to change the size of the text field.

Delete a Text Field​

To delete a text field, hover over it, click More More icon, and choose Delete.

Add an Image​

You can add either a URL or an embedded image to the dashboard.

  • Embedded images are portable and are available when the dashboard is opened offline. The dashboard initially displays with embedded images shown as placeholders, since the images are loaded last. Images larger than 3 MB are compressed, unless they are a GIF file. If the compression does not result in a file smaller than 3 MB, the image cannot be embedded. Use a URL to specify the image's location instead. Only one copy of each image is included in the dashboard file, even if the image is used on different chapters.
  • Large images (over 10 MB or a GIF file over 3 MB) should use a URL rather than embedding.
  1. In the dashboard, in the toolbar, click Image Image icon. A placeholder is automatically added to the dashboard and displayed in an image container.
  2. To embed the image in the dashboard, click Browse in the image container. Navigate to and select the image and click Open. You can also drag and drop an image file into the image container. Note: Embedding images is recommended because it ensures that the image can be commonly accessed outside of Web. or To specify the image location using a URL, enter the URL of the image in the Enter an image URL field and click OK. Note: Both absolute URLs (https://www.example.com/etc/logo.jpg") and relative paths (such as "/images/logo.jpg") are supported, but relative paths are not recommended. Relative paths point to locations that are relative to the application that they were originally created for.
  3. To move the image, click and drag the image to its new location in the dashboard. An indicator line appears in the location where you can add the image. Release the mouse button to place the image in the new location.

Add a Shape​

Use shapes in your dashboard to help frame a visualization, create a layered effect, or visually group elements together.

A dashboard using geometric shapes to frame visualizations and group elements together.

  1. Open a new or existing dashboard.

  2. In the top toolbar, click Shape Shape icon.

  3. Select a shape:

    • Line
    • Rectangle
    • Ellipse
    • Triangle
    • Polygon

  4. Click and drag where you want the shape to appear.

    Info: If a shape overlaps another container, you can resize and reposition it by right-clicking on its layer and selecting Hide on Default View from the Layers panel.

  5. Use the options in the Format panel to customize your shape.

    A shape on a dashboard with fill and border options applied from the Format panel.

Next Step​

Organize Chapters and Pages — step 6 of the Build a Dashboard Workflow.

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