Guides

Filter a dashboard

Every chart on a dashboard reads saved data. A filter narrows that saved data in your browser. No query runs, and nothing you filter changes the dashboard. This guide covers the controls on the canvas, filtering by a click on a chart, where each filter reaches, and the link that carries your exact view. For authors, it also covers the defaults that the dashboard stores.

Use a control

Controls are the widgets on the canvas: value lists, date pickers, and tests you type. Each control filters the blocks it reaches, for you alone.

Pick values in a list

A one-value list opens on All, which filters nothing. Pick a value to filter. A many-value list stays open while you check values, and its field shows the count beside the selection.

The filter box searches all the values of the column, including the values that the list does not show. Type a few letters to narrow the list. The list shows at most 200 matches, and says how many more match. To reach a rare value, type more of it. When you type a value that the list does not have, a Use "…" row appears at the top. Select that row to use the typed value.

(Blank) is first in every list. It finds the rows with no value in the column. On a many-value list, it checks beside the other values, so "North, (Blank)" keeps the named rows and the blank rows together. A one-value list offers (Blank) and (Not blank) as rows of their own.

A many-value list carries an Exclude chip beside its label. With Exclude on, the selection removes its values instead of keeping them, and the field reads "not …". An excluding selection keeps the rows with a blank value. To remove those rows too, check (Blank). While anything is selected, the label row shows Clear.

Check the values, then click Exclude to remove them instead of keeping them.

Pick a period or exact dates

A date-range control is one field and a popover. The field states the current range in words: a preset name, a pair of dates, or All time when nothing filters. The popover gives three ways to set a range:

Presets — rolling day counts (Last 7 days), calendar periods with their "to date" versions (This month, This month to date), and whole previous periods (Last month).
Typed From and To bounds.
A calendar — the first click starts the range, and the second click ends it. While you point at a day, the calendar previews the range.

The date-range popover open under its control. On the left are the presets: All time, the rolling day counts from Today to Last 365 days, and the calendar periods. At the foot is the Exclude today (rolling) switch. On the right are the typed From and To bounds and the August 2026 calendar, with the standing range highlighted up to today. — The date-range popover: presets, typed bounds, and the calendar.

When you pick a preset, the control changes it to fixed dates, so a link you share holds the exact dates you saw. To end rolling ranges yesterday, turn on Exclude today (rolling). Use it when the data for today is not complete.

Two clicks on the calendar set a range. The field states it, and the blocks update.

Type a test

A text or number control applies a test. The test is on the label row, and the value goes in the box under it. The test menu offers the tests that fit the column: contains and starts with on text, is greater than and is between on numbers, and is blank on both.

Select the test on the label row.
Type the value. is between takes two bounds, and the blank tests take none.
To apply the test, press Enter or click away.

Select the test, type the value, and press Enter.

An is between with one bound filters nothing, and the control asks for both bounds. A negated test, such as does not contain or is not, keeps the rows with a blank value, and the control says so. Clear empties the value and sets the test back to the author's default.

Reach every filter from one list

On a big dashboard, a control can be far from the chart you read. The Controls panel lists every filter of the dashboard in one place, including the filters that have no control on the canvas, and the parameters beside them. You need no edit access.

Click the funnel icon in the icon rail at the right edge of the screen. The panel opens beside the canvas. On a phone, it opens at the bottom of the screen.
Change a filter in the panel. The panel and the controls on the canvas show the same value, and the charts update.
To find the control of a filter on the canvas, click Show on canvas. The canvas moves the control to its center.
To go back to the author's defaults, click Reset all. The reset changes only your view of the dashboard.

The Controls panel lists every filter. Reset all returns each one to the author's default.

The number on the funnel icon is the count of filters that are set. When the icon shows no number, no dashboard filter is set. When the panel says the dashboard has no filters, its editors add them with a Control block.

Click a chart to filter the rest

On some blocks, the author lets a click filter the other blocks. This filter is a cross-filter. Before the first click, a click filters by … chip on the block shows that a click filters. The section See where a filter reaches describes the chips.

Click a bar, a point, a slice, a legend entry, or a table cell. Every block in the reach of the filter narrows to that value. On the chart you clicked, the other marks fade.
To add a value, hold Ctrl, Cmd, or Shift and click it. The same click on a value already in the filter removes it. A filter that takes one value only changes to the new value.
To clear the filter, click the same value again, or click the empty space of the chart.

Click a bar to filter the other blocks. Click another bar to change the value, and click the same bar again to clear it.

On a chart of dates — a bar for each week or each month — a click filters to the dates of that bar: a week bar sets the seven days of that week, a month bar the days of that month. The filter is a date range, and a date-range control on the same column shows it. To move the range, click another bar. To clear it, click the same bar again.

To filter to a stretch of dates, drag across the chart from the first date to the last. The range covers every bar the drag touches, and a shaded band marks it on a line chart. On a chart of numbers — a scatter plot or a histogram — a drag across the axis filters to the numbers between its two ends, and a drag on a scatter plot draws a box across both axes. A drag works with a mouse or a pen. On a touch screen a drag moves the canvas, and a tap filters.

A click on a week bar sets the date range to the days of that week.

The block you click does not filter itself. It keeps the full chart, so your next click can pick a different value, and it fades the marks outside the filter so you see what you picked. A control bound to the same filter shows the clicked value, and its Clear removes the filter.

Filter with the keyboard

Press Tab until the chart has focus. A screen reader reads the chart's title.
Press the arrow keys to move from mark to mark. A ring shows the mark, and a screen reader reads its values. Up and Down move to the next series. Home and End move to the first and the last mark.
Press Enter to filter by the mark. Press Space to add the mark to the filter.
Press Escape to clear the filter of the chart.

See where a filter reaches

A filter does not always reach every block. The control and each block show where a filter applies.

Open a control, or rest the pointer on it, and the canvas outlines the blocks that its filter reaches:

An accent outline — the filter reaches this block.
A warning outline — the block is in scope, but its data does not have the column. The filter does not apply there.
A dashed outline — this chart sets the same filter by click. It filters the other blocks, and not itself.

Each data block has a funnel badge in its header, with the count of filters that apply to it. Click the badge to open the chips of the block. Each chip shows one filter, with its value and its result:

A plain "label: value" chip — the filter applies here.
set by this chart — the block sets this filter by click, so the filter skips it.
A skipped filter names its reason: no "…" column, not in scope, or ignored by this block. On a block whose datasource has no saved data yet, the chip says so instead, and names the fix: run the datasource in the Data panel.
this block only — a filter that the author fixed on the block itself. No control sets it, and no viewer clears it.
click filters by … — a click on this chart filters the other blocks. Nothing is selected yet.

The Top campaigns table with its filter badge marked 1 in its header. The badge shows the number 2. Under the header, three chips: Channel: Paid Search, which applies; Date range: 2026-05-16 – 2026-08-13 · not in scope, which is skipped; and Spend: is greater than 1000 · this block only, the fixed filter of the block. The table shows only Paid Search rows. — The chips of one block, opened from its filter badge (1): a filter that applies, a filter skipped for a named reason, and a fixed filter that no control sets.

To compare the filters on several blocks, open the chips of each block. The chips stay open together.

The page address holds every value you set: the selections, the dates, the tests, the Exclude mode, and your Chart options adjustments.

Set the filters.
Copy the address from the address bar of the browser.
Send the link. The recipient sees your exact filtered view, if they have access to the dashboard.

A reload keeps your values. Opening a different dashboard resets them.

NOTE — The dashboard stores only the defaults that the author set. Your filters change the page address and never the dashboard, so nothing changes for anyone else.

For authors: set the defaults

Which controls exist, what they open on, and which blocks they reach are part of the dashboard. The author sets them in edit mode.

Add a control

A control is the widget, and a param is the value it sets. Two controls on one param share one value: a pick in one of them shows in the other, and both filter the same way.

In edit mode, click Add in the header.
Click Control. The control appears in the middle of the part of the canvas you see, and its form opens in the Properties panel. Until the control has a param, it shows a message that it is not bound to a param yet. This message is expected. To move the control, drag it by its header.
In Param, choose the param:
- To make the control set the same value as another control, pick that control's param. The control is ready.
- To filter on a new column, choose Create new param…. In What it does, keep Filters rows. In Field to filter, pick the column. The name and the type fill in. Then click Create param.
- To make a slider or a dropdown of fields, choose Create new param… and read Add a slider or a field choice.

The message on the control goes away, and the control shows its widget, such as a list of the values of the column. Pick a value, and the blocks that the filter reaches redraw with the filtered rows. To set the default, the type, and the blocks the filter reaches, read Configure a control. Its form is already open.

Add a control from the Add menu. Its form opens at once.

Add a slider or a field choice

A filter narrows the rows. A slider and a field choice filter nothing: they hold a value that charts, scorecards and titles read. Use a slider for a what-if number, such as a growth rate. Use a field choice to let the reader change what a chart shows, such as its breakdown or its metric.

Add a control, and in Param choose Create new param….
In What it does, choose Sets a number (a slider) or Picks a field (a dropdown).
Type a Name, such as growth, and click Create param. Formulas and titles use this name, so use letters, digits and underscores only, with no spaces. The Label field sets the text a reader sees above the control.
For a slider, set the Minimum, the Maximum, the Step and the Default. The slider holds the plain number, so a rate from 0% to 20% runs from 0 to 0.2. In Format, type .0% to show 0.05 as 5%, or ,.2f for a number with two decimals.
For a field choice, tick the columns and the measures the reader may pick under Choices, and set the Default. A measure is a named formula on the datasource, such as revenue per order: read How a dashboard works.

The control now shows a slider set to its default, or a dropdown of the fields you ticked. Then make the blocks read the value:

A slider in a number. Define a measure on the datasource whose formula names the slider, such as sum(revenue) * (1 + growth), and show that measure in a scorecard or a chart. The number changes as the reader moves the slider.
A slider in a title. Type the name in braces in a block's title, such as Revenue at {growth} growth. To edit a title, double-click it. The title shows the value in the slider's format, such as 5%.
A field choice in a chart. Select the chart, and in the Properties panel open the channel that holds the breakdown: X for the bars of a bar chart, or Color for its series. Set Follows to the param. The chart then shows the field the reader picks, with its axis title and its number format. The same Follows row sits under a scorecard's field.

A chart does not draw a choice that its datasource lacks. If a choice shows nothing, open the Findings panel: it names each choice that a block cannot draw. A name in braces that matches no param stays in the title as typed.

Configure a control

If the form of the control is not open, select the control and choose Edit in its header. The form opens in the Properties panel. A control you just added from the Add menu already has its form open. Each change applies as you make it, and the canvas is the preview.

Param — the value that the control sets. The control is the widget, the param is the value, and one param can drive several controls. Create new param… asks first what the param does. For a filter, pick the column, and the name and the best-fit type fill in. A slider or a field choice has its own fields: read Add a slider or a field choice.
Field to filter — the data column, matched by name in every datasource that has it. A new control takes the name of its field as its title. The title follows the field until you type a title of your own.
Type — Select (one value), Multi-select (a set), Date range, Text (type a value), or Number (compare). The picker offers only the types that fit the field. A change of type clears the default when the new type cannot hold it, and a notice names what it cleared. Then set a new default.
Default — the value the dashboard opens on. A list default offers the same (Blank) and Use "…" rows as the reader's control.
Test — the author's test on a text or number param, with Match case on text. A reader can change the test for their own view.
Order options — sorts the options of a list by a measure. Each sorted option shows a bar with the number beside it.
Exclude selected values — opens the control in exclude mode.
Applies to — the blocks that the filter reaches.

The form of the Channel control in the Properties panel, under the title Block — Channel. From the top: Param set to channel, the name channel, Type set to Select (one value), Field to filter set to channel, Label set to Channel, an empty Default, Order options set to A → Z (or the field's order), and the Applies to checklist with four blocks checked. — The form of a one-value list control.

Limit a control to a section or a frame

Applies to is a checklist of the data blocks on the dashboard, all checked by default. Frames and sections are at the top of the list. Check a section, and the filter reaches the blocks in it. A block included through its section reads (via its section). When you drag a block into the section, the filter reaches it. When you drag a block out, the filter stops reaching it. A frame works the same way, for every block on that page, and its blocks read (via its frame).

The Applies to checklist of a control, with the note 2 of 3 data blocks. Channel detail (section) is checked. Total spend is not checked. Spend by channel and Campaigns read (via its section). — The **Applies to** checklist. The section row includes the blocks in the section, and each of those blocks says so.

Exempt a block, or fix a filter on it

A chart, scorecard, or table form has a Filters group: the filtering of the block itself, separate from any control.

Ignore dashboard filters exempts the block from every control. For example, use it for an all-time total on a dashboard filtered by date.
Add filter adds a fixed clause that the block always applies: a column, an Is or Is not choice, and a value. Match several values changes the value to a set. No widget sets a fixed clause, and no viewer clears one.

The form cannot set two things, and the group says so: an exemption from individual params, and a date-range clause. Write those in the Source panel, or with the Edit as JSON button at the foot of the form.

Turn on cross-filtering

The Cross-filtering group of the form turns on cross-filtering with one switch. On a chart, it offers the category fields and the date fields of the spec. On a table, it offers the shown columns. The switch uses a param that already filters that column, or makes a new param named after the column. A date field uses a date-range param, so a click sets the dates of the clicked bar. To remove the click rules of the block, turn the switch off. The param stays.

Compare with an earlier period

A chart can draw its series twice: the current period, and an earlier period for comparison. The earlier period is dashed on a line and lighter on an area, in the same color. The author turns the comparison on in the Comparison block of the chart. A date-range control that reaches the chart sets the current period, so one date pick moves both periods.

You can turn the comparison on or off for your own view. Point at a chart in view mode and choose Chart options in its header. The popover holds the Compare with an earlier period switch and the mode: Previous period, Previous year, or Custom range. The adjustment goes into the page address like any filter value. The dashboard keeps the author's default.

A line chart in view mode with the Chart options popover open under its header. The popover holds the Compare with an earlier period switch, which is off. — Chart options on a line chart. The switch changes your view only, and the dashboard keeps its default.

For downloads, fullscreen, and the age of the data, read Read a dashboard.