There are lots of different ways of customizing online reports/dashboards, in terms of both functionality and appearance. This article describes the customization of tables, visualizations, navigation, filters, controls, explore mode, the page master, and advanced customization using HTML and CSS.

The appearance of tables and visualizations

There are many ways of customizing tables and visualizations, by modifying the data, how the data is calculated, styling, rules, visualization types, and so on. As an example, not how different the design of the dashboard. As an example, compare the two dashboards below.

See Create and Customize Tables and Data Visualization for more information.

Navigation

Navigation refers to how a user moves between pages in a document when in view mode. You can customize navigation by:

• If using a navigation pane, by:
  • Creating folders, by dragging pages onto other pages.
  • Hiding pages.
• Hiding the navigation pane, which is the list of pages shown on the left side of a document. This is hidden by clicking Publish > Publish as Web Pages > Advanced Options > Hide navigation pane and Publish/Republish.
• Creating links.

Filters

Filters created when editing a document are available when the document is being viewed. 

Additionally, controls can be added to pages. For example, a combo box, is shown below.

See Create and Apply Filters for more information

Controls

In addition to being used to filter data, controls can be used to create other forms of interactivity, such as changing which data is viewed and creating simulators. See Work with Controls for Interactive Outputs for more information. 

Explore mode

Explore mode allows viewers of online reports/dashboards to create their own tables using the raw data. See How to Enable Explore Mode.

Page master

The background and default slots (e.g., title) of a page are customized on the page master.

Custom HTML

You can add custom HTML onto page using a calculation, as follows:

1. Press Calculation > Custom Code and click on the page to place the calculation.
2. In the object inspector, go to Properties > R CODE.
3. Type in the following code, replacing <b>dog</b> with whatever HTML you wish to use.
4. Press CALCULATE.

rhtmlMetro::Box("<b>dog</b>", text.as.html = TRUE)

Typically, rather than just type HTML, it is more useful to write the HTML using code. For example, see How to Hide an Output with a Small Sample Size Using a Calculation.

More advanced customization via the CSS

You can also modify the appearance of an online report/dashboard by modifying the CSS (cascading style sheet). For example, see:

• How to Hide Buttons in the Export Menu in View Mode
• How to Customize the Navigation Pane in View Mode
• How to Remove the Header Strip in View Mode

Next

PowerPoint/Excel/PDF Report Creation and Automation