Dashboards and stories

The following features are new or changed in IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1.0. Dashboards and stories.

Copy and paste

You can copy and paste visualizations from a dashboard to another dashboard. To copy and paste, select a visualization, then use keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.

Canvas layout positioning

In the properties for a dashboard or story, you can set whether the layout positioning is relative or absolute. In a relative layout, the size and position of widgets adjust to fit into the screen. Widgets in an absolute layout appear exactly as you size and place them in the view, regardless of the screen size.

Page size

You can choose a pre-set page size for a dashboard such as letter or legal. You can also set the height and width of a dashboard. This feature gives you control of the display of your dashboard or story for different screen sizes.

Smart visualization recommender
When you drag data items from the metadata tree on to the report canvas, Cognos Analytics renders the visualization that best represents the data. You can choose other visualizations from the list if you don't like the one selected by Cognos Analytics.
Show grid, snap to grid, and snap to objects

The default view for a new dashboard or story displays a grid on the canvas that provides a guide for you to snap objects to. Also, you can snap objects to other objects. You can enable and disable these features in the dashboard or story properties.

Create custom color palettes

You can view the default color palette, change the palette, and create your own palettes for your dashboard or story in the dashboard or story properties.

Hide tabs

The default dashboard style is now a tabbed dashboard. If you want to create a dashboard with only one tab, you can hide the tab and the Create tab button to save screen space. The show and hide tabs feature is available from the dashboard properties.

Modify colors on tab titles and tab selection indicators

For titles on tabs, you can quickly choose a basic color or create a custom color by using a color picker. The line under a tab title shows the tab that is selected and is called the selection indicator. You can modify the selection indicator color too. These new features are available from the dashboard properties.

Widget title enhancements

For a widget title, you can modify the font family, font size, text color, alignment, and styles. This feature is available from the Text details tab in the visualization properties and from the on demand tool bar when you select the title text in a visualization.

Auto-group

You can enable auto-group from the on-demand toolbar. When auto-group is enabled on a column, for example Years, the years are automatically categorized by a group of years such as a decade.

Reorganized properties
The properties in the properties pane are now grouped by categories such as Canvas, Color and Themes, and Tabs. These groups are also collapsible and expandable to improve organization and usability of the properties pane.
Align objects
When you drag an object on the canvas, guidelines appear to assist with alignment with other objects on the canvas. These guidelines help you place objects exactly where you want them.
Size and position widgets from the properties pane

From the visualization properties, you can align widgets relative to one another, precisely position, and adjust the height and width of widgets on your dashboard.

Customize axis labels for charts

From the visualization properties for a chart, you can customize the axis scale, axis titles, axis label orientation, and so on.

Show visualization data

From the on-demand toolbar for a visualization, or from the data tray, you can view the data that makes up your visualization.

Launch Explorations

From the on-demand toolbar on a visualization, you can launch Explorations where you can explore the data that is used in your visualization in much more detail.

Share dashboards or stories on Slack

Share your dashboard or story with your team on Slack where you can collaborate and discuss your findings. You can also annotate screen captures of your dashboard or story to share on Slack. This feature requires some additional configuration.

Format numbers to display currency and percentage

From the on-demand toolbar, you can format numbers to display in the currency you choose. You can also format numbers to show as a percentage and set the number of decimal places to display.

Insights
You can enable Insights on a visualization to learn more about the data such as the average or the meaningful differences.
Use the selection tool to analyze specific data on a visualization
From the on-demand toolbar, you can use the selection tool to highlight an area on a chart or map.
Export as a story

From the list beside the save button, you can select Export as a story to make a copy of your dashboard and convert it into a story.

Matching color palettes on multiple visualizations
When multiple items on the canvas share a category or value, you can use the Color consistency setting to automatically adjust the visualization colors to match each other.
New scene templates for stories
You no longer start from scratch when you add a new scene to a story. Now, for a new scene, a default template is displayed that includes a title, a text widget, and a blank visualization to assist you with getting started on the new scene. And, there are many other templates to choose from. To see all the template options, click the down arrow beside the Add a new scene plus sign.
Data entrance inside a chart
From the visualization properties for a chart, on the Animation tab, you can animate how data is presented within a chart. For example, you can set the animation properties for a bar chart to have the bars grow and other data on the chart appear gradually as the scene plays.
Navigate markers in a scene
Enable Navigate markers to allow a presenter to control how widgets are revealed in a scene. With this feature enabled, each widget in the scene is represented by a mark on the timeline. A presenter can click the Next marker button to go from one marker to the next to reveal a new widget for each marker.
Change story type
In the story properties, you can easily change the story type from slide show to guided journey and vice versa.
New and updated visualizations
  • Area
  • Bar
  • Bubble
  • Bullet
  • Column
  • Crosstab
  • Data player
  • Decision tree
  • Driver analysis
  • Heatmap
  • Hierarchy bubble
  • Legacy map
  • Line
  • Line and column
  • List
  • Map
  • Marimekko
  • Network
  • Packed bubble
  • Pie point
  • Radial
  • Scatter
  • Spiral
  • Stacked bar
  • Stacked column
  • Summary
  • Sunburst
  • Table treemap
  • Word cloud

Assistant

You can type in English text to discover patterns and relationships in your data, as well as generate visualizations that can be added to an existing dashboard or exploration. Enter text related to your analytical intentions and an AI conversational agent will respond with visualizations and other information to satisfy your request.

Open the full assistant panel by clicking the Assistant icon assistant icon. If you're using the compact assistant panel, you can switch to the full panel by clicking Open in full view. The compact panel is available in explorations only.

For usage details, such as supported lexicon, refer to the Assistant documentation in the IBM Cognos Analytics Dashboards and Stories User Guide.