Copying and pasting assets

You can reuse an asset by copying and pasting it between a dashboard, report, exploration, or story. Some examples of objects that you can copy and paste are visualizations, tables, text, and more.

The following table shows how you can copy and paste assets.
From (Source) To (Target)
Dashboard Dashboard, report, exploration, story
Exploration Exploration, dashboard, report, story
Story Story, dashboard, report, exploration
Report Report

The pasted asset might lose properties because dashboards, reports, explorations, and stories do not support the same properties. For example, some properties apply to reports, but not to dashboards. A message informs you about the properties that are not supported.

If you copy and paste assets between instances of Cognos Analytics, the instances must have the same version.

Before you begin

Ensure that the reports, dashboards, explorations, or stories that you are copying from (source ) and pasting to (target ) are in edit mode.

About this task

In a dashboard, exploration, and story, you can copy and paste objects only on the same tab of the same browser. Only in reports you can copy and paste from one tab to another tab of the same browser.

Some combinations of data sources that are supported by dashboards, explorations, and stories are not supported by reports. For example, Reporting does not support a combination of data modules and packages, or multiple packages in the compatible query mode (CQM). The following warning is displayed when packages are mixed: A report can reference multiple packages that use the dynamic query mode, or one package that uses the compatible query mode. Also, Reporting does not support data modules that are based on dimensional data sources except for IBM® Cognos® Analytics cubes.

When you copy from a dashboard, exploration, and story to paste in a report, the original widget size is kept only if the size is specified in pixels. If the widget size is specified in percentages, Reporting applies its default size format.

You can paste multiple times in the same or different target dashboard, report, exploration, or story.

You cannot paste the following widgets and assets from a dashboard to a report:
  • Text
  • Image
  • Media
  • Web page
  • Shape
  • Data player
  • Driver analysis
  • Decision tree
  • Sunburst
  • Spiral

For information about copying and pasting between reports, see Copying and pasting objects between reports.

Note: Some attributes, such as custom titles, named colors, data sets, stand-alone spreadsheets, and border colors can't be carried over when you paste an asset. Make sure that you review the messages that appear after pasting, and if necessary update the asset in its new location.

Procedure

  1. Select one or more assets.
  2. Use the keyboard shortcut for your operating system to copy.
    A message is displayed that assets are copied.
  3. In the dashboard, report, exploration, or story that you pasting to, use the keyboard shortcut for your operating system to paste.