Layout modes

Every dashboard is created in one of three layout modes, and the mode decides how the canvas behaves, which widgets are available, and what the reader gets. It is chosen in the creation dialog and cannot be changed afterwards.

The three modes

Fit to screen gives you a fixed canvas sized to a screen — 1920 by 1080 by default — with tabs. Nothing scrolls. Everything a reader needs has to fit in the frame, and anything that does not fit goes on another tab. This is the mode for a wall display or a status screen someone leaves open.

Scroll gives you a single page that grows downward. There are no tabs. The reader scrolls. This is the least restrictive mode, and the right default when you are not sure how much you will end up putting on the page.

Paginated gives you a page-sized canvas — 800 pixels wide by default — that behaves like paper. It adds a Report Structure group to the widget library holding six widgets that only make sense on a printed page: report title, page number, current date, band, repeating region, and watermark. Those six are hidden in the other two modes. This is the mode for something that will be exported to PDF and read as a document.

Why the choice is permanent

Fit mode stores its widgets as a tree of tabs. Scroll and paginated store a flat list. Converting between them would mean either inventing tab boundaries or throwing them away, and it would rewrite the stored schema in ways that would break saved versions and published snapshots.

So the product does not try. The designer shows the mode as a read-only badge beside the dashboard name, so you can see which mode you are in. If you picked the wrong one, create a new dashboard in the right mode and rebuild.

That is worth pausing over, because dashboards cannot be renamed either. The creation dialog is the only place you get to set either one.

Choosing

Ask what the reader will do with it.

If they will glance at it — a screen in a room, a tab left open on a second monitor — use fit to screen, and design everything to fit one screen.

If they will read it top to bottom, use scroll. Most dashboards fall here.

If they will print it, email it, or file it, use paginated. The report-structure widgets are only available in this mode.

What the mode changes elsewhere

The mode follows the dashboard everywhere. The published view shows it in the header. A schedule that delivers a fit-mode dashboard asks which tab to export, or offers all tabs; scroll and paginated dashboards have no tabs, so they skip that question. Paginated dashboards get a Page Setup control in the designer toolbar that the other modes do not show.

Related

Create a dashboard walks through the creation dialog. Designer toolbar lists which controls appear in which mode, and Widget catalogue marks the six paginated-only widgets.