Building dashboard layouts with containers and items

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.omni.co/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Advanced layout dashboards are built from two components:

• Items — The charts, text, filters, and controls you place on the dashboard
• Containers — The regions that hold and arrange items

Containers can be nested inside other containers, letting you group related items, control spacing, and build structured layouts that go beyond the flat grid of a classic dashboard.

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Requirements

To follow this guide, you’ll need:

• A dashboard using advanced layouts. See Enabling advanced layout for more information.
• Content permissions that allow you to edit dashboards

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Working with containers

When you enable advanced layout on a dashboard, your existing items are placed into an initial container. From there, you can add more containers, configure how each arranges its items, and nest containers inside one another to shape your dashboard.

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Selecting a layout type

When you add a container to your dashboard, you choose between two layout types: To add a container, click Add > Layout and select a layout type.

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Naming containers

Each container can have a name to help you identify it while editing. To rename a container, select it and edit the Name field in the properties panel on the right side of the screen.

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Nesting containers

Containers can be placed inside other containers to build nested layouts. For example, place a stack container (set to row direction) inside a grid container to create a horizontal row of filters within a larger free-form layout.

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Resizing items in stack containers

Items within column stack containers can be resized by dragging resize handles, similar to resizing items in grid containers. This allows you to set specific dimensions for individual items while maintaining the automatic flow of the stack layout. Resized items are sized in pixel values with a minimum size of 12px. Changes are previewed live as you drag and committed when you release the mouse. To remove custom sizing, right-click the item and select Reset sizing. This removes all explicit sizing properties (width, height, and min/max constraints) and returns the item to its default automatic size.

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Adding and organizing items

Items can be added automatically — new queries from the workbook are placed on the first page, and page navigation appears when you create multiple pages — or manually from the dashboard’s Add menu. From there, you can move items between containers, browse them in the Catalog, and edit their configuration without leaving the layout editor. Advanced layouts currently support the following item types:

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Adding items to a dashboard

Click Add in the toolbar to insert any item, a layout container, or a new page. Page navigation is automatically added when you create a second dashboard page, but you can also add it manually from the Layout submenu to place additional navigation or customize its position.

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Browsing items in the catalog

The catalog is a browsable library of all available items on your dashboard. Click the Catalog button in the toolbar to open it. The catalog displays items in two groups:

• Controls & filters - All dashboard filters and controls, sorted alphabetically
• Queries - Charts and query visualizations

Use the search field at the top of the catalog to filter items by name. To place an item, click it in the catalog and then select the target container from the menu that appears. The catalog is useful for finding items that haven’t been placed yet or for quickly moving items into a specific container without selecting them on the canvas first.

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Placing items in containers

There are several ways to place items into a container:

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From the catalog

1. Click the Catalog button in the toolbar.
2. Find the item you want to place. Use search to filter by name.
3. Click the item.
4. Select the target container from the placement menu.

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Using the properties panel

1. Select the item you want to place on the canvas.
2. In the properties panel on the right, click Place (for unplaced items) or Move (for items already in a container).
3. A menu will appear showing all available containers.
4. Click the target container to move the item into it.

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Repositioning items

You can drag items to reposition them within a container or move them between containers. This works for all container layout types. While dragging, Omni provides visual cues to help you place items:

• Containers that can accept the item show a colored outline when you hover over them
• Stack containers show a drop indicator line at the insertion point where the item will be placed
• The container you’re dragging from shows an outline to indicate the active drag operation

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Unplaced items

To re-add items to the dashboard, use the Catalog.

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Editing chart items

When you select a chart item on an advanced layout dashboard, the properties panel will show chart settings inline, allowing you to edit visualization configuration without leaving the layout editor.

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Editing chart configuration

To change the chart’s configuration, click the chart and then click the Edit button that displays in the properties panel: In the properties panel, you can edit the chart’s:

• Title, subtitle, and description
• Visualization type
• Visualization settings such as colors, axes, stacking, and other display options

Changes are saved automatically as you work.

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Editing in the workbook

For more advanced editing capabilities, click the Edit in workbook button at the top of the properties panel. This opens the chart in the workbook where you have full configuration options for the visualization.

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Undoing and redoing layout changes

When editing an advanced layout dashboard, you can undo and redo layout changes using the Edit menu, toolbar buttons, or keyboard shortcuts:

• Edit menu - Click Edit > Undo or Edit > Redo
• Toolbar - Click the (undo) or (redo) icons in the editing toolbar
• Keyboard shortcuts - Press ⌘Z (Mac) or Ctrl+Z (Windows) to undo, ⇧⌘Z (Mac) or ⇧Ctrl+Z (Windows) to redo

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History clearing

Your undo/redo history is automatically cleared when you make non-layout changes to the dashboard, such as:

• Renaming the dashboard or items
• Editing filter configurations
• Updating query definitions
• Changing dashboard settings

After a non-layout change, you won’t be able to undo past that point. This ensures that layout changes and content changes remain independent and prevents conflicts between different types of edits.

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Next steps

• Use pages to create multi-page dashboards, where each page has its own layout, items, and filters.
• Customize page navigation to control how viewers move between pages, including custom tabs and dynamic labels.
• Configure advanced filters to display filters as button toggles, multi-select dropdowns, single-day pickers, and timeframe controls.