Selection pane and the Spotlight property

The Selection Pane and the Spotlight property for visuals are both closely related features to Bookmarks. For example, with the Selection Pane exposed via the View tab of the Report view, certain textboxes on a report page can be hidden while a specific text box associated with a bookmark is left visible.

In the following example, three textboxes have been created for the Europe report page, but only one of the three textboxes is visible for each of the three Europe Bookmarks:

Selection Pane and Bookmarks Pane

The Selection Pane can be accessed via the View tab in Report view and displays all objects of the selected report page including visuals, images, and shapes. Although most commonly used with Bookmarks, the Selection Pane is also helpful when developing report pages that contain many visuals and objects. Selecting an object from the Selection Pane provides access to the properties associated with that object (for example, field inputs, formatting cards) as though the object was selected on the report canvas.

The icons next to the objects can be toggled between visible (eye symbol) and hidden (dash symbol). In the preceding example, only the text box containing the title Europe Sales and Margin: Summary is visible for the Europe: Summary bookmark. The other two textboxes on the Europe report page contain a title corresponding to the other two Europe Bookmarks (Europe: Bikes Only, Europe: Excluding Bikes). Like the Europe: Summary bookmark, only the text box containing the title associated with the given bookmark is visible for these two other Bookmarks.

The Spotlight property, accessed via the ellipsis in the top-right corner of each visual, draws attention to the specific visual by making all other visuals on the report page fade into the background.

Spotlight is particularly useful in supporting presentations via Bookmarks. For example, in the View mode described later in this section, one bookmark could display a report page of visuals normally and the following bookmark could highlight a single visual to call out a specific finding or an important trend or result. Spotlight may also be helpful for presenters to explain more complex visuals with multiple metrics and/or dimension columns.

As an alternative to Spotlight, Focus mode can also be saved as a bookmark. Focus mode can be applied via the diagonal arrow icon in the top right corner of chart visuals and fills the entire report canvas with the single visual.

In the following example, the Spotlight property has been enabled for a scatter chart on the Europe report page:

Report page with Spotlight enabled on the scatter chart

In the preceding report page, four other visuals (three cards and a bar chart) are still visible, but the scatter chart is emphasized via the Spotlight property. With Spotlight enabled, the report author could add a bookmark with an intuitive name (for example, Europe Summary: Customer Segment and Country Scatter) to save this specific view. Referencing this bookmark in a meeting or presentation makes it easier to explain the meaning and insights of the scatter chart.

Table of Contents for Selection pane and the Spotlight property

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Table of Contents for
Selection pane and the Spotlight property