Adding Reports and Other Content

Overview

Yellowfin Stories gives you the power to include multiple types of content to your Story. This includes text narratives, reports, images and videos. You can add, edit, or delete content in this builder much like any other word processing tool.

Story Narrative

Add text to provide context to your story:

1. Simply click on a new line in the Story.
2. Start typing to enter your text, or you can also paste from your clipboard.
3. The text will be automatically saved to your Story.
4. To move on to the next line, press the Enter key.

Text formatting

You can format your text by using a formatting menu, as well as with a combination of your keyboard keys.  

 

Numbered list

To initiate a numbered list, follow the steps below:

1. Type 1. in either an empty line, or at the start of existing text, and then press the space key. Note that this will not work if the above key combination is added in the middle of a text.
2. The text line will be transformed to a numbered list. 
   
   
   
   
3. After providing text, press Enter to move to the next numbered item in the list. You can repeat this to add multiple items to this list.
   
   
   
   
4. To end the list, simply press the Enter key once again without providing any text.

  

Bullet point list

The steps to create or edit a bullet point list are the same as above. However, the keyword combination to activate an unordered list could either be the hyphen key and then the space key, or the asterisk key and space.
 

Copying text into your Story

You can copy text from your Story, into another section of the same Story. In doing so, any formatting applied to the copied text will be retained when it is pasted. However, text copied from an external source, will not keep any of its original formatting.

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Embedding Reports

You can add analytical reports to your Story. When adding a report, there are 3 types of content that you can add:

• Live reports
• Bookmarks (a live report with pre-set filters)
• Snapshots (a saved copy of report data)

Choosing which report artifact to add, depends on what your Story is about. Consider the following to help you choose:

• Add a live report when you want to showcase the latest trends. Your report will display the most current data, as it is refreshed each time the Story is viewed.
• Include a bookmarked report to display results of pre-selected filters. For instance, instead of showing the sales of all the regions, you could limit the report to display only sales of the Asian region.
• Add a snapshot when you want to include static report data that does not change when the Story is refreshed. Ideal for when you want to point out results of a particular time period.

 
When you add a report artifact, you can choose which item to display for that report:

• chart or table
• the entire report canvas
• or in case of multiple charts, you can choose which of the charts to display (the first one is displayed by default)

Add a report

1. Click on the plus button at the start of a new line. (Note if you do not see this button, simply click on a new line. The button will appear if no text gets entered.)  
   
   
   
   
2. Then select the report icon from the reanimated menu. 
   
   
   
   
3. A popup will appear displaying all the reports that you have access to. 
   
   
   
   
4. You can filter out relevant reports, snapshots or bookmarks in this popup by typing  the name in the Search bar. Then click on the search icon at the end of the search bar. 
   
   
   
   
5. You also have the option of sorting the reports. Click on the Sort By button and select how you want the items to be sorted in this popup. 
   
   
   
   
6. You can choose to view the reports as thumbnails or in a list. 
   
   
   
   
7. Click on the expand icon over a report's thumbnail, to maximize its image. 
   
   
   
   
8. Click on a report thumbnail to select it. (You can select multiple reports to include them to the Story.)
9. Note that each report will display summarized information, such as the total number of its existing charts, bookmarks and/or snapshots.  (You can click on the snapshot or bookmark icons to view those items for the specific report.) 
   
   
   
   
10. To include a snapshot to the story, click on the Snapshot tab at the top-left and then on the thumbnail of a snapshot. 
    
    
    
    
11. Similarly, follow the same steps to include one or more bookmark(s).
12. Note: You can select multiple items to include them into the story at the same time. The order in which they are added to the story will depend on their order of selection.
13. Once you've made all the selections, click on the Insert to Story button. The selected items will be included to your story.  
    
    
    
    
14. Each item will include a caption that can also be edited.  
    
    
    
    

15. Simultaneously, you can click on the Create new report button if you want to create a report from scratch. On doing so, you will be asked to select your view and navigated to the Report Builder. See the note below.

    
    
    
    

16. The default formatting of the snapshot and bookmark captions indicate the artifact type, followed by the report name and ending with the name of the snapshot/bookmark.
17. You can use the edit menu to change the display of the report artifact. Refer to the section below to learn more.
18. Note that live reports and bookmarks will be automatically refreshed every time you access the story as their data may be changed. This may affect your story. (Snapshots will not be updated even if the data has changed, since they always remain static.)
19. You can interact with report artifacts embedded in Stories. Interactions that are supported, include tooltips, drilling, keep/exclude filtering, brushing, annotation.

Create New Report

The Story module lets you create a new report from scratch via the Create new report button, discussed above. If you opt to do this, the live report will be automatically added to the story when you publish it. You can then navigate back to you Story by clicking on the Report to Story button at the bottom right corner of the Report page. 

Note: while this report is being created, and until it is activated, story author and collaborators would see a placeholder in place of this report. Using the ‘maximum’ button on this placeholder, they can always navigate to the report. 

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Report display options

Hover over a report to bring up the report menu. This includes options to let you resize the report's displayed size, choose the report view to display in the story, that is the chart, table, or canvas, or let you view the report in the Report Builder.



Note: If an icon is dark, then that means it is enabled. Whereas, grey means that the functionality is not applied. Click on a greyed out icon to apply that functionality. For example, clicking on the grey 'table' icon will display the report's table.
 

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Replacing Reports

Report artifacts, such as live reports, snapshots and bookmarks, that have been added to a story, can be replaced.

1. Place your cursor over the report artifact to be replaced. Then click on the maximise button. You will be taken to the report's output page. 
   
   
   
   
2. There you can replace the artifact with a snapshot, bookmark or report by choosing an existing artifact or creating a new one. 
3. For example, we want to replace the artifact with an existing snapshot. Click on the +Story button in the snapshot panel. 
   
   
   
   
4. On doing so, a message will appear that provides you with two options. 
   
   
   
   
5. Click on the Replace item in Story button to replace the artifact in the Story with the new one selected here (that is the snapshot).
6. Or click Add to the end of Story to include this new artifact at the bottom of the Story (without replacing the old one).
7. You can add multiple artifacts of the same report as well.
8. Once done, click on the Return to Story button to get back to your draft Story. Note the artifact that you select here can only be included to the same Story. 
   
   
   

 
 

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Chart Selection

If your report includes more than one chart, then you have the option of selecting which chart to include.

1. Hover over a report, and when the menu appears, click on the chart icon. 
   
   
   
   
2. In case of multiple charts, a popup will appear. Choose one of the charts that you want to include. Then click Insert to Story.

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Sharing Hidden Content

If you add a secure report that is inaccessible to all your readers, then that report will be hidden for them in the story, with a message notifying them of the reason they can't view the report content. See the example below:


 

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External BI Content

You can incorporate reports from other reporting tools, such as Tableau, PowerBI, or Qlik, into your Yellowfin Story. This is done by providing a report link that embeds the report.

Follow the steps below to add a report from external BI tools.

1. Click on the plus button at the start of a new line. (Note if you do not see this button, simply click on a new line. The button will only appear if no text gets entered.)  
   
   
   
   

2. Select the 'reporting tools' icon from the menu.
   
   
   
   

3. This provides you with a selection of available reporting tool choices. Select one whose content you would like to embed into your Story. 
   
   
   
   

4. A popup menu will appear. Provide the link to your external report here. 
   
   
   
   

5. Then click Insert. Ensure that you have provide the correct link for this to work. If you accidentally provide a link to a PowerBI report while choosing the Tableau option, an error will occur.

6. Once the report appears on the screen, you can even resize it. To do so, hover over the report, and when the resize option appears at the bottom right of the report, click and drag it to change the size of the embedded report. 
   
   
   
   

7. You can also provide a caption for this report, by clicking directly under the report. 
   
   

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Other Story Content

Besides text and reports, you can include additional content such as images, videos and even dividers into a Story.

Adding an image to a Story

1. Click on the plus button at the start of a new line. (Note if you do not see this button, simply click on a new line. The button will only appear if no text gets entered.)  
   
   
   
   
2. Select the image  icon from the menu.
   
   
    
3. The image manager popup will appear. Use it to choose an existing image by selecting its thumbnail, or add a new image by using the Add button. 
   
   
   
   
4. Once added, you can resize the image. See the chart below for the options.
5. The image will be captioned with its name, which can also be edited or removed.

Image resizing options

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Embedding a video to a Story

You can embed Youtube or Vimeo videos into your story. Here's a simple procedure that explains how to do this:

1. Click on the plus button at the start of a new line. (Note if you do not see this button, simply click on a new line. The button will only appear if no text gets entered.)  
2. Select the video icon. 
   
   
   
   
3. Copy the link from either video platform, and paste it in the area specified. Press the Enter key.
4. The video will be displayed, and captioned with the link. You can edit or remove the caption. 
   
   
   
   
5. To delete the video, simply select it and press the Delete key.

Note: Although the video image will be displayed in a Story while in draft mode, it can only be played when the Story is published.

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Adding a divider

Include a divider in your story to display a horizontal line that's used to divide your story content.

1. Click on the plus button at the start of a new line. (Note if you do not see this button, simply click on a new line. The button will only appear if no text gets entered.)  
2. Then select the divider icon. 
   
   
   
   
3. A horizontal line will appear. 
   
   
   

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Reconstructing Story Content

Once you have added content, such as text, reports, images, or videos, you can drag it to another part of the Story. This gives you freedom to restructure your story content after adding it (even highlighted text), saving you the trouble of redoing your Story.

A drop indicator will show you the exact location you’re dropping the content to.

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Deleting Content

You can delete an attached content, such as a report, image, video, etc, by selecting the item and pressing the backspace or delete key.