Edit Narrative Views

A narrative view displays data results as one or more paragraphs of text. You use a narrative view to provide information such as context, explanatory text, or extended descriptions along with column values.

You can perform various tasks in the narrative view editor:

  • Type a sentence with placeholders for each column in the results.

  • Specify how rows are separated.

  • Apply cosmetic formatting to the fonts used in the narrative view, or import the font formatting from a previously saved view.

  • Add references to variables.

  1. Open the analysis for editing.
  2. Click the Results tab.
  3. Click Edit View to display the narrative view editor.
  4. If you have administrator privileges and want to format content in the narrative view with valid HTML markup, including JavaScript, select Contains HTML Markup.
  5. In the Prefix field, enter the header for the narrative.

    This text is displayed at the beginning of the narrative.

  6. In the Narrative box, enter the narrative text that is displayed for each row in the results.

    You can include both text and column values. Include a line break code at the end of this field to force each line of text and values onto its own line.

    To include column values, use an at sign (@), optionally followed by a number. Use an at sign by itself to indicate the first column. If you include multiple at signs, then the first occurrence of the sign corresponds to the first column, the second occurrence corresponds to the second column, and so on.

    Use @n to include the results from the designated column in the narrative. For example, @1 inserts the results from the first column in the analysis, and @3 inserts the results of the third column.

    For example, for an analysis that returns the region name in the second column, specify @2 to include the following values in the view: East Region and West Region.

  7. In the Row separator field, enter a row separator for each line from the Narrative field that contains values. For example you might enter a string of plus signs (+) between each line.
  8. In the Rows to display field, enter the number of rows from the column to return.

    For example, enter 5 to display values from the first 5 rows of the column. For a hierarchical column, you can use selection steps to display hierarchy levels with the hierarchical column. For example, create a step to select members based on hierarchy and add members of the specified level. A hierarchy level is considered a row.

  9. In the Postfix field, enter the footer for the narrative. Ensure that the narrative ends in a line break, or that the footer begins with a line break.
  10. Click Done