Common Report Authoring Tips

Improve all of your reports with these recommendations and answers to frequently asked questions regarding reporting. The information isn’t exhaustive and is updated regularly with additional information and authoring tips.

Tips for Filters

When applying filters to reports, follow these guidelines:

• Use dashboard filters instead of workbook or canvas filters for user interactions in analyses.
• Use workbook filters for hidden and non-interaction filters.
• To improve the performance of prompts, set the Limit by Values to None in System Settings so that it's applied to all workbooks by default. You can change this setting in specific workbook filters if needed, however the default value of None should remain.
• When applying a filter on an attribute, use a Code column (when available) instead of a Name or Description column.
• Always apply the necessary filters first before you start building visualizations to ensure optimal queries are created when you add the metrics required in the visualization.

Tips for Brushing

Disable brushing to improve report performance. See Update Canvas Properties.

Tips for Working with Currency

To display the currency format for currency amounts, set the number format in each visualization as a custom currency. Then in the subject area folder, select the currency column. See Set Currency Symbols for Visualizations.

Tips for Reporting on Attributes Across Multiple Dimensions

When reporting on attributes against multiple dimensions, always use a measure in the report. In subject areas with more than one fact, the measure sets the correct context in the query, builds an accurate navigational path, and returns the expected results. If you don’t want the measure to show in the report, hide it. See Hide or Delete a Column.

Tips for Presentation Hierarchies

To improve performance, use presentation columns instead of presentation hierarchies. See Work with Presentation Tables and Columns.