How do the dashboard widgets work?

Now that BlueTall has customizable widgets, you can customize the dashboard on your account landing page in a variety of ways!

You are welcome to read the contents of this guide chronologically, or you can click on a link from the table of contents below to quickly navigate to the section you need:

When you first log into your account, you'll see that there is already a pre-set dashboard built in. This is similar to what you would see in the demo version of a BlueTally account.

This pre-set dashboard includes a global search, several notification widgets like Due for Return, Low Stock, etc, graphable widgets like Asset by Category and Assets by Status, an Activity Log, and much more! We'll talk about all of these different widgets later in the article.

This pre-set dashboard can be customized just like any other dashboard you create from scratch. You can add new widgets to it, delete existing widgets, rearrange where they appear on the page layout, resize most of the widgets, and change the style of graphable widgets.

To add a new widget, click on the down arrow next to the dashboard name.

This prompts a small dropdown menu to appear. Click the Add Widget option.

A pop-up window with all the available widgets will appear with blue "+ Add" buttons next to each widget name. Select the one you wish to add to your dashboard.

When you click the blue "+ Add" button for your desired widget, the page will refresh, and you will see a green pop-up message in the upper right-hand corner, letting you know that the widget was added successfully.

You'll be able to find the new widget at the bottom of your dashboard. You may have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to ensure you see it.

Newly added widgets will always populate at the bottom of your current dashboard, but this may not be the most optimal place for this widget to appear. Thankfully, all widgets can be rearranged however you see fit.

To move a widget, click the icon with the six dots organized in a 3x2 pattern. See the screenshot below for reference:

While you click and hold the move icon, you'll be able to drag the widget to wherever you'd like within the dashboard. When you've dragged the widget to the desired location, simply release your click to set the widget into place. All widgets to the right of and below the widget you moved will adjust their placement accordingly.

You can change the size of most widgets to further organize them in a way that works best for you. You can resize them to 25%, 33%, 50%, or 100% the width of the page.

To do this, select the resize icon in the upper-right-hand corner of the widget. In the row of icons, it will be the furthest to the left for any non-graphable widget and between the graph icon and the delete icon for all graphable widgets. See screenshots below for exact reference:

Non-graphable widget:

Graphable widget:

Once you've clicked the icon, a small dropdown menu will appear with the different size options. The size the widget is currently using will be highlighted in gray.

Select a size other than what the widget is currently using, and it will resize accordingly. All widgets to the right of and below this widget will adjust accordingly.

As an example, this is how the dashboard looks when I adjust the Due for Return widget from 25% to 50%

The percentage listed for each size refers to how much width on the page the widget will occupy. You can see how much space on the page the Due for Return widget takes up in each of the four options in the screenshots below:

25%

33%

50%

100%

While most widgets can be resized, some, like the Search Bar, cannot. If a widget only has the delete and move icons in its upper right corner, then it cannot be resized.

If you've been following along with this guide so far, you've no doubt noticed that a few widgets display their data in the form of a pie chart or bar chart. We refer to these widgets as graphable widgets, and you have the ability to change the form in which their data is presented!

To do this, simply click the graph icon that appears in the widget's navigation bar in the upper right corner of the widget. This will be the left-most icon for all graphable widgets. Additionally, the icon will match whatever form the widget is currently using, e.g., a small pie chart for any widget in pie chart form and a small bar chart for any widget in bar chart form. See the screenshot below for reference.

When you click on this icon, a dropdown menu will appear, giving you the option to select between Pie Chart and Bar Chart. The widget's current form will be highlighted in gray.

When you click on the non-highlighted option, the page will refresh, and your widget's form will change to the other graph format. In the screenshot below, you'll see that Assets by Category has become a bar chart and Assets by Status has become a pie chart.

To remove or delete any widget you are no longer using, you can click the icon that looks like an "x". This will always appear to the left of the move icon and in between the resize and move icons for any widget that can be resized.

Upon clicking the delete icon, a pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm if you want to delete this widget. Click "OK" to proceed.

After you confirm that the widget should be removed, the page will refresh, and a green message box will appear in the upper-right corner of your screen to confirm the widget was deleted.

In addition to managing your widget for a single dashboard, you can create multiple dashboards to have different layouts of the data you wish to see on your account landing page.

Click on the down arrow next to the Dashboard's name to produce the same dropdown menu we used when adding a new widget. This time, however, we will select the New Dashboard option from the menu when it appears.

A pop-up window will appear, prompting you to give your new dashboard a name. Enter the name that suits this dashboard best, then click the blue "Create Dashboard" button.

At this point, the page will refresh, and your new dashboard will populate on your account landing page. Unlike the pre-set dashboard, it will not have any widgets already loaded into it, so you'll see a message stating that the dashboard is empty and you'll be invited to add new widgets as you see fit.

As soon as you have more than one dashboard, the dropdown menu attached to the active dashboard's name expands to include a few more options: you'll now be able to switch between your available dashboards, set a default dashboard, and delete any dashboards you are no longer using.

This is done in the top part of the dashboard drop-down menu. Your current active dashboard will be displayed in gray. You can switch to any non-active dashboard by simply selecting its name.

Upon selecting the name of a non-active dashboard, the account landing page will reload and populate with the dashboard you selected:

You can also open the dashboard dropdown menu again, and you'll see that the newly active dashboard name is now highlighted in gray to signify it is the one you are currently using.

Your default dashboard is the one that will always populate every time you log back into BlueTally or navigate back to the account landing page after visiting another page on your BlueTally account.

However, you can always make another available dashboard your new default by following these steps below:

1) Switch to the dashboard you wish to make default

2) Open the dashboard dropdown menu

3) Select the "Set as Default" option from the third section of the menu (shown in screenshot)

Upon selecting this option, the page will reload, and a green pop-up message will appear in the upper right corner of your account, confirming that a new default dashboard has been set.

You can always rename one of your dashboards whenever you wish. Follow these steps to do so:

1) Switch to the dashboard you wish to rename

2) Open the dashboard dropdown menu

3) Select "Rename Dashboard"

4) A pop-up window will appear asking you to enter your dashboard's new name. Type in the name, then click the blue "Save" button.

5) The page will then reload, and your dashboard will appear with its new name

Whenever you have more than one dashboard available on your account, you will see an option to delete your active dashboard when you access the dropdown menu:

When you click "Delete Dashboard", a pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm if you want to delete this dashboard. Click "Ok" to continue or "Cancel" if you have changed your mind.

When you click "OK", the page will reload with one of your remaining available dashboards, and a green pop-up message will appear in the upper right corner of your screen to confirm the dashboard was deleted.

Right now, you can add the following widgets to any one of your dashboards:

Can I set a standard dashboard across my entire instance so that all account users will see the same dashboard when they log into their accounts?

Unfortunately, this is not possible. Even if you have the Administrator role, you will not have the ability to set up another user's dashboards.