Understanding Report Editor in Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

Note: Google Data Studio is now known as Looker Studio.

The report editor is used to edit a Looker Studio report.

Through report editor you can:

You can access the report editor by creating a new report or editing an existing report.

At this point, you already know how to create a new report.

If you want to edit an existing report then follow the steps below:

Step-1: Navigate to the home page of the Looker Studio reports: https://datastudio.google.com/navigation/reporting

Step-2: Click on the name of the report you want to edit:

Report name

Your report will open up in the ‘view’ mode.

Step-3: Click on the ‘Edit’ button at the top right-hand side to view your report in the ‘Edit’ mode:

edit button

Now the screen that you see is called the ‘Report Editor‘:

report editor

Find your way around the report editor

logo


Click on this logo to navigate back to the home page.

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#2 Report header

report header

The report header is the name of your report.

#3 Reset data

reset button


Click on this button to reset the cached data in your report. This refreshes the cache for every data source added to your report.

#4 Share the report

share button 9


Click on this button to share your report with other users.

#5 View

view button


Click on this button to run your report.

#6 More options

more options

Click on the three dots to more options for your report. Options provided are “Refresh data” and “Make a copy”.

more options list

#7 Help

Help

Click on this button to access the Looker Studio help options.

#8 Menu bar

menu bar

#9 Page control

page control

Use the right and left arrows to switch to other pages of your report.

#10 Undo button

Undo

This button works just like any other undo button. Click on it to undo your last action (like deleting a report component).

#11 Redo button

Redo

This button works just like any other redo button. Click on it to repeat your last action.

#12 Embedded data source schema

Add data

Click on this button to create a new embedded data source schema. The embedded data source schema is the data source schema you created while editing a report.

#13 Add a chart

Add a Chart icon

Click on this drop-down menu to add one or more chart components (like a table, scorecard, bar chart, pie chart, etc) to your report.

#14 Community Visualization

Community visulization

Click on this button to add community visualization (i.e. the charts created by third-party developers) to your report.

#15 Add a control

Add a control

Click on this drop-down menu to add data controls to your report. These controls are used to make your reports more interactive to an end-user.

#16 URL embed

URL embed

Click on this button to add content (like YouTube videos, Google docs, blog posts, etc) hosted on other websites in your report.

#17 Image

Add image

Click on this button to add an image to your report.

#18 Text

Add

Click on this button to add a text box to your report.

#19 Line and Arrows

Add line and arroes

Click on this button to add lines and arrows to your report.

#20 Shape

Add shapes

Click on this button to add shapes (rectangle or circle) to your report.

#21 Theme and Layout

theme and layout

Click on this button to show the ‘Theme and Layout’ panel on the right-hand side of your report.

Note: This button works only when you have selected one or more components of a report.

#22 Canvas

Canvas

A canvas is made up of grid lines.

#23 Chart Components

chart components

When we create a report in Looker Studio, we add one or more components (like ‘tables’, ‘bar charts’, ‘text’, ‘pie chart’ etc) to the canvas. These are called the chart components.

#24 Selected chart component

selected chart

When you select a chart component a blue rectangle appears around it. That’s how you know the chart component is selected.

#25 Multiple selected chart components

multiple selected chart

You can select two or more chart components while pressing the CTRL key on your keyboard. Whichever components appear inside the blue rectangle are the selected components.

#26 Property panel

Property panel 1

The Properties panel (also known as the component property panel) appears on the right side of the report editor when you select one or more chart components.

#27 Change visualization type

change chart

Within the property panel, you will see a drop-down menu at the top. Use this menu to change the visualization type. For example, you can convert a column chart into a table or pie chart.

#28 The ‘SET-UP’ tab

setup

Within the property panel, you will see two tabs. One of the tabs is the ‘SET-UP’ tab. Use this tab when you want to add, remove, change or re-order dimensions and metric fields used in one or more selected chart components.

You can also use this tab to change the data source schema used by a chart component.

#29 Available fields

available fields

Within the property panel, you will see the list of all the available fields for one or more selected components. These are the fields that you can use in your selected chart component.

#30 The ‘STYLE’ tab

style

Within the property panel, you will see two tabs. One of the tabs is the ‘STYLE’ tab.

Use this tab when you want to change the formatting (font colour, font size, table colour, border width, etc) of one or more selected chart components.

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  13. Looker Studio Report Tutorial
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  15. How to share the link of your report in Looker Studio
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  17. How to download Looker Studio report as PDF
  18. How to embed a Looker Studio report on a website
  19. Guide to Data Types in Looker Studio
  20. Image function in Looker Studio
  21. Image Link data type in Looker Studio
  22. Image data type in Looker Studio
  23. Looker Studio Geo Map – Latitude Longitude
  24. Why You Should Avoid Using Functions and Calculated Fields in Looker Studio
  25. Looker Studio Calculated Fields Tutorial
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  28. Data Source Fields in Looker Studio – Tutorial
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  35. Data Source Version History in Looker Studio
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  37. Understanding Data Source Credentials in Looker Studio
  38. Understanding Data Freshness in Looker Studio
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  40. Looker Studio Aggregation Explained
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  42. Formula Rejection in Looker Studio
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