7.3 Page Types¶
Each sheet in a workbook has a page type that decides how visuals are placed on it. Set it with PAGE → Page type, or right-click the sheet tab → Page type. Sheets in the same workbook can have different page types.
Free Canvas¶
Place and size each visual freely, anywhere on the sheet – like shapes on a slide. This gives you full control over the layout, and is the right choice for reports and carefully designed dashboards.
Use the ELEMENT tab to line visuals up precisely – see 7.4 Inserting and Arranging Visuals.
Tiles¶
The sheet is divided into a grid of tiles, and each visual sits in its own tile with a frame and a title. Visuals are scaled to fill their tiles, so the sheet always fits the window.
Set up the grid in the Tiles group on the PAGE tab:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Columns, Rows | Size of the grid |
| Spacing | Space between tiles, and the margin along all four edges of the page. 0 places the tiles edge to edge (build 20357 and later; before, at least 1). |
| Tile format | Frame, background and title style of the tiles |
| Fit to contents | Pushes overlapping tiles apart, then adjusts the grid to the tiles (pushing: build 20383 and later) |
The tiles fill the page exactly: the last column ends one spacing from the right edge, and the last row one spacing from the bottom (build 20357 and later; before, rounding could leave a wider gap or let tiles run past the edge). While you design, dotted grid lines show the cells.
When you move or resize a tile, each edge snaps to the nearest grid line – a tile only changes size when you drag an edge more than half a cell. A tile dragged past the right or bottom edge keeps its size and is pushed back onto the page (build 20357 and later).
Placing tiles (build 20383 and later):
- A new tile goes to the first free area, looking from the top left – for a visual added from the ribbon, search, nikolAI or a menu, and for a pasted tile. A new visual is 10 columns wide and 5 rows high; a pasted tile keeps the size of the copied one. If there's no free area that big, Datashop tries 3/4 and then half the size; if the page is full, the tile goes below all the others and rows are added. Before, a new tile could land anywhere, and a pasted tile covered the one you copied.
- When you move or resize a tile onto other tiles, they're pushed down just far enough to make room, and rows are added if needed. One Undo puts everything back – the tile, the tiles it pushed and the number of rows. Resizing with the arrow keys and the Align buttons don't push tiles.
- With fewer Columns or Rows, a tile that no longer fits moves inside the page and keeps its size (before, it was squeezed against the edge). Tiles can then overlap until your next tile action or Fit to contents pushes them apart. Set the number back up, and the tiles you haven't touched return to where they were.
- Fit to contents first pushes overlapping tiles apart, then sets Columns and Rows to what the tiles use.
Switching a page from Tiles to Free canvas keeps each visual where it is and its size (build 20357 and later). Switching to Tiles sets the page colour to light grey. Each visual becomes the tile closest to its position and size on the canvas – also visuals placed relative to others – and tiles that would overlap are pushed down (build 20383 and later). Changing the page type, Fit to contents, and changing Columns, Rows or Spacing can all be undone and redone – the tiles move back with them (build 20357 and later).
Tiles give an even, professional look with almost no alignment work – ideal for dashboards that many people will build and maintain.