View Menu in Google Data Studio

The View menu controls how the report components are positioned in editing mode. There is a personal preference. Play with the options and see what suits you the best and is easier to work with.

View Menu in Google Data Studio
View Menu in Google Data Studio

View Menu

Snap to

These options control how the report components are positioned.

Grid

Selected components will be adjusted to the visible grid of the canvas.

💡 Changing grid settings do not affect components already on the page, only components that you add or move.

Smart guides

Smart guides for a colored line to help align, resize and space between the selected components

  • Align components: A red line appears when moving a component. This allows you to see when the component aligns with other components on the canvas.

  • Resizing Components: Blue lines appear when you resize a component. This is how you see when the component has the same length or width as the other components on the canvas. The current size in pixels is also displayed.

  • Space Components: When moving one or more components, blue lines appear if the components are equidistant from other components on the canvas.

View grid

Enable or disable the visible grid on the report canvas. To enable or disable the visible grid on the report canvas, use the menu View > Show Grid. Default and minimum canvas grid size is 10 px. Increasing the grid size makes it easier to layout your charts and component and also fix the unified space between the charts and components.

Grid size (form default 10 to 200)

This determines the height and width of the grid squares. Default and minimum canvas grid size is 10 px.

Grid padding (form 0-20)

The space between the grid squares. Allows you to separate components in adjacent squares

Grid horizontal offset (from 0-200)

This set the left and right margins on the edges of the report. Positive numbers represent a left offset; negative numbers represent a right offset.

Grid vertical offset (from 0-200)

This set the top and bottom margins on the edges of the report. Positive numbers represent an offset up; negative numbers represent an offset down. Allows you to free up space for headers and footers.

💡 When you add a new component to the canvas that fits into one or more grid squares, it snaps in position and fills the grid. This makes it easy to resize and align new components to rows and columns. Squares are only filled if the grid is at least 15 pixels in size.

Refresh data (Ctrl+Shift+E or ⌘+Shift+E)

Refresh all your report data.

💡 View features are only available to report editors or owners unless the public editing options are activated for the report.

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