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    Adding tabs to dashboards

    Dashboard tabs let you do the following:

    • Better organize content:Group related visualizations and tiles into separate tabs.
    • Improve data storytelling:Guide viewers through different aspects of your data in a structured way.
    • Enhance performance:Load only the tiles on an active tab, potentially speeding up initial dashboard load times.
    • Reduce clutter:Consolidate multiple related analyses into a single dashboard.

    This page includes the following sections:

    User and instance requirements

    To add tabs to dashboards, you must meet the following requirements:

    Limitations

    Dashboard tabs have the following limitations:

    • The default maximum number of tabs is 5. Admins can set a different maximum number of tabs on the Content GuardrailsAdmin page .

    • Tiles on a tab will only start loading if a user clicks on the tab. For example, if a dashboard has 3 tabs and a user clicks the first and second tab, the tiles on those tabs will start loading. No tiles on tab 3 will load. Queries execute and queue in the order of the interaction. The per-user query limit still applies.

    • You cannot control user access to specific tabs.

    • You cannot specify different themes for different tabs.

    • You can download or schedule an individual tab beginning in Looker 26.8.

    Tabbed dashboard features for admins

    Admins can access the following features for managing and monitoring dashboard tabs:

    Set a Maximum Dashboard Tabs limit

    Looker admins can choose to set a Maximum Dashboard Tabslimit instance-wide.

    To set a Maximum Dashboard Tabslimit for your instance, follow these steps:

    1. In Looker, click the Adminoption in the main navigation menu .
    2. Select the Content Guardrailsoption under the Performancesection to open the Content Guardrailspage .

    3. Enter a number into the Maximum Dashboard Tabsfield to set a number of maximum tabs, or use the up and down arrows to set a number.

    4. Click Saveto save the setting.

    Monitor dashboard tab usage with System Activity

    If your Looker instance is running Looker 26.8 or later, and you have the appropriate permissions you can monitor dashboard tab usage with Dashboard Tabsmetrics on the DashboardSystem Activity Explore.

    Learn more about using the DashboardSystem Activity Explore to monitor dashboard usage.

    Tabbed dashboard features for developers

    If you have the see_lookml_dashboards and develop permissions, as well as access to the LookML models for any data that you want to use, you can use the tabs parameter in conjunction with the tab_name parameter to add tabs to LookML dashboards. You can also add buttons with navigation to tabs.

    See the LookML dashboard parameters page for more information about adding tabs to LookML dashboards.

    Tabbed dashboard features for dashboard creators

    Dashboard creators who have appropriate access and permissions have the following option for adding tabs to dashboards:

    Add tabs

    To add tabs to user-defined dashboards, follow these steps:

    1. Open any user-defined dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Select the + Addbutton in the top navigation and select the Tabsoption.
    3. Once a tab is created, click the Addbutton in the tab to add tiles.

    You can also save a query tile to a specific dashboard tab directly from an Explore.

    Delete tabs

    To delete tabs, follow these steps:

    1. Open a tabbed dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Select the three-dot menu for a tab, and then select the Deleteoption.
    3. In the Delete tab?dialog, click Deleteto confirm the action, or click Cancelto cancel the action.

    Duplicate tabs

    If your Looker instance is running Looker 26.8 or later, you can duplicate tabs. To duplicate a tab, follow these steps:

    1. Open a tabbed dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Select the three-dot menu for a tab, and select the Duplicateoption.

    Once you have duplicated a tab, you can edit the tab.

    Edit tabs

    You can edit tabs in the following ways:

    Rename tabs

    To rename a tab, follow these steps:

    1. Open a tabbed dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Double-click the tab name and rename the tab.

    3. Press the Enter key (PC) or Return key (Mac) to save the name.

    Reorder tabs

    To change the order of tabs on a user-defined dashboard, follow these steps:

    1. Open the tabbed dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Select the three-dot menu for a tab, and select the > Move rightor < Move leftoption.

    Apply filters to tiles on different tabs

    To apply filters to dashboard tiles that are on different tabs, follow these steps:

    1. Open a tabbed dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Select the Filtersbutton in the top navigation, and then select Add Filter.
    3. Configure the filter settings in the Add Filter window Settings tab .

    4. Select the Tiles To Updatetab , and then select the tiles that you want to apply the filter to. If you don't want to apply the filter to a tile, select the Do Not Filteroption from the tile's drop-down menu.

    Add buttons with navigation to tabs

    If your Looker instance is running Looker 26.8 or later, you can add buttons to help dashboard viewers quickly navigate to specific tabs. This can be helpful for guiding users to a tab that has additional breakdown data about a metric that is displayed on a dashboard's main tab.

    Learn more about adding buttons to dashboards .

    Move tiles to different tabs

    To move a tile to a different tab, follow these steps:

    1. Open a tabbed dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Select the three-dot menu for a tile, and select the Move to taboption.
    3. Select the name of a tab to move the tile.

    Apply a quick layout

    Quick layouts let you apply a cohesive tile configuration to tabs on a user-defined dashboard without the need to manually resize tiles. There are a few things to know about applying a quick layout to a dashboard with tabs:

    • You can apply a different quick layout to each tab.
    • Tile sizes change depending on the size of the dashboard.
    • Quick layout affects all tiles including text tiles, visualization tiles, Markdown tiles, and buttons.

    Learn more about quick layouts .

    Apply autorefresh to tiles that are on different tabs

    To apply autorefresh for tiles that are on different dashboard tabs, follow these steps:

    1. Open a tabbed dashboard and switch to edit mode .
    2. Select the Settingsbutton in the top navigation.
    3. On the Generaltab, select the Refresh everyoption from the Refresh frequencymenu to set a refresh interval for the individual tiles on tabs.

    Tabbed dashboard features for dashboard viewers

    In addition to viewing content on tabbed dashboards, dashboard viewers with appropriate permissions can interact with tabbed dashboards in the following ways:

    Download tabbed dashboards as a PDF

    Starting in Looker 26.8, when you download a tabbed dashboard as a PDF, you can specify a specific tab or set of tabs to download. For earlier Looker versions, all of the tabs will appear in the same PDF. The contents of each tab will be organized under a content header with the name of the tab.

    Learn more about downloading dashboards as PDFs .

    Schedule tabbed dashboards as a PDF

    Starting in Looker 26.8, when you schedule a tabbed dashboard as a PDF, you can specify a specific tab or set of tabs to schedule.

    Learn more about scheduling and sending dashboards .

    Add a dashboard tab view to a board

    Starting in Looker 26.8, you can add a dashboard tab view to a board. Content that is curated on boards makes it easier for users to find the information that is most relevant to them.

    Learn more about adding content to boards

    To get the link for a specific dashboard tab, click a tab and copy the browser URL.

    Alternatively, you can get the entire dashboard link by selecting the Get linkoption from the dashboard's three-dot menu.
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