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# The dashboard editor

> A tour of the Mammoth dashboard editor: AI Chat editing, undo and history, renaming, the Data tab and column browser, data banners, unpublished changes and co-editing.

The editor opens when you create a dashboard, and whenever you open one you can edit. It has a side panel on the left and a live preview of the dashboard, as viewers will see it, on the right. Anyone who can edit the dashboard can use it, and AI editing in the chat is available on every plan.

## Editor layout

The side panel has three tabs:

| Tab | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **AI Chat** | Describe changes in plain language. |
| **Design** | Format, page structure, navigation, style and signature. See [Dashboard themes](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/dashboard-themes/). |
| **Data** | The sources behind the dashboard. |

The header holds:

- The dashboard's name (click it to [rename](#rename-a-dashboard)), its save state, and the [unpublished changes chip](#unpublished-changes-and-discard-changes).
- The **Add** menu: add a **Chart**, **Page** or **Filter**. A new page can be a **Q&A** page, an **Explore** page or a **Cover**. See [Charts](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/charts/), [Dashboard filters](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/dashboard-filters/) and [Multi-page navigation](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/dashboard-navigations/).
- **Undo**, **Redo** and **History**.
- A Desktop / Tablet / Mobile preview switch, **Full view** and **Preview**.
- **Save** and **Publish**. Saving is explicit: while you have unsaved edits the header shows **Unsaved changes**, and you can't publish until you save. See [Publishing and sharing dashboards](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/share-dashboard/).

Cards on a page line up on their own: every row fills the width and shares one height. Drag a card to move it, or drag the edge between two cards to resize them. Moving cards never changes your data or wording. Click a chart or block to select it and open its settings (see [Editing a chart](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/editing-a-chart/)).

When a dashboard has a **Q&A** page, an **Ask AI** button appears in the bar above its pages. It jumps to the Q&A page, and it's hidden while you're already on that page.



## Edit with AI Chat

Open the **AI Chat** tab and describe a change, for example "make the bars blue" or "add a page on churn". Each request updates the dashboard, and the AI keeps your earlier choices unless you ask to change them.

### Starters

A new conversation shows **Edit with AI** and a few starters. Clicking one fills the message box, so you can review it before you send.

| Format | Starters |
| --- | --- |
| Dashboard | **Summarize the key trends**, **Add a chart**, **Change the color theme**, **Highlight what stands out** |
| Doc or slides | **Make it punchier**, **Lead with the biggest risk**, **Shorten the takeaways**, **Make the tone more formal** |
| A blank doc or deck you haven't touched yet | Build briefs, such as **Write a one-page summary of this data** or **Build a short deck on the key findings** |

On a doc or deck the chat rewrites the content; visual styling lives in **Design**. See [Docs and slides](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/docs-and-slides/).

### Queue more requests

You can send another message while a change is still running. It waits in the thread marked "Queued — edit or remove before it runs". Edit it, or click **Remove queued prompt**.

### Revert, undo and redo

- **Revert one change:** click the revert icon (**Revert this change**) on any AI reply. The reply then shows **Reverted**.
- **Undo and redo:** use **Undo** and **Redo** in the header to step back and forward through your edits, whether you made them in the chat or by hand.

The thread also records edits you make by hand, for example "Added the Region filter", "Renamed "Sales" to "Revenue"" or "You made 4 edits", so the chat is a full log of how the dashboard got here.

### When something goes wrong

- "Something went wrong and your last message wasn't applied…" Click **Retry**.
- "You have unsaved format changes, so I held off on content edits…" Save or discard your format change in **Design**, then ask again.
- In a long thread, **Jump to latest** scrolls back to the newest message.

## Ask AI about one chart or block

To focus the chat on a single chart, KPI or text block:

1. Click the item on the canvas.
2. In its settings panel, click **Ask AI** ("Ask AI about this").

The chat shows **Editing** and the item's title (for example "Editing Revenue by region") with a count of edits made to that item, and the message box reads, for example, "Ask about Revenue by region…". Quick steers appear: **Show only the top 5**, **Use average instead of total** and **Break it down differently**. If you've discussed the item before, the chat picks up where you left off. **Edit controls** opens the item's settings again.

Each item you've asked about gets a tab above the chat, beside **All**. Press Esc or click ✕ (**Close and clear selection**) to go back to editing the whole dashboard.

## Attach a brief or a picture to the chat

You can give the chat a file to work from: a picture, PDF, Word file or text. Click the attach button ("Attach a picture, PDF, Word file or text"), drop files on the chat, or paste. Long pasted text becomes a **Pasted text** chip.

Accepted types are `.png`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.webp`, `.gif`, `.pdf`, `.docx`, `.txt` and `.md`. Each attachment becomes a card where you choose how to use it:

| Use it as | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| **Brief** | The card shows what it read: **For**, **Must cover**, **Tone**, **Length**, **Call out** and **Left out**. Click **Rewrite this board to the brief** (**Rewrite to this brief** on a doc, **Rewrite the deck to this brief** on slides). Figures in the brief are checked against your data. Where they differ, the card says so and the dashboard uses your data. Tick **Also save this brief as a context for this board** to keep it as [Context](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/context/). |
| **Look like** | Restyles the dashboard like the picture. The card shows **Layout**, **Chart types**, **Colours** and **Font**. Numbers in the picture aren't used: your data fills every chart. The colours are saved as a style you can edit in **Design**. |

Each card also offers **Change something**, **Something else…** and **Not now**, and **Undo** after it's applied.

If you attach a data file (CSV or Excel), the chat offers to make it this dashboard's source and check how its columns map (see [Use my data](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/templates/#fit-a-template-to-your-own-data-with-use-my-data)). If you attach a Power BI or Tableau workbook, it points you to **Open the import** (see [Bring a report over](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/creating-dashboards/#bring-a-report-over-from-power-bi-tableau-pdf-or-a-screenshot)).

Limits:

- Up to 5 attachments per message. Extra files show "Up to 5 attachments per message. The rest weren't added."
- PDF and Word files up to 20 MB. The chat reads the first 50 pages.
- Text is read up to 60,000 characters.
- Large pictures (over 2 MB) are scaled down before upload.

Errors: "data.zip isn't a picture, PDF, Word file or text, so the chat can't read it." (with your file's name), "The chat can't read that file." or "Couldn't attach this. Remove it and try again."

## Preview and restore earlier versions with History

Click **History** in the header (next to **Undo** and **Redo**). Each version shows a thumbnail, a label, when it was made, and the prompt that made it. Tags mark the **Current** version and versions that are **Undone** or **Ahead** of where you are.

Click a version to preview it. A banner over the canvas reads "Viewing an earlier version" (or "Viewing the original version") with who made it and when:

- **Restore** makes that version current.
- **Back to current** closes the preview.

A version from before you swapped the dashboard's data shows "This version used a different dataset" and isn't previewed, because drawing it against the current data would show the wrong numbers.

If a version can't load you see "Couldn't load that version." If someone else changed the dashboard while you were restoring, you see "Someone else changed this dashboard — we've refreshed it. Please try that again."

## Rename a dashboard

Click the dashboard's name in the header, or the pencil (**Rename**).

| Field | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Name** | How it appears in your library and tabs. |
| **Sub-line** | One sentence on what the report is for. Leave it empty for no sub-line. Avoid figures: a reader with restricted rows can't be shown them. |

Click **Save**, or **Cancel** to keep the old name.

## Full view

Click **Full view** (the expand icon in the header) to hide the side panel and header so only the dashboard shows. Click **Exit full view** or press Esc to come back. Full view isn't available while a change is running or before the dashboard has rendered.

## See the data behind a dashboard in the Data tab

Open the **Data** tab to see the dashboard's sources. Each source card offers:

| Action | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Preview rows** | Shows the source's rows in the panel (for example "Showing first 50 of 1,200 rows"). |
| **Open view** | Opens the View in the data editor in a new tab. |
| **Show in library** | Opens the source in your data library in a new tab. |
| **Change data** | Rebuilds the dashboard on different data, keeping its look and pages. Shows **Use my data** while the dashboard is on sample data. See [Managing dashboards](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/managing-dashboard/) and [Dashboard templates](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/templates/#fit-a-template-to-your-own-data-with-use-my-data). |
| **Browse columns** | Opens the column browser (below). |

Notes you may see on a source card:

- Sample data: "Sample numbers, not yours. Use your own data to publish and share."
- A source that's been removed: "This source isn't in your library, so it can't be opened from here. The report still shows the figures it last read."
- "We can't tell where this source lives, so it can't be shown in the library."

### Add a page that reads another table

On a saved dashboard in the Dashboard format, **New page from another table** sits below the source cards. It adds a page whose charts all read a different table from the same project, up to 5 tables per dashboard. Some actions, such as **Save as template**, aren't available on a dashboard that reads more than one table. See [Multi-page navigation](https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/dashboard-navigations/) for the steps and limits.

### Browse columns and chart from them

Click **Browse columns** on a source card. The card shows how many of the source's columns the dashboard uses, for example "6 of 14 on this board". You can also reach the same list from **Add** → **Chart** → **From your data**.

**Columns in** and the source's name, for example "Columns in Sales", lists every column, grouped as **Measures**, **Dimensions** and **Dates**, with its values, range and how many rows are filled.

- **in use** marks columns already used by a chart, filter or KPI on the dashboard. A line above the list counts the ones that aren't.
- Columns with nothing to chart are muted with the reason, for example "One value throughout — nothing to compare" or "An identifier — one row each, nothing to compare".
- Protected attributes aren't ranked for you. Pick how you want them drawn.

To build a chart, tick up to 4 columns and click **Chart from these columns**. Mammoth shows the charts those columns support, each with a reason, such as "12 months to follow", "Shares of one total" or "One clear leader at 41%". Two or three columns is usually enough.

If the columns can't load you see "Couldn't read this source's columns." with **Try again**.

### Add a financial year column

If your data has a date column but no financial or fiscal year column, the source card shows **Need a financial year?** ("Your data has a date but no financial year column."). Click **Add it in Data** to open the data editor in a new tab, at the step that adds one. This prompt appears after you've opened **Browse columns** for that source.

## What we assumed

When your data doesn't say something the dashboard needs, Mammoth makes a call and tells you. A chip above the canvas reads **1 assumption**, or for example **3 assumptions**. Click it to open **What we assumed**. You may see:

| Entry | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "Amounts print without a currency symbol" | Nothing in your data named a currency, so figures print as plain numbers. Click **Tell the assistant** to fill the chat with "Show amounts in " and finish the sentence. |
| "Some amounts show no currency" | Some money columns have no currency. Set the dashboard's reporting currency and every figure moves together. |
| "2 totals count a repeated value" | A column joined from somewhere coarser repeats down the rows, so a total counts it more than once. |
| "2 averages weight every row alike" | Each row counts once in an average. Ask the assistant if you meant it weighted. |
| "2 tiles couldn't be built" or "2 tiles lost their columns" | Tiles that need attention. |

Ask the assistant to change any of these. Once you dismiss an entry, it doesn't come back unless what it describes changes.

## Stale data and failed refresh banners

A strip at the top of the canvas tells you when figures aren't current:

| Banner | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| **These numbers are waiting on a refresh** | Some figures still describe the previous version, and cards still waiting show "…". Click **Refresh**. |
| **Couldn't refresh the data** | The last data refresh failed. Click **Try again**, or edit the dashboard to rebuild it. |
| **Some figures couldn't load their data** | Those cards show "—". Everything else is up to date. Click **Try again**, or dismiss the notice (the cards stay blank until their data loads). |

While an update runs you may also see "Showing the last successful version while an update runs."

## Unpublished changes and Discard changes

After a dashboard is published, the edits you save stay in a draft. Viewers keep seeing the last published version until you publish again. The header shows a chip such as **3 unpublished changes**. Click it to open **Changes since last publish**, which lists each edit and who made it (for example "Edited Revenue by region", "Assistant edit" or "4 edits").

To throw the draft away:

1. Click the chip, then **Discard changes…**.
2. Confirm with **Discard changes**. The draft goes back to the published version, the one viewers see now. Viewers aren't affected.

You see "Draft reset to the published version". You can undo this straight after. If the draft changes while you're deciding, Mammoth asks you to check the list again before you discard.

## Edit a dashboard with other people

Several people can edit a dashboard at once. Nothing is locked.

### See who's editing

Avatars in the header show who else has the dashboard open (for example "Editing now: Priya and Sam"). Click them to open **Editing now**: each person shows which page they're on, or **On this dashboard** or **Idle**, with **Go to** to jump to the page they're on. Rings on the canvas show which chart someone is working on. When someone's assistant is running, you see, for example, "Priya · assistant working".

If you select a chart someone else is editing, you see, for example: "Priya is editing this chart too. Nothing is locked, but if you both save, the second save is refreshed onto the first."

### When you both save

Other people's saves merge into your view, and a message tells you what happened:

| Message | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "Priya changed this dashboard" or "Priya made 3 changes to this dashboard" | Their change is in, and you're seeing the latest version. |
| "… just before you. Your change was saved on top of theirs." | Both changes are kept. |
| "… Save or discard your changes to see the latest version." | You have unsaved edits, so their change waits until you save or discard. |
| "… just before your last change, so yours wasn't saved. You're now seeing the latest version." | Make your change again on the latest version. |

If you both changed the same thing, a window asks you to choose, for example "Priya also changed the title". Click **Keep theirs** or **Use mine**. Whichever you keep, everything else either of you changed is saved too.

If someone archives the dashboard while you're editing, you see "This dashboard was archived. You can keep editing; it's hidden from the library." If someone moves it to trash, you see, for example, "Priya moved this dashboard to trash. Changes you make now won't be kept."

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Source: https://mammoth.io/docs/learn/dashboard/dashboard-editor.md · Updated: 2026-11-03