1. Making content clear and consistent
In this video, we'll discuss how to make workbook content clear and consistent with the use of synced controls and dynamic text.
Let's imagine that on several pages of your workbook, you've implemented date filters. Oakmark's management team will expect that if they filter one page to a given date range, all pages should reflect the same date range.
In Sigma, this is done with synced controls. Two or more controls can be synced with one another such that when one of them is updated by a user, the other synced controls automatically update with the same control value.
The crucial thing about synced controls is that they share the same Control ID value, or the unique key that identifies the control in Sigma. If two controls have differing Control IDs, they are not synced and will not automatically update each other even if they are sourced from the same column.
Our workbook would also be easier to use if we updated many of our generic table and chart titles. It was easy to overlook these while building, but its important that our element names are clear and concise, so our users always know what they're looking at.
Even better? Let's leverage Sigma's dynamic text capabilities to name our elements. Is our CEO filtering an element to display the Card Services team's data only? Let's have Sigma put that in the table name, so they never have to guess what they're looking at!
Let's see how this is done with an example.
First, let's take a look at a workbook with 2 filter control elements.
Right now, these two date controls are not synced with one another, so updating one will not automatically update the other.
It is not possible to sync 2 pre-existing controls, so we'll delete this one and work from our other copy.
Next we'll use the corner menu on the control to click Create a synced copy.
Be careful here - a duplicate control is not the same as a synced control. A duplicate control will have a different Control ID value than a synced control, and remember that synced controls must share the same Control ID.
Once the control is synced, we can see that they will automatically update one another when the control value is changed.
Now that synced controls are working, let's make the selected values more visible by adding dynamic text.
Dynamic text can be used in many places throughout your workbook such as text elements for section headers or in element titles.
You can add a text element from the Add Element bar under the UI section, but in this example, let's update this title to clarify what date range is being shown.
At any point in the text, typing equal pops up a formula bar where we can create calculations and reference our data or control elements.
It's important to not that the result of our calculation needs to be a single answer. For example, if we want to say the range of call dates, we need to have a Minimum & Maximum date. Let's use Calls received since =MIN([Call Date]) for now to just show the earliest call date in the filtered data.
Now its your turn - in the next exercises, try your hand at providing clarity to your workbook with synced controls and dynamic text.
2. Let's practice!