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Copy Discovery Data into Tabulate Pro

When you drag and drop a discovery into your tabulation, you can either show and manipulate a "live" view of the discovery's data in Tabulate or copy that same data into Tabulate but with fixed values (as they were when last saved in Discover). These two options are described as follows:

Formula - Data is copied from the discovery into the tabulation. There is no ongoing connection between the discovery and the tabulation.
Direct - A "live" view of the data from the discovery is used in the tabulation. You can open and manipulate the discovery in Discover and your changes will be reflected in your tabulation on save. You can also change drop zones and other selections in the spreadsheet, although these changes are not fed back into Discover.

Important: You might be prompted to choose between these options when you drag a discovery into your tabulation. If not, then your User Defaults have determined which options should be applied. For more information, see User Defaults.

Reusing discovery data

This example shows the process as it will be if your administrator set your Discovery Display Type to Dialog in your User Defaults.

Before you begin

You should have your tabulation open in Tabulate. If you need to create a new tabulation, see Accessing Tabulate.
You should ensure that the discovery you want to copy into your tabulation is available to you; that is, it is present in your local My Content folder or is in a shared location that you have access to. For more information about sharing and directories, see Content Folder Structures.

Tip: If this is the first time you have used this functionality, you might want to check what your Discovery Display Type setting is in your User Defaults. This will help you to understand your set up and what to expect in terms of functionality.

Drag your discovery into your tabulation

From the Content panel:

Search for your required discovery:

Tip: You can use the search option at the top of the panel if you know the name of the discovery that you want to copy in.

Once you have located it, you can drag your discovery from the panel and drop it onto your tabulation.

Note: If you were to double-click a discovery in the Content panel, that discovery would open in a new tab in Discover.

If the Discovery Area dialog opens, either:
- Click Formula to copy the current data from the discovery into the tabulation but not create an ongoing link between the two files.
- Click Direct to create a "live" link between the discovery and the tabulation.

The data from your discovery is copied into your tabulation. You can now interact with that data as required.

Formula data

If you selected Formula, you have copied your data from the discovery at this moment in time. Using this option means that the data from your discovery will not be updated with data changes made to the source discovery in future. There is no "live" connection between the two files.

When you select a field containing static content that was copied from your discovery, the Formula row (yellow arrow) contains a value that indicates the source of the data:

The cell selected in the example above contains Data from the SpreadSheetDemo data source.
The cells containing text in the spreadsheet are also driven by a formula. As an example, if you were to select the cell containing Margin, its formula is =MEMBER("SpreadSheetDemo","[measures].[data Margin]") indicating that it is also from the SpreadSheetDemo data source.

Note: Interacting with this spreadsheet is effectively the same as interacting with a one-off discovery that you created using Discover Lite or Smart Reporting while using Tabulate.

Direct data

If you selected Direct, you have retained your discovery as the single version of truth for your data. A live link is retained between the discovery and tabulation. Using this option means:

Your spreadsheet is updated with data changes made to the source discovery by yourself or, where the discovery is saved in a shared location, by another user.
You can interact with your spreadsheet in Tabulate, viewing its drop zones and changing the position of its chips to change the shape of your query and explore your data. These changes do not affect the source discovery.
Your linked data is added to your spreadsheet as a Discovery Area. A Discovery Area is a special type of visual area that is generated automatically on adding linked discovery data and can be used when embedding tabulation data in a presentation, publication, or an illustration, or when using a tabulation as a data source.

When you select a field that contains data that comes directly from the discovery, its value is the same in the cell and on selection in the formula bar.