Adding an "advanced" slicer in Present Pro

Slicers are user-defined data-driven filters that let you simply and conveniently filter queries dynamically in your live presentations. For example, a slicer may be drop-down list that lets your users filter their sales visuals by country when they are viewing a slide at runtime.

When adding a slicer to your presentation, you have three options: use an existing slicer or parameter from Discover, build a new slicer on-the-fly within Present using the Quick Slicer option in the Toolbox, or build a new slicer on-the-fly within Present using the Advanced Slicer wizard. This topic describes how to use the Advanced Slicer wizard to create a new slicer for your presentation.

The Advanced Slicer wizard allows you to manually configure all slicer settings, giving you a lot of control over the slicer's behavior. You should use this option if you want to make use of settings to select specific elements, change the initial state of the drop-down (default selection, disable, and so on), or otherwise want to configure the slicer in the first instance.

Tip: If you want to add a very basic slicer, you can add the slicer using the Quick Slicer option in the Toolbox. This adds a drop-down where the slices match the dimensions in the selected hierarchy exactly. If you create a slicer using this basic option, you can still set its advanced settings later (to limit the elements, to change its type, or to otherwise configure its content) in the Slicer Settings panel.

Open the New Slicer panel

To add a new slicer to the presentation, open the Advanced Slicer wizard:

  • Select the Advanced Slicer option from the Present or Slide ribbons (green highlight below):

  • Click Add New Slicer in the Interaction Manager:

  • Click New (green arrow) in the Slicers panel:

The following describes the options in the Advanced Slicer wizard. You need to make your configurations and click Apply to create your slicer.

Tip: If you have an existing slicer and you want to configure its details in the Slicer Settings panel, see Slicer Settings in Present Pro.

New Slicer panel

Data Source

Start by selecting the Data Source tab from the first column; this will prompt you to select a model, hierarchy, and elements:

Note: The other tabs (Type, Load Time, and so on) are disabled until you have selected your data source and slicer hierarchy.

Choose Model

From the Choose Model panel, select the data model that contains the hierarchy you intend to use for your new slicer.

Select Hierarchy

This panel displays the dimensions and hierarchies of the select data model; choose the hierarchy that will be used to build the slicer.

Elements

Choose the hierarchy elements that will be included in the slicer. There are three ways to determine the slicer's elements:

  • Free Selection: Select the elements from the hierarchy that you want to include on the slicer.
  • Level: This option is relevant when working with OLAP or Tabular hierarchies, or regular SQL hierarchies. When creating a slicer based on a regular hierarchy, select this option to specify a particular level of the given hierarchy.
  • Lists: Choose this option to use a custom list as the slicer.

Type

The Type settings let you change the slicer's title and type:

Type panel

  • Title: Edit the slicer title.
  • Type: Select a slicer type from the drop-down menu. See below for more information.
  • Columns: (Buttons only.) If your slicer type incorporates buttons, select the number of columns of buttons that should be added to the presentation.
Slicer Types

The slicer type that you select here indicates whether the slicer you use to filter your presentation assets at runtime is a drop-down, set of buttons, a tree, or even a date-time calendar.

ClosedSlicer types with runtime examples

Select from the following slicer types:

  • Drop Down: Adds a drop-down list that you can select one slice from (blue arrow below).
  • Multi Select Drop Down: Adds a drop-down list that you can select multiple slices from simultaneously.
  • List Box: Adds a single-select list within a box container.
  • Multi Select List Box: Adds a multi-select list within a box container.
  • Text Box: Adds a textbox with drop-down.
  • Buttons: Adds single-select buttons, rather than a list (orange arrow below).
  • Multi Select Buttons: Adds multi-select buttons.
  • Multi Select Tree: Supports 'regular' hierarchies in both cube and SQL models. Adds a multi-select tree, which you can navigate through to find and select relevant elements.
  • Single Select Tree: Supports 'regular' hierarchies in both cube and SQL models. Adds a single-select tree, which you can navigate through to find the relevant element.
  • Date-Time Picker: The date-time picker is a specialized slicer visualization (in the form of a calendar) designed to make it easier to use date-time hierarchies and their associated calculations. The date-time picker is automatically generated at runtime when using the dateKey hierarchy to create a slicer. As with other slicers, the date-time picker slicer can be customized from the slicer settings.

    • Note: Date-Time Pickers are only supported for SQL models. This functionality is not currently supported for MS OLAP, Tabular, or SAP BW.

Data Source details

The read-only data source metadata, including the data source, database, data model, and the hierarchy used in the filter.

Note: You will only see this panel if you are editing your slicer settings. If you are creating a new Advanced Slicer, the data source information is shown on the Data Sources panel.

Load Time

The load time settings determine which of the slicer's elements will be automatically loaded when the report is opened.

Initial Selection Mechanism

The initial selection mechanism determines which slice will be automatically loaded when the user opens the report.

  • Saved Selection by Name: Select the initial slicer selection by name; this slicer will be selected by default whenever the report is opened.
  • Saved Selection by Position: Select the initial slicer selection by position; this slicer will be selected by default whenever the report is opened. This is useful if the slicer is based on a custom calculation that shows, for example, the top ten products. You might want to automatically load the top selling product. In this case, the slicer position needs to be saved.
  • First Member: Automatically select the first member in the slicer whenever the report is opened.
  • Last Member: Automatically select the last member in the slicer whenever the report is opened.

Subsequent Selection Options

Subsequent selection options determine whether or not the user's slicer selection will be saved. If so, these selections will override the given 'initial selection mechanism'.

Remember user's last selection

Enable this option to save the current user's saved slicer selection. Each time the user saves the report, the currently selected slice will be saved, and that slice will automatically be loaded when the report is next opened by that user.

If this option is not enabled, the given 'initial selection mechanism' will be loaded every time the user opens the report.

Reset Selection on Cascade

Select this option if the selected slicer is being cascaded to. For instance, if you've configured a cascading slicer that cascades from Country down to State, check this option for the State slicer to apply the given slice value modes to State.

In this scenario, if Last Member is set as the load mode, then the last member in the state slicer will automatically be selected whenever a country is selected from the parent slicer. Then, when United States is selected from the country slicer, Wyoming will automatically be selected form the state slicer; when Australia is selected, Victoria will automatically be selected from the state slicer.

Other Settings

From the Other Settings tab, you can update the slicer elements limit for this slicer, disable and enable the filter button, and make this slicer into a pre-query slicer:

Slicer Elements Limit

Set the maximum number of slicer elements to include in the slicer. The limit set here cannot exceed the limit set from the user defaults. Where it is exceeded, the number of elements in the slicer is limited and a limit indicator is displayed on the slicer at runtime.

ClosedExamples: Slicer limit indicator at runtime

If the number of elements in the slicer hierarchy exceeds the elements limit, the limit indicator is displayed at runtime (green arrow):

You can hover your cursor over the indicator to see what the elements limit was:

  • Click here for more information about slicer limits
  • Click here for more information about the slicer limits in user defaults

Disabling

The disabling options relate to the filter associated with the slicer. By default, the filter is enabled and can be used to enable and disable the slicer. The following image shows a Product slicer in its default state at runtime; the filter is highlighted using a green arrow:

  • Select the Hide disable button checkbox to hide the filter entirely. The filter is not shown on the presentation and, therefore, cannot be used to enable and disable the slicer.
  • Select the Disable checkbox to make this filter disabled (rather than enabled) by default. Note: This option only changes the default state of the filter, the user can still enable the filter at runtime if they want to.
ClosedExamples: Hide or disable filter at runtime

If you select the Hide disable button checkbox, your slicer appears as follows at runtime:

If you select the Disable checkbox, your slicer appears as follows at runtime (note the orange arrow):

Pre-query slicer

Select the Pre-query slicer checkbox to indicate that the query should not be run until the user specifies their slicer selections. The effect of this selection is that the user that opens the presentation at runtime is prompted to select either bookmarks or individual selections for their slicers in the Pre-Query slicer dialog.

  • Click here for more information about Pre-Query Slicers

Search Type

Set the search type. This is applied to any slicer type that supports search (drop-down and text box).

What next?

Check or add Interactions

When you add slicers to a presentation you may need to apply interactions from slicers to visuals, from slicers to slicers, or from slicers to dynamic assets, to create the runtime interactions that allow your viewers to explore their data. Interactions are typically added automatically (the Auto Interact function is typically enabled), but you may need to add interactions manually using the Interaction Picker or the Interaction Manager. You are advised to use Show Interactions to check that your interactions are as expected.

  • Click here to learn more about interactions