15.5. Creating Dashboard Templates

Creating Looker Studio report templates can be an effective way to demonstrate your skills in data visualization, generate leads, or provide resources for others to use. In this section, we'll discuss how to create and share templates.

Making a Copy of a Report

When someone has view access to a report, they can make a copy of it by clicking on the ellipses menu and selecting "Make a copy." This creates a copy of the report in their Looker Studio account. They will need to select their own data sources to replace the ones used in the original report.

Sharing a Preview Link

To make it even easier for people to create a copy of your report, append /preview to the end of the URL when sharing dashboards. This loads the report with additional buttons and options at the top, such as "Use my own data" and "Edit and Share." The user can then easily replace the data sources with their own and create a copy of the report in their Looker Studio account.

This approach is particularly useful for lead generation or when creating templates for others to use. By providing a user-friendly interface for making a copy of the report, you simplify the process for those who may not be as familiar with Looker Studio.