A workbook is the main container for your analysis in Analyse data. Think of it like an Excel workbook—a single document where you can organise your data, create charts, and build reports. Everything you build lives inside a workbook, from simple tables to interactive dashboards.
The workbook hierarchy
Workbooks fit into a simple organisational structure that works much like files and folders on your computer.
Folders organise your workbooks. You can create folders to group related workbooks together—for example, by project, reporting period, or team. Folders can also control who has access to the workbooks inside them.
Workbooks contain your actual analysis. Each workbook can have multiple pages, letting you separate different views or topics within a single document.
Pages are like worksheets in Excel. Each page has its own canvas where you place elements—tables, charts, controls, text, and other components. You might use one page for a summary dashboard and another for detailed data tables.
Elements are the individual components on a page. These include:
Tables and pivot tables for viewing and analysing data
Charts for visualising patterns and trends
Controls for interactive filtering
Text and images for context and branding
Exploring and editing workbooks
When you work with a workbook, you're either exploring it for personal analysis or editing it to publish changes. Understanding these two ways of working helps you use workbooks effectively.
Exploring lets you analyse data without affecting what others see. You can filter, sort, add charts, and investigate questions—all in a personal view that doesn't change the published workbook. Your exploration is temporary: it's useful for ad hoc analysis, but changes aren't saved permanently.
Editing is for making changes you want to publish. When you edit a workbook, your changes are saved as a draft. Once you publish, everyone with access sees the updated version.
How to start working with a workbook
You can work with workbooks in two ways:
Open a ready-to-use workbook. Browse the workbooks available to you in Analyse data and open one to view or explore it. These could be provided by Altruistiq or by your team members
Create a new workbook. Start fresh by creating your own workbook, then build it out with tables, charts, and controls.
💡 Note: Creating a new workbook or editing the work of others requires you to have the Create & edit workbooks permission in your role
Entering Explore mode
To explore a workbook, click the Explore toggle in the bottom right corner of the screen, next to the Edit button. This switches you into Explore mode, where you can make personal changes without affecting the published version.
Explore mode requires Full Explore permissions on your role. If you don't see the Explore toggle, you may only have Basic Explore access to the workbook.
What you can do in a workbook
Workbooks support a wide range of analysis and reporting tasks:
Analyse data from data models. Connect to prepared datasets and explore your sustainability data in tables and pivot tables. Filter, sort, and group data to find the insights you need.
Build charts. Reveal patterns, trends, and comparisons in your data with bar charts, line charts, pie charts, maps, and more.
Create interactive reports. Add controls that let viewers filter data themselves—selecting regions, date ranges, or categories without needing to edit the workbook.
Share insights with colleagues. Give teammates access to view your workbooks, or export reports as PDFs and spreadsheets to share with stakeholders.
What's next
Now that you understand what workbooks are, learn how to find and organise them in Navigating Analyse data, or explore the workbook interface in Navigating workbooks.