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Manage panels

When creating a panel, you can choose to add it to a dashboard, or to save it to the Visualize Library so it can be added to multiple dashboards later.

There are also some common options that you can configure on the various types of panels to make a dashboard easier to navigate and analyze.

Panels on a dashboard exist in one of two states:

  • Linked to the Visualize Library: the panel is saved as a shared object in the Visualize Library. You can add it to multiple dashboards. Any updates you make to the panel propagate to every dashboard that references it.
  • Dashboard-only: the panel configuration lives only inside the dashboard. It is not shared across dashboards. If you remove a dashboard-only panel, its configuration is permanently lost unless you saved it to the Visualize Library beforehand.

You can move a panel between these two states:

  • Link to library: From the panel menu, select Save to library to promote a dashboard-only panel to a shared library object.
  • Unlink from library: From the panel menu, select Unlink from library to create an independent, dashboard-only copy of the panel. The original library object is unchanged, and future edits to the library object no longer affect this dashboard.

Not all panel types support the Visualize Library. For details, refer to Panel types compatible with the Visualize Library.

To use a panel on multiple dashboards, you can save it to the Visualize Library. Any updates made to a shared panel are replicated to all dashboards where the panel is added.

If you created the panel from a dashboard:

  1. In the editor, click Save to library.
  2. Enter the Title and add any applicable Tags.
  3. Select Add to Dashboards after saving to add the panel to your dashboard at the same time.
  4. Click Save and return.

If you created the panel from the Visualize Library:

  1. In the editor, click Save.

  2. On the Save window, enter the Title.

  3. Choose one of the following options:

    • To save the panel to a dashboard and the Visualize Library, select Add to library, add any applicable Tags, then click Save and go to Dashboard.
    • To save the panel only to the Visualize Library, select None, add any applicable Tags, then click Save and add to library.

To add unsaved dashboard panels to the Visualize Library:

  1. Open the panel menu and select Save to library.
  2. Enter the panel title, then click Save.

Return to the dashboard and add the panel without specifying the save options or adding the panel to the Visualize Library.

If you created the panel from a dashboard:

  1. In the editor, click Save and return.

  2. Add an optional title to the panel.

    1. In the panel header, click No Title.
    2. On the Panel settings window, select Show title.
    3. Enter the Title, then click Save.

If you created the panel from the Visualize Library:

  1. Click Save.

  2. On the Save window, add a Title to name the visualization.

  3. Choose one of the following options:

    • If you want to add the panel to an existing dashboard, select Existing, select the dashboard from the dropdown, then click Save and go to Dashboard.
    • If you want to add the panel to a new dashboard, select New, then click Save and go to Dashboard.

You can add interactions to panels that allow you to open and explore the data in Discover. To use the interactions, the panel must use only one data view.

There are three types of Discover interactions you can add to dashboard panels:

  • Panel interactions — Opens panel data in Discover, including the dashboard-level filters, but not the panel-level filters.

    To enable panel interactions, configure xpack.discoverEnhanced.actions.exploreDataInContextMenu.enabled in kibana.yml. If you are using 7.13.0 and earlier, panel interactions are enabled by default.

    To use panel interactions, open the panel menu and click Explore underlying data.

  • Series data interactions — Opens the series data in Discover.

    To enable series data interactions, configure xpack.discoverEnhanced.actions.exploreDataInChart.enabled in kibana.yml. If you are using 7.13.0 and earlier, data series interactions are enabled by default.

    To use series data interactions, click a data series in the panel.

  • Discover session interactions — Opens saved Discover session data in Discover.

    To use saved Discover session interactions, open the panel menu and click View Discover session.

To make changes to the panel, use the panel menu options.

  1. In the toolbar, click Edit.

  2. Open the panel menu, then use the following options:

    • Edit visualization — Opens the editor so you can make changes to the panel.

      If the panel is linked to the Visualize Library, your edits affect every dashboard that uses the same library object. To make changes that apply only to this dashboard, select Unlink from library from the panel menu before editing. This creates an independent, dashboard-only copy: the original library object is unchanged, and this copy is no longer updated when the library object changes. Use this option when you need a dashboard-specific variation of a shared panel.

      Note

      For Discover session panels added from the library, Edit opens a tab selector where you can choose which tab the panel displays. Select Apply to save your changes or Discard to revert them. For step-by-step instructions, refer to Add search results to a dashboard.

    • Convert to Lens — Opens TSVB and aggregation-based visualizations in Lens.

    • Settings — Opens the Settings flyout to change the title, description, and time range.

      • A Show panel border toggle is also available to control the visibility of the panel border.

    • Remove — Removes the panel from the dashboard.

      If you want to use the panel later, make sure that you save the panel to the Visualize Library.