Create workbooks from templates

Templates are reusable workbook structures that allow you build new workbooks with speed and consistency.

This document explains how to access existing templates and use them to create new workbooks. For more information about templates, see Create and edit templates and Share templates.

Requirements

The ability to access an existing template and use it to create new workbook requires the following:

  • You must be assigned an account type with the Can create, edit, and publish workbooks permission enabled.
  • To access templates created by users of your organization (in Templates > Internal), you must be the template owner or be granted Can use or Can edit template permission.
  • To access Sigma templates and other templates shared with your organization (in Templates > External), you must be assigned the Internal member type. Guest users cannot access external templates.

Create a workbook from a template

  1. Open the Templates gallery page from the left-side navigation panel on your home page.
  2. Click the template you would like to explore.
    The templated workbook opens.
  3. Explore the template by clicking on any of its interactive elements. These include tables, visualizations and controls. None of your changes affect the template itself.
  4. [optional] To create an editable and publishable workbook from the template, click Save As in the template’s header.
    Screen_Shot_2021-10-28_at_12.49.13_PM.png

Use your data in a workbook template (swap sources)

Prerequisite: The data you want to swap in must be available in Sigma.

To inject your own data into a workbook template:

  1. Open the Templates gallery page from the left-side navigation panel on your home page.
  2. Click the template you would like to use.
    The templated workbook opens.
  3. If the workbook is built on sample data, a popup appears at the top of the page.
    Click Swap now.
    swap_now_button.png
    This opens the Swap Data Sources page.sourc_swap_page.png
  4. Sigma attempts to automatically match your data with the template's expected data. 
    However, you can override this, or you may need to manually select a source if a cannot be found by Sigma.
    [optional] To replace a matched source, click the edit (edit icon) button next to the source under REPLACE WITH. Then select a new source from the modal.
    Replace_matched_source_pencil_button.png
  5. If the template requires additional sources, check each sources match from the left most panel, ALL SOURCES IN USE.
  6. When ready, click Swap.
  7. Explore the workbook to confirm that your data looks correct.
  8. To create an editable and publishable workbook from the template, click Save As in the template’s header.

Workbooks also support source swapping. To begin swapping your data into a workbook, open the workbook in Edit mode, open its header menu, then click Swap data sources.