Draft and publish a workbook

When you edit a workbook, you create a draft. To make the changes visible to users with view access and explore access to the workbook, publish the draft. You can also choose to discard your draft, and return to the previously published version.

If multiple users edit a workbook at the same time, the edits are automatically saved to a shared, live draft. Multiple editors can collaborate on this single draft in real time. See Collaborate with Live Edit in workbooks.

This document describes how to edit drafts, publish workbooks, and update workbook metadata.

Requirement

• To draft and publish new workbook versions, you must have Can edit access to the individual workbook.

Edit an existing workbook

To begin editing an existing workbook from view mode, click Edit in the workbook header.

To begin editing an existing workbook from a custom view, click the document menu, then click Edit > Edit workbook.

After opening a workbook for editing, the workbook header changes:

• The Edit button changes to a Publish menu.
• The document name is appended with Draft to identify that you are viewing the workbook draft.
• The header displays the initials of any other users currently editing the workbook. See Collaborate with Live Edit in workbooks.

When you edit a workbook, editing options are visible:

• The editor panel appears on the right side of the page.
• The Add element bar appears at the bottom of the canvas.
• The footer shows additional options, such as a page overview and lineage.

Making changes to a workbook

Changes you make to the draft automatically save to the draft, which is shared by all editors.

When any editor clicks Publish, Sigma publishes all drafted changes, including changes drafted by other editors on the draft.

Update your draft with changes from data sources

If one or more of the data sources that your workbook relies on is updated, you might need to make changes to the draft to make sure your workbook remains up-to-date:

• Add columns from updated sources
• Sync a draft with the latest published version

Add columns from updated sources

When you edit your workbook, you might be prompted to update your workbook to use updates from the data sources of your workbook. For example, if a data model table that your workbook uses as a source is modified to add several columns, the next time you edit the workbook, you might be prompted to add the new columns to your workbook.

Select the checkboxes for any columns that you want to add to your workbook (including no columns), then click Update. The updated element is selected on the workbook canvas.

If you click Cancel, the modal reappears the next time you open the workbook for editing.

Sync a draft with the latest published version

When you edit your workbook, you might be prompted to sync your draft with the latest published version. If you are prompted to sync your draft with the latest published version, click Sync draft to update your draft. Syncing your draft is recommended.

You are prompted to sync your draft when your workbook relies on a data model table as the data source for one or more elements, and the data model has changes that required validating content. If you do not sync your draft, you might see errors in your workbook like "Object Does Not Exist: Data model element not found". Syncing your draft does not resolve errors related to changes made to a data source in the data warehouse, changes related to a dataset, or other errors.

After clicking Sync draft, you see a message indicating that your draft was successfully rebuilt. Previously errored elements and columns that were validated in an upstream data model display correctly.

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If you do not take any action and publish your changes without clicking Sync draft, errored elements and columns might remain broken. You cannot sync a draft after publishing it, and you must manually update the errored elements and columns to use updated data sources.

Preview drafted changes

Before you publish the workbook, you can preview drafted changes as a user with Can view or Can explore access. For example, you might want to confirm that input table data entry settings appear as expected, or that hidden pages are hidden.

To preview drafted changes:

1. In the workbook header, click the down arrow to open the Publish menu.

2. Under Preview with, select either View access or Explore access.

   

   Your view of the workbook changes to display a preview.

3. When finished previewing, click Exit preview.

Publish drafted changes

To publish all changes made to the draft, click the Publish button located in the workbook header.

When you click Publish, all drafted changes to the workbook are published, including changes made by other editors in the draft.

Discard drafted changes

To discard your drafted changes, click the down arrow to open the Publish menu, then click Discard draft.

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When any editor discards a draft, Sigma discards all unpublished edits made by any editor.

Open the latest published version

To open the latest published version of the workbook, for example, to remind yourself what content is available in the published version when compared to the draft, click the down to open the Publish menu, then click Go to published version.

The published version of the workbook opens. Sigma does not discard your drafted changes. You can return to the shared draft at any time by clicking Edit.

For more information about viewing changes in a draft, see Workbook version history.