Workbook Lifecycle: Explore, Draft & Publish

Workbooks are designed to support both ad hoc data exploration and complex long-term reporting. Their collaborative interface and visual approach to data interaction makes live data and real-time collaboration accessible to everyone in your organization. 

This article introduces the basics of a workbook's lifecycle, from data exploration to publishing and version history.

Summary of Content

Ad hoc Data Exploration
Workbook Modes: Edit, Explore, and View
Drafts & Publishing
Version History
Related Resources

Ad hoc Data Exploration

New unsaved workbooks are referred to as explorations.

Explorations are ideal for in-the-moment ad hoc analysis, when you want to explore your data and move on without saving your work for future use.

To save an exploration as a workbook, click Save as in the exploration's header. This converts it to a published workbook. 

To learn more, visit Ad Hoc Data Exploration.

Workbook Modes: Edit, Explore, and View

Published workbooks can be accessed in three different modes: Edit, Explore, and View. The mode(s) you have access to on any given workbook depend on the permissions granted to you for that individual workbook. To learn more about these modes, visit Workbook Modes: Edit, Explore & View.

Drafts & Publishing

Edits made to a workbook are automatically saved to a shared, live draft. Multiple editors' can collaborate on this single draft in real-time. All active editors see a list of other users currently in Edit mode and the element they each have selected.

Clicking Publish publishes all drafted changes to the workbook. This includes changes drafted by all editors on the live draft. 

To learn more about editing and publishing workbooks visit Editing, Drafts & Publishing.

Note: Prior to 11/1/2022, users worked with individual drafts. Drafts were not sharable and work was not visible until published. Beginning 11/1/2022, all new organizations support shared, live drafts. This new feature is gradually being rolled out to legacy organizations. Organizations Admins will be notified before the change is made.

Version History

Workbooks store a history of published versions and the changes associated with them. This is referred to as the workbook's version history. Version history is accessible from the version menu located in the workbook header. 

To learn more about version history, visit Workbook Version History.

Related Resources

Workbooks: An Overview
Create a Workbook
View Modes: Edit, Explore & View
Workbook Version History