Workbook Lifecycle: Explore, Draft, and Publish
Workbooks support both ad hoc data exploration and complex long-term reporting. The 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 and Publishing
Version History
Related Resources
Ad hoc Data Exploration
New, unsaved workbooks are also referred to as explorations. Explorations are ideal for 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 published workbook, click Save as in the exploration's header.
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 modes you have access to on any given workbook depend on the permissions granted to you for that individual workbook. To learn more about modes, visit Workbook Modes: View, Explore, and Edit.
Drafts and Publishing
Edits made to a workbook are automatically saved as a shared, live draft. Multiple editors can collaborate on a 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, and 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
Sigma stores a history of published workbook versions and the changes associated with them, called the version history. Access version history 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: View, Explore, and Edit
Workbook Version History