Reports are mainly shared using the share button in the file menu or on the top right corner of the page. These buttons take your to the “Share with people and groups” window.
Report access settings
When you share a Looker Studio report, you have the power to control who can view and edit it. This is where “Report access settings” come into play. These settings allow you to fine-tune access permissions based on your specific needs. These settings aim to enhance the security, control, and user experience of the Looker Studio report by restricting certain actions for viewers. By carefully configuring these settings, you can ensure that data is used and accessed appropriately within your organization.
You can access these settings by clicking on the gear button on top right corner of the “Share with people and groups” window. These settings include following option:
- Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people
This setting restricts the ability of editors within a Looker Studio report to modify who has access to the report.- Editors cannot grant new viewers or editors access to the report.
- Editors cannot revoke existing access permissions.
- This maintains a controlled and secure distribution of the report
- Disable downloading, printing, and copying for viewers
- This setting prevents viewers of the report from:
- Downloading the report in various formats (e.g., PDF, Excel, CSV).
- Printing the report.
- Copying data directly from the report.
- To:
- Protect sensitive data from unauthorized distribution or misuse.
- Maintain control over how viewers interact with the report’s data.
- This setting may be overwritten by policies set by your Workspace Admin
- This setting prevents viewers of the report from:
- Disable viewers from viewing and creating alerts
- This setting restricts viewers’ ability to:
- Set up and receive email or in-app alerts based on data changes within the report.
- View any existing alerts that may have been configured by editors or other users.
- To
- Prevent viewers from receiving potentially sensitive or irrelevant notifications.
- Streamline the alert management process by centralizing it within a specific group of users.
- This setting restricts viewers’ ability to:
- Disable viewers from generating Slides with Gemini in Looker
This setting prevents viewers from using the Gemini AI feature within Looker Studio to automatically generate presentation slides based on the report’s data.- To maintain control over the presentation of data and ensures consistency in messaging.
- To prevent potential misuse or misinterpretation of data by viewers when creating presentations.
- Disable viewers from viewing advanced applied filters
This setting hides advanced applied filters from viewers. Advanced filters allow for complex data filtering and can be difficult to understand for users without data analysis expertise.- To simplify the report’s interface for viewers by hiding complex filtering options.
- To reduce the risk of viewers unintentionally altering the data view or misinterpreting the results due to complex filtering.
Share As
The “Share as” option in Looker Studio allows you to share your dashboards and reports with others. You can enter their email addresses in the input box and select their role as editor or viewer. You can also choose to notify them.
Sharing with Individuals: Users can directly share reports with specific individuals by entering their email addresses. This method provides granular control over who can access the report.
Sharing with Groups: For larger teams or departments, users can share reports with groups. This streamlines the sharing process and ensures that all relevant team members have access to the report.
Groups can be created and altered using https://groups.google.com/.
People with access
Once you have shared your report with people, they will appear on the “Share with people and groups” window from where you can change their roles, and also make them owner, or revoke their access by clicking on the remove access button.
“People with access” have following options.
Editor: You can assign them the role of editor. This will allow them to edit the report.
Viewer: You can assign them the role of viewer. Now they can only view the report.
Make Owner: Only an owner can assign this role to another person, after which they become the owner of the report.
Remove Access: This will revoke access of the user and they will no longer be able to view or edit the report.
Link Settings
When sharing a Looker Studio report, you have the option to choose from three link settings:
Restricted: Only people explicitly allowed by email can view or edit the report. You have the most control over who can access the report. This setting is ideal for sensitive data or reports intended for specific individuals or teams. This is the default setting.
Unlisted: Anyone with the link can view or edit the report. You have less control compared to Restricted, as anyone with the link can access it. Suitable for sharing reports within a trusted group or organization where you want to distribute the link more broadly.
Public: The report is publicly available and can be viewed or edited by anyone. You have least control, as anyone can find and access the report. Typically not recommended unless you explicitly want to make the report publicly accessible, such as for educational or demonstration purposes.
When selected unlisted or public, you can also choose role in the menu next to the link settings.
This allows you to define the role of editor or viewer for people you are sharing your report with. Viewer role allows them to view the report, and perform stuff not restricted in report access settings, and editor roles allows them to edit the report in addition to viewer role.
Copy link
Every report has a unique link which can be copied and shared with people. If those people have access to the report, they will be able to view or edit the report depending on their role. This button allows you to copy the link.
Invite people
Invite people menu button, in the share button on top right corner, also opens the “Share with people and groups” window, which in turn allows you to share report with people and groups, as viewers, editors or owners.
Sheduled Delivery
The Scheduled Delivery in Looker Studio allows you to automate the sharing of your reports with specific recipients at regular intervals. This can be incredibly useful for keeping stakeholders informed about key data and insights without requiring manual intervention.
To (Recipients): Enter the email addresses of the people you want to receive the report. You can also include yourself in the list.
Subject and Message: Customize the email subject and message to provide context for the recipients. If you dont check the “Customize email subject and message” checkbox, subject and message will not be shown.
Start Date and Time: Set the date and time for the first delivery. Subsequent deliveries will depend on the delivery frequency you select.
Delivery Frequency: Choose how often you want to send the report (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, every weekend, custom). Custom allows you to select customized frequency such as every two days.
Get Report Link
The primary function of this button is to generate a unique URL that you can share with colleagues, clients, or anyone else you want to give access to the report. This will take you to a “Get a link to this report” window. On this window, you can click on the “View sharing settings”, which will take you to the “Share with people and groups” window, where you can define roles and restrictions.
There is a “Link to your current view” check box on this window. When this box is checked, the generated link will reflect the exact filters, selections, and configurations you’ve applied to the report at the time of sharing. This means that anyone who accesses the report using this link will see it with the same specific view that you’ve customized. If this box is unchecked, the generated link will provide access to the report in its default state, without any of your specific filters or customizations applied. Users who access the report through this link will see the original, unfiltered version.
Embed Report
“Embed report” refers to the process of integrating a Looker Studio report directly into a website, blog, or other online platform. This allows you to share your data visualizations and insights seamlessly within a larger context.
There are two ways you can embed a report.
Embed code: This provides an iframe code that you can paste directly into the HTML of your website.
Embed URL: This gives you a special URL that can be used with platforms that support oEmbed, a format for embedding content from other websites.
You can adjust the width and height of the embedded report to fit your desired space and choose whether to show report navigation within the embedded view.
Bookmark links can’t be used with embedded reports. If you need a customized view of the data, use editor filter properties and date ranges applied to the report.
Here is a sample embedded looker studio report.
Download Report
You can also share your report as PDF. Use the share button, to download the report as PDF. When download report as PDF, you can select to:
- Ignore the custom background color, which is very usefull for printing
- Add a link back to the report
This adds an “Open in Looker Studio” link to the PDF bookmarks section of your PDF viewer, if your PDF viewer supports bookmarks. This lets viewers see your report directly in Looker Studio. - Password protect report