A tour of Halo Data
Where things are in Halo Data, from the sidebar and workspaces to search, jobs, notifications, appearance and your account.
Halo Data has three parts: a sidebar on the left, a top bar above the page, and the page itself. Here's what's in each, so you can find your way before you start building.
The sidebar
The sidebar has the organization switcher at the top, the main sections, what you've pinned and opened lately, and your workspace's folders.
Your role decides which sections you see, so a Viewer won't see Data, for example.
| Section | What's there |
|---|---|
| Home | A Get set up checklist while you're new, then your connections, what was Recently updated, and Recent jobs |
| Workspaces | Every workspace you can see, with its folders and what's in them |
| Data | Connections, uploaded files, and the tables discovery found |
| Datasets | Datasets, yours and any Marketplace data shared with your organization |
| Charts | The chart library |
| Goals | Named targets for your measures, and how each stands today |
| Insights | Changes in chosen measures that fall outside their usual range |
| Marketplace | Packages of Marketplace data, ready for your charts and reports |
| Reports | Every report, and any requests to publish |
| Assets | The image library: logos, photos and other files reports use |
| Jobs | The job center: everything Halo runs in the background |
Trash and Settings sit at the foot of the sidebar. Deleted things wait in the Trash for 30 days.
Pinned and recent
Choose Pin to sidebar from the ⋯ menu of a report, chart, dataset or connection to keep it close. You can pin 12 things, and pins follow you between browsers. Recent lists the last 5 things you opened, and stays in the browser you opened them in.
Your workspace
Below those, the sidebar shows one workspace's folders as a tree. Choose the workspace's name to switch to another under Show in the sidebar, or to see All workspaces. How Halo is organized explains how workspaces and folders work.
Switching organizations
If you belong to more than one organization, choose your organization's name at the top of the sidebar to switch. Organization settings is in the same menu.
Folding the sidebar
The sidebar folds to a rail of icons with the button in the top bar, or with ⌘\ on a Mac and Ctrl+\ elsewhere. The report editor folds it for you while you work. On a phone, the sidebar is a drawer that the top bar's menu button opens. Every page works at any width, including the editor.
The top bar
The top bar shows where you are, then these, from left to right.
Who's here
A row of avatars shows who else is on this page, or how many if your role only sees a count. See See who's here.
Search and the command palette
Search, or ⌘K on a Mac and Ctrl+K elsewhere, opens the command palette. Type to find:
Pages and settings, by name or by related words: typing "bin" finds the Trash, and typing "invite" finds Members.
Connections, by name.
Actions you're allowed to take: New connection, New dataset, New chart and Invite people.
Appearance: switch the theme or the density without opening a menu.
Account: Help for this page, Documentation, For developers, Contact Halo and Sign out.
Guides: anything else you type also searches these docs. Choosing a guide opens it in the help panel, at the part that matched.
Pages can add their own commands while they're open.
Jobs
Discovery, uploads, extract refreshes and exports run in the background, so you can keep working. The Jobs button shows a busy mark while yours run, and opens Your jobs with each one's progress. Open Jobs goes to the Jobs page, with each job's steps and buttons to cancel or retry it. See Jobs and notifications.
Help
Help opens the guide for the page you're on, in a panel beside your work. It follows you as you move between pages, until you open another guide. Search at the top of the panel looks through every guide, and links between guides stay in the panel. Back gets you to everything for this page, and the arrow at the top opens the guide on the docs site. Help and Halo AI share the panel's place, so opening one closes the other.
Halo AI
Ask Halo, or ⌘J on a Mac and Ctrl+J elsewhere, opens the Halo AI panel beside the page, in the report editor too. It appears when your organization has Halo AI on and your role can use it. See Ask Halo.
Notifications
Notifications shows what Halo has told you, such as a long job finishing or failing, with a count of what's unread and Mark all read. Everything appears here. To choose what also emails you, open Your account and go to Notifications.
Appearance
The Appearance menu sets how Halo Data looks in this browser:
| Setting | Choices |
|---|---|
| Theme | Light, Dark or System |
| Density | Comfortable or Compact, which fits more on a screen |
| Accent | Sky, Iris, Violet, Rose, Ember, Jade, Lagoon or Graphite, used for focus, selection, links and progress |
These are yours alone. Your organization's colors on published reports are set under Branding.
Your account menu
Your avatar, at the end of the top bar, opens:
Your account: your profile, password, two-factor authentication, notifications, where you're signed in and trusted devices. See Sign-in and security.
Organization settings: the same page as Settings in the sidebar.
Documentation: these docs, in a new tab.
For developers: the developer portal, in a new tab.
Contact Halo: ask Halo's team for help. See Contact Halo.
Sign out.
Settings
Settings groups its pages, and shows only the ones your role can open.
| Group | Pages |
|---|---|
| You | Account, Data alerts |
| Organization | General, Usage, Brand, Sites in reports, Embedding, API access, Halo AI, Schedules, Map regions |
| People and access | Members, Groups, Products, Roles, Email domains, Audit log, Halo activity |
Next, try Keyboard shortcuts for the keys that speed all this up.