Shared elements give you the option to save elements (tables or charts) of a report and reuse them in another report. If a change is made to the shared element, any report using that shared element will have a notification within the Shared Elements section of the Main Panel that a new version is available to update the content in the report.

Shared elements are useful if you have a complicated table or chart that you want to reuse in multiple areas.

Below are the steps to create a shared element from within an existing report, and how to use it in another report.

Creating a Shared Element

• In the example below, I've created a column chart showing the top 10 School of Information Sciences courses by enrollment for a given term.
• To save it as a Shared Element, make sure you are in Design mode (ALT+2), click outside the chart completely, right-click inside the chart (the chart itself will be highlighted blue like in the image below), click Shared Element, and then click Save As.

• In the Save Shared Element window, click My Folders (or any of its sub-folders), name the shared element in the File Name box, and click Save.

• You will receive a confirmation at the bottom of the screen that the save was successful.

Using a Shared Element

• Open (or create) a Web Intelligence document, make sure you are in Design mode (ALT+2), and click Insert Shared Element from the Insert section of the Toolbar.

• In the Insert Shared Element window, navigate to the shared element, select it on the right and click Insert.

• Click where you want the shared element to go in the new report, and the chart will appear exactly as it does in the original document.
• Also, the Main panel will switch to the Shared Elements icon, where you can see all of the shared elements being used in the current document.

Editing a Shared Element

• Open any Web Intelligence document that uses the shared element you want to edit.
• Edit the element. In this example, I changed the Rank from Top 10 to Top 5.

• Click either of the following Update buttons.
  
  • In the Shared Element icon in the Main panel

• • By right-clicking inside the chart, clicking Shared Element, and clicking the Update button.

• You will receive a confirmation at the bottom of the screen that the update was successful.
  

To Update a Shared Element Manually

• Click either of the following Update buttons.
  • In the Shared Element icon in the Main panel

• • By right-clicking inside the chart, clicking Shared Element, and clicking the Update button.

• You will receive a confirmation at the bottom of the screen that the update was successful.

To Update All Shared Elements Automatically

• In the Document Properties icon on the Main Panel, under Document Options, switch the Update shared element(s) on open radio button to YES.