How to Create a New Storyboard

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Prerequisites: Navigating the Storyboard Library – read this article first

What you’ll learn

By the end of this article, you’ll know how to:

• Create a blank Storyboard from the Storyboard Library and build it using the Define panel.
• Generate a Storyboard from saved insights in the Insight Library.
• Pin queries from Explore to create or add to a Storyboard.
• Pin results from the One AI Assistant to a new Storyboard.
• Copy an existing Storyboard as a starting point.

Overview

There are several ways to create a Storyboard in One Model. Which one you choose depends on where you’re starting from – whether you have a blank canvas in mind, existing insights to assemble, a query you’ve already built in Explore, a result from the One AI Assistant, or an existing Storyboard you want to repurpose.

Every organisation begins with preconfigured metrics and Storyboards, but you’ll quickly want to build your own to suit specific audiences, reporting cycles, or analytical questions. This article covers all five creation paths so you can choose the one that fits your workflow.

Quick reference – choose your starting point

Before you begin

Confirm that you have the CanCreateStoryboard and CanExploreData permissions. Your Admin configures these in Admin > Application Role > Permissions. Without CanCreateStoryboard, the options to create a new Storyboard won’t appear.

To build tiles using the Define panel, you also need CanExploreData. To pin from the One AI Assistant, your organisation needs to have One AI enabled. See Roles and Permissions for full details.
 

Creating a blank Storyboard from the Library

This is the most common starting point when you want to build a Storyboard from scratch with full control over the layout.

1. Open the Storyboard Library by clicking the Storyboards tab in the navigation bar.
2. Click the (+) Create New Storyboard button at the top right.

3. Enter a name for your Storyboard. You can optionally add a description and it will appear under your Unshared Storyboards category.
4. Click Create. Your new Storyboard opens and you’re placed directly into Modify Mode with a blank canvas.

After you click Create:
 

Build it by adding tiles

Once you’re in Modify Mode, you build the Storyboard by adding tiles. Click the Add (+) button at the top right to open the Build Storyboard menu, which gives you three options:

1. Create New – choose a tile type (Basic Chart, KPI Chart, Funnel Chart, Pie Chart, List Table, GeoMap, Sankey Chart, Scatterplot, Value Tile, or Free Text Tile) and build the query in the Define panel. When you’re happy with the preview, click Insert to Storyboard.
    
2. Insert Contents from Insight Library – select previously saved insights and insert them directly as tiles. This is useful when you’ve already built and saved queries elsewhere and want to reuse them.
    
3. Go to Explore or Org Chart – opens the Explore tool or the Org Chart builder so you can create content there and pin it back to the Storyboard.
   
   

While adding each tile, you can also configure its appearance in the Design tab, add AI features in the Discover tab, and add annotations or insights in the Describe tab – all before inserting. For more on these panels, see: Understanding Storyboard editing: Modify Mode and the tile configuration panels.

Add pages by clicking the + icon at the bottom left of the Storyboard. Edit page names and positions using the three dots at the end of each page tab. Save your changes before exiting Modify Mode.

Tip: Create and save one tile at a time. If you’re adding multiple tiles, insert each one and save before starting the next. This protects your work if anything interrupts your session.

Pinning from Explore to a new Storyboard

If you’ve built a chart or table in Explore and want to put it on a Storyboard, you can pin it directly without recreating the query.

1. In the Explore tab, build your query by selecting a Visualisation Type, Metrics, Dimensions, and a Time Period.
2. Click Run Query to generate the result.
3. Hover over the Pin icon in the visualisation toolbar to reveal the pin menu.
4. Select Pin to a new Storyboard.
5. Enter a name for the new Storyboard and a title for the tile.
6. Open your new Storyboard from the Storyboard Library and verify the tile is showing.
7. Repeat the process to add more tiles – pin additional queries to the same Storyboard by selecting Pin to an existing Storyboard.

Tip: Explore supports Basic Chart, Pie Chart, List, Value, and Scatterplot visualisation types. For tile types only available in Storyboards (Funnel, Sankey, GeoMap, KPI), use the Define panel inside Modify Mode instead.

Pinning from the One AI Assistant

If your organisation has the One AI Assistant enabled, you can ask questions in natural language and pin the results directly to a Storyboard. This is a fast way to go from a question (“What’s our turnover rate by department?”) to a visualisation on a Storyboard without building a query manually.

1. Open the One AI Assistant from the navigation bar.
2. Enter your question using the suggested prompts or type your own.
3. Review the AI-generated result.
4. Scroll down and click Pin Result to…
5. Select Create New Storyboard (or choose an existing Storyboard to add it to).
6. Repeat with additional questions to build out the Storyboard.

For more on what the AI Assistant can answer and how to get the best results, see: What is One AI Assistant and what can it answer?

Note: Access to the One AI Assistant is controlled by your Application Access Role permissions. If you don’t see the One AI Assistant option, check with your Admin.

Copying an existing Storyboard

Copying is the fastest way to create a new Storyboard when you already have one with a layout, colour scheme, or structure you want to reuse. The copy includes everything – all tiles, queries, pages, and design settings. You can then customize the copy for a different audience, time period, or topic.

1. Open the Storyboard Library.
2. Find the Storyboard you want to copy and click the three dots at the end of the row.
3. Click Copy.
4. Update the Name and Description in the pop-up.
5. Click Copy to save.

The copy is saved to the Unshared category by default. Open it and customize the tiles by changing queries, metrics, dimensions, tile sizes, layout, and colours. For more on managing copies, see: Managing your Storyboards.

Tip: Copying is also a good safety practice before making major changes to a production Storyboard. Work on the copy, and when you’re satisfied, use Replace Storyboard Contents to swap it into the original without changing the URL or breaking any embedded links.

Arranging and sizing tiles

While in Modify Mode, drag and drop tiles to reposition them on the canvas. Resize a tile by dragging the small arrow on its corner. Tiles snap to a grid, so alignment is handled automatically.

Saving and exiting

When you’re happy with the layout, click Save at the top right of the page, then click Exit Modify Mode. Your Storyboard is now saved and visible in the Storyboard Library.

If you want to discard everything, exit Modify Mode and select Leave without Saving when prompted.

Next steps

Now that you’ve created your first Storyboard, you might want to explore:

• Managing your Storyboards – renaming, copying, moving between categories, and deleting.
• How to build a basic chart in a Storyboard – a deeper guide to configuring chart tiles.
• How to use Storyboard filters – adding filters so viewers can narrow the data dynamically.
• How to share Storyboards with roles and groups – making your Storyboard visible to others.