Boards are a great way to centralize relevant content that lives in different folders within your organization's Looker instance. A great thing about boards is that they simply link to content items such as a look or a dashboard, which remains in its original location. Boards don't store the actual content and the original content remains unaffected. With boards, you also don't have to worry about permissions or data privacy because users still need access to the folder containing the item in order to access that content from a board. For example, the Favorites menu shows you all your own bookmarks. But creating a board allows you to share those bookmarks with other users and teams. Any looks and dashboards added to the board will still live in their original folders. The board merely links to them and serves as a centralized page to easily find the content. In Looker, creating your own boards is very easy. First, on Looker's homepage, click on the plus sign icon next to boards in the left side navigation panel and select Create a New Board. Notice that you also see an option to browse all boards, which we'll discuss later in this section. Next, give your new board a clear descriptive name. For example, if you're creating a board to contain several business analysis related items, then an appropriate name could be business analysis. Now, once you've created your new board, you can configure it as little or as much as you like. You can add looks and dashboards by clicking the blue plus sign next to pin a dashboard or look. A window will open for you to navigate and select the content that you want to add. Looker also provides the ability to group content by adding new sections. You can write a description for the entire board itself as well as for each individual section to aid others in using the board efficiently. How you choose to group your content is entirely up to you: by team, by customer, project, product, data question, and more. Once you have created new sections, you can continue adding content to a section by hovering over this section and clicking on the blue plus sign for add content. Looker also makes it easy to pin a look or a dashboard to a board when you're viewing the content in its original location. For example, from a look, click on the gear menu at the top right of the screen and choose pin to a board. A window will open for you to choose on which board and section this new look should be pinned for easier discovery and sharing. You can follow a similar process to pin a dashboard when viewing it in its original location. From a dashboard, click to the three vertical dots from dashboard actions at the top right of the page and select Add to a Board. Looker also makes it easy to explicitly share access to your board with others. Simply click on the share icon at the top right of the page and select the users that you want to access the board, as well as their level of access such as view or edit. Remember, boards can be used for your own benefit, for people you invite, or even for your entire team or organization. Don't worry though. Even if a user is given access to the board, they cannot view a particular content item on a board if they don't already have access to see it. In addition to creating your own boards, you can also browse all boards that you have access to within your organization. On a Looker homepage, click on the plus sign next to boards in the left side navigation panel and select Browse all Boards. In the browse window, you'll be shown every board to which you have access within your organization's Looker instance. Remember, though, while you may have access to a board, you may not have access to all or any of the content curated on that board. To get access to the underlying content, you can reach out to your Looker's administrator. In summary, boards are a great way to centralize and share the content that lives in different folders within your organization's Looker instance. Boards link to content such as looks and dashboards in their original location, so the pin content is not affected by being added to a board or by user actions on a board. Any previously assigned access to a content item is also maintained, so you never have to worry about users accessing content that they have not been previously given access to. Given these great benefits, we hope that you take full advantage of boards in your organization's Looker instance.
