Introduction
Story templates in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) are pre-built layouts designed to help you jumpstart your reporting experience. Whether you’re new to story creation or aiming to follow consistent branding across your organization, templates provide a structured, efficient way to begin.
What is a Story Template?
A Story Template is a reusable starting point that includes predefined layouts, widgets (charts, tables, text), themes, and often a placeholder for connecting a data model. It helps standardize story creation while giving flexibility to customize the content.
Benefits:
- Consistent layout and design across teams
- Faster story development process
- Reduces repetitive setup work
- Encourages data storytelling best practices
Starting with a Template
When creating a new story, SAC gives you the option to choose from:
- Blank Canvas: Start from scratch
- Template: Use a ready-made layout
To use a template:
- Bar, Column, Line, and Pie Charts
- Tree Maps, Waterfalls, Donuts
- Time Series and Variance Charts
Note
- Templates do not come pre-connected to your data. You must link your own model for the charts and tables to populate correctly.
What’s Included in a Template?
A typical template includes:
- Pre-arranged Layouts: Pages, headers, and sections structured for storytelling
- Charts & Tables: Pre-styled visuals linked to placeholder data
- Input Controls: Date pickers, dropdowns for interactivity
- Branding: Theme colors, fonts, logos
- Dynamic Text: Page titles, KPI callouts
These components serve as a guide—you can fully customize or remove them to suit your needs.
Creating Your Own Template (Advanced Users)
If you frequently build similar stories, you can create a custom story and save it as a template for reuse:
- Build your story as usual.
- From the File menu, choose Save As Template.
- Assign a name and (optionally) categorize it for easy filtering.
Templates created this way can be reused by you or shared with others, promoting consistency and saving time across teams.
Best Practices
- Use templates for executive dashboards, campaign reports, or recurring financial summaries.
- Standardize layouts and color themes across departments.
- Encourage team-wide use of a “template library” for alignment.
- Customize only the content and metrics to suit the audience—leave the layout intact for consistency.
