The video below covers the basics to creating a story in SAP Analytics Cloud.
Story Page Types
When creating SAP Analytics Cloud stories, you have different page types from which to choose:
- Responsive: Required for viewing on mobile devices; dynamically changes layout depending on the viewer's monitor/screen size.
- Canvas: A fixed page size that does not change, no matter the size of the viewer's monitor size.
- Grid: A table-only page that is available only in the Classic Design Experience and will not be available in the Optimized Design Experience.
Classic Design and Optimized Design
When you create a story, you are prompted to choose Classic Design Experience or Optimized Design Experience mode:

SAP encourages you to use Optimized Design Experience mode. The Optimized Design Experience includes many usability and performance improvements and is the prerequisite for future story enhancements. There are a set of features that may not be available at this time as SAP continues to enhance the Optimized Design Experience mode; however, these and other new features are being added with each quarterly release and will be made available only in the Optimized Story Experience. Furthermore, it will be the new default experience in future releases.
The Classic Design Experience is still be available but will be phased out. It provides access to features developed prior to Q2 2022. However, it will not receive any performance, functionality, or usability enhancements.
Note
For the most current information on what features are available with each design experience mode, always refer to theSAP Help Portal in your current SAP Analytics Cloud tenant.
Guidelines for Data Visualization
There is no right or wrong way to tell a story; that is entirely up to you.
There are, however, general design principles that can help you create meaningful, attractive stories that provide useful information.
- Choose direction: Define the importance of your visualizations.
- Keep it simple: Ensure a user-friendly experience for viewers.
- Follow general reading direction: Follow either left-to-right or right-to-left as appropriate for the audience.
- Group information logically: Locate similar topics adjacent to each other.