Everything we know about Amazon QuickSight, in one place.

There are two basic layout modes in QuickSight: Snap-to and Custom. The Snap-to canvas is good for fast, clean dashboard creation — it snaps all visuals into place automatically. Custom layout lets you place objects at precise pixel-by-pixel intervals, overlap visuals, and set custom background colors per visual.

All visual types except pivot tables offer the ability to create a hierarchy of fields to add drill-downs to visual elements. To create a drill-down level, select the visual, open Field Wells, and drag a field into the field well until it reads “Add Drill-down layer.” The active field shows a filled-in color while the drill-down fields appear white.

Calculated fields let you create new insights from existing data fields. To add one, choose Add at the top left, then Add calculated field. In the calculations editor, enter a name for the calculated field and a formula built from your dataset's fields, functions, and operators.

Once a dataset is uploaded, open the edit/preview data page and click Add data. Select a data source, dataset, or upload a new dataset to join with the current one. After the dataset is added, use the two join circles to configure the join — pick the join type (inner, left, right, or full) and the columns in each dataset used to join. Hit Apply to create the new joined dataset.

SPICE (Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine) is the robust in-memory engine that Amazon QuickSight uses. It is engineered to rapidly perform advanced calculations and serve data. If data is not imported through SQL, it is transformed into SPICE format.

Datasets can be edited from the Datasets page or directly from an Analysis. From the Datasets page, select a dataset and click Edit dataset. From an Analysis, click the pencil icon next to Datasets at the top left, then edit a dataset via the three dots next to it. QuickSight supports transformations such as field renaming, changing data types, excluding unneeded fields, and rule-based filtering.

In the Analysis, click Add → Add Calculated Field, give the field a descriptive name, type sum() and select the column you want to sum, then hit Save. The calculation then appears in the field list.

There are three main ways to style visuals. Overall colors are set by the Analysis Theme. Currency and other number formats are set in the field itself. Individual visuals can be stylized via the visualization menu → Format visual, where you can edit titles, hide or rename fields, add data labels, fit tables to view, and collapse or expand icons. Use the left-nav Themes feature to change tab backgrounds and set color themes.