Before adjusting the first charts you add to your Looker Studio dashboard, ensure the theme settings are aligned with your report design. Before publishing the report, go through a checklist of the report settings.

Theme Settings

With the theme settings, you can adjust all default values of charts and other dashboard components, such as text boxes and native navigation elements, including typefaces, colors, and border styles.

At first, it might not be obvious what theme setting affects a specific component. For this reason, it's a good exercise to create a basic reporting page that includes text boxes, tables, and a date picker. Then, change the theme settings until you achieve the desired result. Once you have your theme set up correctly, you usually won't need to adjust it again.

Report Settings

Validate all report settings before releasing a new report. Looker Studio includes some nice features that you don't want to miss.

Before you start working on your report:

• Select a default data source with a default date range selection.
• Consider if you need to apply a report-wide filter.

Before publishing the report:

• Add a Google Analytics (GA4) tracking code.
• Turn on publishing settings so you can make changes to the report without breaking the already published report.

Create a Checklist

If you create many reports in your organization, consider setting up a checklist for theme, layout, and report settings, as well as for the publishing or auto-refresh settings.