<commit_before>---
title: Charts and Dashboards
keywords: dashboards
sidebar: doc_sidebar
toc: false
permalink: charts_dashboards_help.html
---
[Charts](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1064) are the primary way you view the status of your metrics. You add [ts() queries](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1019)
to view and perform operations on metrics and configure [chart options](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1158) for the most helpful view.

Dashboards group a set of related charts. Dashboards allow you to share [display preferences](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1068#jive_content_id_Setting_Dashboard_Preferences), [variables](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1062), and [overlay events](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1063) across all the charts contained in the dashboard.  Within dashboards use can use [sections](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1068#jive_content_id_Configuring_Dashboard_Sections)
to further organize charts.

## Interacting with Dashboards and Charts

Wavefront provides many ways to [interact with dashboards and charts](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1067). For both dashboards and charts you can change time windows, share links, apply queries, isolate sources, and zoom in and out. Within a chart you can isolate individual series and use hot keys to see full precision values and fish-eye views at the cursor.

## Creating Charts and Dashboards

You can create a chart from scratch, or starting from an existing chart or metric.

You can create a dashboard from scratch or starting from a single chart, a set of metrics, an existing dashboard, or a JSON definition.

{% include links.html %}<commit_msg>Make ordering consistent.<commit_after>---
title: Charts and Dashboards
keywords: dashboards
sidebar: doc_sidebar
toc: false
permalink: charts_dashboards_help.html
---
[Charts](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1064) are the primary way you view the status of your metrics. You add [ts() queries](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1019)
to view and perform operations on metrics and configure [chart options](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1158) for the most helpful view.

Dashboards group a set of related charts. Dashboards allow you to share [display preferences](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1068#jive_content_id_Setting_Dashboard_Preferences), [variables](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1062), and [overlay events](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1063) across all the charts contained in the dashboard.  Within dashboards use can use [sections](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1068#jive_content_id_Configuring_Dashboard_Sections)
to further organize charts.

## Interacting with Charts and Dashboards

Wavefront provides many ways to [interact with charts and dashboards](https://community.wavefront.com/docs/DOC-1067). You can change time windows, share links, apply queries, isolate sources, and zoom in and out. In charts you can isolate individual series and use hot keys to see full precision values and fish-eye views at the cursor.

## Creating Charts and Dashboards

You can create a chart from scratch, or starting from an existing chart or metric.

You can create a dashboard from scratch or starting from a single chart, a set of metrics, an existing dashboard, or a JSON definition.

{% include links.html %}
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0854876615746181, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01880141010575793, 'mean_word_length': 5.282287822878229, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 3, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 3, 'https://': 16, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '6595032', 'n_tokens_mistral': 996, 'n_tokens_neox': 901, 'n_words': 366}