Step 1 - Identify your dashboard
In order to create a Dark Mode, you need an existing Data Studio dashboard that is currently in Light Mode. I’m going to use one of these templates as an example, but this can be applied to any of your own creations.
Step 2 - Adjust your theme
We need to nail down a consistent Light Mode theme before we can create our Dark Mode theme. You can see some of the selections I’m making here in the Theme tab. The thing to pay attention to are the Primary and Secondary colors at the top here. I recommended keeping both of these fills very light and the text dark - this is the basis of your Light Mode.
Once that is setup, make sure that all of your visuals are using the default theme. You can manage this manually if you’d prefer, but it’s a lot easier to copy and paste into a Dark Mode by keeping everything at the default.
Step 3 - Duplicate your dashboard
Once you’ve set your Light Mode theme up, it’s time to create that lovely Dark Mode. Very simply, we’re going to create a duplicate of this dashboard and name it appropriately.
Step 4 - Create a dark theme
In your Dark Mode dashboard, it’s time to adjust that Theme panel again. Your color choices will vary depending on the look you’re going for, but generally you should be choosing darker colors as your Primary and Secondary fills. When you’re happy with your selections, we just have one step remaining.
Step 5 - Create a dark theme / light theme toggle
OK, last step - let’s create a toggle between the Dark Mode and Light Mode so your end user can quickly switch between them. To do this, we will use a Text Box element with a link between the two versions. You can color and format the Text Box to look more like a button like I have here - good luck with the hyperlink formatting - that’s always been hit or miss for me.
After that you’re done - congrats. You’ve successfully created a Dark Mode for your report. This is obviously a very hacky solution and difficult to maintain over time, but it works and hopefully it helps make your reports better.
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