How to use data stories in your report

Data stories are ready-made analytical narratives that Conjointly generates from your responses. Instead of asking you to piece findings together across separate tabs, a data story combines charts, tables, and written commentary into a single, self-contained read that walks you through what the data shows. Stories are rebuilt when your data changes (see Reading a data story).

Where to find data stories

Data stories are published inside your report alongside the rest of your results.

1. Open your report and go to the Insight tab.
2. Look in the Data stories section. Each data story has its own pill (a button in the tab’s list). Click a pill to open its story.

Data stories work in every segment. Switch to a different segment and the story is rebuilt for the respondents in that segment, so the figures always match the segment you are viewing.

If you cannot see the Data stories section, check your team settings. Data stories are built from respondent-level data, the same data used for raw data exports, so they are hidden from everyone in a team that has disabled exports of personally identifiable information, team leaders included. This also applies to reports shared with that team.

Data stories created for you

When you first open a report, Conjointly adds data stories that suit your study:

• Response timeline shows how responses arrived over time, split by participant source. Every report gets this story.
• Implicit test stories (named after the question, e.g. “Q3 Implicit test”) are added for each enabled implicit test block. They help you check response quality, see how strongly respondents associate each pairing, and pick out the key findings.
• Sample composition (age brackets) is added when your survey has an enabled gender and age question. If you delete it while that question is still in the survey, it is added again the next time the report loads.
• Weighting efficiency is added when your report has saved weighting schemes. It is removed automatically if you delete all weighting schemes, together with any edits you made to its .qmd.

Reading a data story

Opening a data story shows the rendered narrative: a formatted page that mixes explanatory text with the charts and tables generated from your data. Read it top to bottom the way you would a short analyst write-up. The commentary is generated directly from your own responses, so the figures and the surrounding text always refer to the same underlying results.

• Click a chart to zoom in on it.
• Use the fullscreen button in the card header to read the story without the rest of the report around it.
• A story is rebuilt when the data behind it changes. New responses are included the next time the report loads. Changes to respondents or their weights (for example, excluding respondents or editing a weighting scheme) are included once you save the report.

Managing data stories

If you can edit the report, you can organise its data stories:

• Add a new story by first opening any data story, then clicking Add data story in the footer of the Insight tab and choosing a template. The list always offers Response timeline, plus the other templates your report supports (weighting, implicit test, and sample composition). A report can hold up to 50 data stories.
• Rename a story by clicking its title in the card header.
• Duplicate or delete a story with the copy and delete buttons on its pill. A duplicate starts from the original’s current .qmd, including any edits. A report always keeps at least one data story, so the delete button is hidden when only one is left.
• Reorder stories by dragging their pills.

Adding, renaming, duplicating, deleting, and reordering stories are saved together with the rest of your report. While such changes are unsaved, a notice appears: click Save changes or press Ctrl + S to keep them. If you try to leave the page first, your browser asks you to confirm. Anyone you share the report with sees the same stories, but only people who can edit the report can change them.

Viewing and editing the .qmd source

Every data story is produced from a .qmd document that is compiled against your response data. You can inspect that source at any time, and change it if you can edit the report.

• Click View as .qmd to switch from the rendered narrative to the .qmd source. The editor highlights Markdown and R code and, inside R code chunks, suggests function names and the variables your document defines.
• Click the same button again to close the editor and return to the rendered view.

People who can only view the report see the .qmd as read-only. This is useful when you want to understand exactly how a figure was calculated, or to see the logic behind the commentary before you cite it in a presentation.

Editing a data story

If you can edit the report, you can change the text, charts, and calculations of a story by editing its .qmd:

1. Click View as .qmd and make your changes in the editor.
2. Click Save .qmd in the card header, or press Ctrl + S (Cmd + S on a Mac) while the editor has focus.
3. Click View as .qmd again to close the editor. Any unsaved changes are saved at this point, and the story is rebuilt with your edits (the button shows Rendering… while it works).

A few things to keep in mind:

• An edited .qmd is saved straight away. Unlike changes to the list of stories, it does not wait for you to save the report, and everyone with access to the report sees the edited story.
• Each data story keeps its own .qmd, so editing one story does not change any other story or template.
• A story’s .qmd cannot be empty and can be up to 10 MB.
• If you have unsaved edits in the editor and try to leave the page, your browser asks you to confirm.

When a data story fails to build

If an edit breaks the story (for example, an error in an R code chunk), the build fails and a Data story build failed notice appears. Click Show details to see the error message and the renderer’s log. If the story built successfully before, the last successful version stays on screen until you fix the .qmd and the story builds again. Otherwise, the error is shown in place of the story.

Data stories summarise your existing responses. Editing a story’s .qmd changes only that story; it does not change any of your other report tabs or settings.

Related guides

• Analysing time series for tracking trends across waves.
• Segmentation for subgroup analysis and crosstabs for comparing groups of respondents.
• AI summary of open-ended text responses for summarising free-text answers.

If a data story does not appear as expected in your report, please contact Conjointly support for assistance.