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Hide and Seek Functionality in the Tableau Dashboard -Show/Hide Button

This post was originally published on The Data School blog between 2018 and July 2025, before our program was renamed to MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. References throughout this article to “The Data School” or “DS” all refer to what is now MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. The program, its people, and its commitment to launching outstanding analytics careers remain the same – just under a new name.

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Sometimes a very small added functionality to the Tableau dashboard helps in making it more presentable. One such functionality is –  Show/Hide button, a very incredible feature which allows user-

  1. To maximize the space for important charts to show
  2. Helps to hide the filters and show them when only needed
  3. In all, helps in decluttering the dashboard

In today’s blog I am going to thoroughly explain three types of Show/Hide button which can be added to your dashboard.

A. Cross-Button

  1. Open you dashboard and click on the chart for which you would like to add Show/Hide button and choose a Show/Hide option as shown in the figure below.
  2. Clicking on show/Hide button will add Cross button which is  a default option. Make it floating button.

B. Bar Image as Show/Hide Button

  1. Go to another chart and repeat the step 1 and 2. Now to add bar image to your button go to Edit button and a window will pop up where you have to select which type of icon you would like make – an image or a text. For bars as an icon-select image and then  ‘item shown’ as another option and go to Tableau repositories to select one of the bars as an icon.

3. Now select an option “Item hidden”  and again go to Tableau repo to select another bar image to show as hide icon and you bars icon will pop up on the chart. Use Alt-lick to show and Hide your chart now.

 

C. Text as Show/Hide 

  1. Now to add Text to your chart. Repeat septs 1 and 2 and Choose Edit Button2. The window will pop up and choose Text option and Add text like “Hide” under Item shown and “Show” under Item Hidden

3. Finally You have 3 buttons in your dashboard to play with. Either add them separately to each chart or place them in a container at the top.

 

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