When I make Tableau dashboards, a significant amount of time usually goes towards editing and formatting. One of the things that confused me the most was how to get rid of the axis lines. This guide will focus on two of the graph formatting options: lines and borders. I will attempt to go over every single option so that you don’t have to experiment ever again!
Every formatting option will have these three tabs:
These are relatively self-explanatory, modifying any option under Sheet will change both the vertical and horizontal lines. If you only want to affect the horizontal lines then choose Rows and vice versa. All of the options under these three tabs are the same, so let’s start with formatting lines.
Formating Lines
Here are all the options:
- Grid Lines: Gridlines are the crisscrossing lines within the graph itself.
- Zero Lines: Zero lines are the lines that go up from 0 on the X-Axis and going from 0 on the Y-Axis.
- Trend Lines/Reference Lines/Drop Lines: These lines only appear if you have reference lines in the graph and are showing trend/drop lines, allowing you to format them.
- Axis Rulers: The X and Y-Axis that creates the graph.
- Axis Ticks: Little lines at the bottom of the axis rulers that represent each mark on the axis.
This is a visual indication of all of these options on a graph:
Formating Borders
Format borders allow for the removal of those pesky lines separating cells from each other. They also allow for the formatting of the axis lines that go beyond the axis. Let’s take a look at individual option in formatting borders. As with before, you have the option of changing things on a row, column or sheet level.
Starting at the bottom:
- Column Dividers: Represent the vertical lines holding the graph inside.
- Row Divider: Represents the horizontal lines holding the graph inside.
- Changing the level will add an additional border between every cell (either Vertical or Horizontal
- The Grand Total options are overwritten by the row/column divider options.
- This also goes for the Default and Total options with the exception of the Default Header. This controls the overall bordering of the graph.
This is a visual indication of the border options on a graph:
That’s it for the guide! Hope that helps you get better at knowing exactly which options to tick and untick.