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Tableau Tips 1

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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In data school training, one of the most inspiring part is when cohort members share their visualisations, especially Makeover Monday. Even though we all use the same dataset, very often that we analyse them in different perspectives. We may not notice detailed techniques, but when they are shown perfectly in dashboards, you just get inspired immediately, thinking of using them in your viz.

The following are some of the simple tricks to ‘upgrade’ your dashboard and make your life easier.

1. Disable Command Buttons in Tooltip

 

Most of the time, when I edit my tooltip, I will make sure that I disabled the command buttons in tooltip. Because when one granular data in the worksheet is selected, it will show up a command window. It’s very easy to mistakenly click on ‘Keep Only’ or ‘Exclude’, which will totally change our worksheet content.

 

 

The way to solve this is to unclick ‘Include command Buttons’.

 

Action Tool Update XML Example

 

2. Right click and drag Dimensions or Measures

 

As Craig always said, right click and drag is our best friend. It gives us lots of convenience when building worksheets. If I want to get AVG([Sales]), before I knew about this trick, I will just double click sales in measures, which normally shows the SUM([Sales]). Then I need to right click the pill and manually change to Average.

We can use this trick in both dimensions and Measures.

1st Measures. When used in Measures, it will show up different aggregate functions. Like the first photo below.

2nd Dimensions. When used in date dimension, it will automatically show up the discrete and continuous date function. Like the Second photo below. It is typically useful when it comes to some granular dimensions like Customer ID or Order ID. It takes so long time to change them to CNTD([Customer ID]) using the old way.

 

Action Tool Update XML Example

Action Tool Update XML Example    

 

3. Pick Screen Colour

 

When formatting Makeover Monday, instead of Tableau default colours, it’s highly recommended to use colour that match the logo, brand or the original dashboard. In this case, we can click on ‘More colors…’ in colour window and click ‘Pick Screen Color’ to choose the matching colour.

 

Action Tool Update XML Example

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