Skip main navigation

New offer! Get 30% off one whole year of Unlimited learning. Subscribe for just £249.99 £174.99. New subscribers only. T&Cs apply

Find out more

Formatting in Tableau

Learn some of the key ways to improve the formatting of charts in Tableau.

Let’s look at some of the key ways to improve the formatting of charts in Tableau.

Adding text

In your views, make sure you show titles, captions, and mark labels. You can edit titles and captions to provide more context and give details that help users understand each view.

When adding text to a dashboard:

  • be precise and consistent when naming every object in the view
  • provide text that explains the relationships between the components of a visualisation
  • simplify text to remove redundancies
  • rename measures and dimensions to ensure fields have meaningful names.
Element How to edit text
Titles and captions for the worksheet Select Worksheet > Show Title, and then Worksheet > Show Caption to enable titles and captions.

Use the drop-down menu for either element and select Edit . . .

Mark labels To show mark labels, click Label in the marks card, and then click Show Mark Labels.
Field names In the data pane, right-click the dimension or measure, and then click Rename.
Filter or legend titles Click the drop-down menu for the filter, and then click Edit Title.

Updating colour palettes

Tableau has several built-in colour palettes. For dimensions, it’s worth considering using the Color Blind palette to ensure visualisations are accessible. For measures, Tableau generally advises using either the Blue or Orange-Blue Diverging palette if accessibility is a concern. You can adjust the number of steps for these palettes.

To select a palette:

  1. Click Color in the marks card, and then click Edit Colors.
  2. For Select Color Palette, click the drop-down arrow and select the palette.
  3. Click Assign Palette, and then click OK.

Are you having difficulty getting started with Tableau Public?

Don’t worry if you have problems installing Tableau Public. You can ask questions or share and discuss suggestions and solutions with other learners in the comments section.

This article is from the free online

Financial Analysis for Business Decisions: How to Use Tableau and Financial Modelling

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now