Tableau, being such a powerful tool for data analysis and visualisation, has many cool features that can be utilised to do an effective and efficient storytelling.
Recently I discovered one such cool feature of show/hide containers to save space, and show visualisations effectively. Since then, I have used it in most of my visualizations. Sometimes it is inevitable to use a lot of charts to bring out useful insights which result in crowded and long dashboards. Using container show/hide helped me a lot in getting rid of endless scrolling on long dashboards.
Let me take you through how to do this in tableau. You need to follow the step by step process below:
Step 1: Create 3 floating containers and adjust their sizes to fit on the dashboard
Step 2: On container 2 select Add show hide button
Step 3: Select the show hide button and choose the edit button, a window will appear
Step 4: On the edit button window, choose the image or text button (for this example I am choosing the text button) and add text to the title to display on the button (for this example I have displayed Show 2). Then click apply and then ok.
Step 5: Repeat the same process for container 3
Step 6: Alt+click – Show 2 button will hide container 2 and make container 3 takes both container 2&3 space. Similarly, Alt+click – Show 3 will hide container 3 and make container 2 takes both container 2&3 space. Reselecting the button will show the container.
The above process can be customized for any number of containers. Also, you can have only one dashboard for multiple reports without having to go through the pain of scrolling up and down to find insights. The buttons could also be customized and images can be used to make it more appealing.
Hope you will find a good use for this cool feature to make your dashboards more effective. Have fun with show/hide containers!!
