Create Dashboards with Tableau

We've made it! We are now going to create the first draft of our dashboard deliverable!

Dashboard Sheet Overview

When you click on the Add New Dashboard icon, you should see a blank dashboard sheet, like my screen.

Checkout the screencast below for a brief overview of the main sections:

Make a Title

At this point, you should have set the size for your dashboard using the preset size GenericDashboard in the Size section of the dashboard sheet. You also should have only one object in your dashboard sheet, the Dashboard 1 title object. Let's go ahead and format it! 

Double-click on the Dashboard 1 title, and the Edit Title dialogue window should open up. In that window, change the title to:

Citi Bike Share System -- Trip History for 2018

(sample population: trips starting in Jersey City)

Format the font of the dashboard title as follows: Tableau Semibold, 30, Bold, Gray color.

Switch over to the Layout pane. In the bottom area of that pane, you should see the Item hierarchy section. Expand all of the items and select the last Vertical container object, as shown below.

Now, go ahead and rename that selected container object to OUTER.

To rename the Vertical object in the Item hierarchy section, click once on the object name Vertical and an input text box should appear. 

Use Scaffolding

When creating dashboards in Tableau, one way to streamline the process is to use scaffolding: a temporary structure to support the original.

We are going to set up the scaffolding for our dashboard sheet by creating an outline with the use of Vertical, Horizontal, and Text objects. We will use the Text objects as placeholders for our individual sheets and swap them out once we are happy with the layout outline for the dashboard sheet.

Below is an example of a complete outline layout for the dashboard you are trying to create.

Create a Layout Outline

Check out the screencast below to see how to create this layout outline in your Tableau workbook.

Swap Out the Text Object Placeholders

Once you have your dashboard layout outlined, swap in the sheets with the visuals. Check out the screencast below to see how to swap out the Text object placeholders with the actual sheets in your Tableau workbook.

Things to Keep in Mind

1. Changes in the underlying sheets will update the dashboard. Any changes you make in the worksheets will be reflected in the dashboard.

2. You cannot add a worksheet more than once to a dashboard sheet. If you need to add a sheet more than once to your dashboard (for example, you may want to apply different filters to the same visual), you will need to create a duplicate. Then you can add the duplicated one to your dashboard.

Summary

• You were introduced to the dashboard sheet and reviewed the main sections of this new workspace.

• One way to streamline the process of putting your visuals into a dashboard is to set up a dashboard layout outline.

• You learned how to swap out the Text object placeholders in your dashboard outline with the actual sheets in your Tableau workbook.

In the next chapter, we are going to make this dashboard interactive!