Tableau Desktop Cookbook

Chapter 4. Text

The Marks card features many options; one of those is Text. The Text property on the Marks card allows you to display text, which could be labels on a bar, text used to create tables, or text used as a mark type itself. This chapter will take you through some of those features, including tips and tricks for formatting.

4.1 Tables

Problem

You want a text table showing sales by category and year.

Solution

1. 

   Double-click Category.

2. Double-click Order Date.

3. Double-click Sales:

Discussion

A text table can be used in a variety of ways. The main use case is to show the specific values by the dimensions you have used. Tables are also great for sense checking the numbers and calculations when conducting analysis.

If you are using multiple measures, using Show Me to build a quick table might be easier. If you multiselect the fields from the Data pane, Tableau will make a table available in the Show Me menu:

Finally, if you have already created a chart, you can right-click the Sheet tab and duplicate the sheet as a crosstab, which will give you the data in a table format:

4.2 Adding Totals

Problem

You want to see the totals per category, per year, and grand ...