Tableau Desktop Cookbook

Chapter 10. Area Charts

An area chart is a line chart with the area beneath the line shaded. Tableau has a variety of options for area charts that are dependent on the dimensions and measures you use.

10.1 Basic Area Charts

A basic area chart uses ordinal data and a measure, for example, continuous dates and sales. This is very similar to a continuous line chart, but with the area shaded.

Problem

You want to see an area chart for sales by continuous months.

Solution

1. On a new worksheet, double-click Sales, which automatically adds the Sum of Sales field to Rows.

2. 

   Right-click and drag (Option-drag on Mac) Order Date to Columns and select continuous months:

3. 

   The final step is to change the mark type from Automatic to Area. Click the drop-down menu on the Marks card (1) and select Area (2):

Your final view should look like this:

Discussion

A continuous area chart is exactly like a line chart but with the shaded area beneath the line. When creating this type of chart, I like to add a border on the area chart to make the marks easier to see.

To add a border, click Color ...