Tableau's default graphs are quite beautiful.
For practical use, it is sufficient to slightly modify the defaults, but for graphs used for documentation purposes, you may want to change the appearance of the graphs in various ways to match the documentation.
However, Tableau formatting is quite difficult, and even if you go to the trouble of creating a graph in Tableau, you often end up downloading the data from Tableau and recreating the graph for documentation in Excel.
I thought that if I could draw Excel-like graphs and tables in Tableau, I would be able to save myself the trouble of recreating graphs in Excel.
What is difficult about Tableau formatting?
Tableau does not allow cell-by-cell formatting like Excel, and pinpoint changes cannot be made.
In Excel, you can select the area you want to format and right-click to get the look you somehow intended.
However, with Tableau, if you want to make it look a little more complicated, you need to recreate it by combining multiple formatting settings, and you need to know what part of the graph the formatting refers to to some extent, If you do not know which part of the graph the formatting refers to, it is not possible to achieve the desired look.
I will focus mainly on the location of the formatting UI and what part of the graph it refers to, rather than the detailed and specific formatting methods.
As a goal, I would like to put together a default table "Before" to the point where I can set up an "After" table.
Where formatting can be done
There are various areas where formatting can be done, but let's start with the main worksheet.
The areas that can be formatted in a worksheet are divided into "sheet," "row/column," and "field," in order from largest to smallest.
The three do not refer to separate areas, but rather the areas are subdivided into "sheets," "rows and columns," and "fields" in that order, They overlap from the bottom in the same order, like layers, and formatting set in the lower area can be overwritten in the upper area.
sheet
The entire worksheet.
.
rows and columns
Point to each row/column.
.
Formatting in "Row/Column" can override formatting in "Sheet".
field
Indicates individual row and column elements (dimensions) that are even finer than "rows and columns.
Formatting in "Fields" overrides formatting in "Sheets" and "Rows/Columns".
Formatting UI
The formatting UI for the above three locations will appear in the left pane when the [Format]-[Font] menu is selected.
- The "Sheet" tab is the "Sheet" formatting
- Row and column tabs are "Row/Column" formatting
- The "Fields" drop-down sets the formatting for each field
Sheet, row, and column formatting
Starting with the "A" icon in the upper left corner, there are five icons in a row, which in turn represent the scribe settings for "font," "alignment," "shading," "border," and "line.
And this is the point where it is easy to get stuck, those icons are for "sheet", "row", and "column" formatting, not "field" formatting!
For example, clicking on the "Font" icon will display "Sheet," "Row," and "Column" and format the "Font" for "Sheet," "Row," and "Column" in the tab.
Formatting "Fields
When "Fields" is selected, the "Sheet," "Row," and "Column" tabs change to "Axis," "Pane," "Header," etc.
Those tabs indicate the formatting of the selected "field".
This is another point where it is easy to get stuck. There is a row of "A (font)" icons, etc., but these are not "field" formatting, just shortcuts to the aforementioned "sheet," "row," and "column" formatting!
Worksheet, Header, Pane, Cell.
The terms "worksheet," "header," "pane," and "cell" are also used to describe the areas that can be formatted.
worksheet
The entire "sheet".
header
The item name, axis, and scale area outside of the graph plotting area.
Note that the upper left header crossing is not a "header".
pane
The graph drawing area where the rows and columns overlap.
cell
This item is used when the table view is used instead of a graph.
When made into a table, the pane is divided into cells, and this refers to those divided cells.
Border" and "Line"
The aforementioned, "border" and "line" icons in the formatting UI, these refer to line formatting.
grid-line
As the name implies, a "border" is a line that surrounds a header, pane, etc.
線
A "line" is a "line" drawn "in the graph (pane)", such as a "grid".
field label
If an item in a graph or table has a discontinuous value, the item name is displayed as a "field label".
It is easy to mistake it for a "header" in terms of location, but "field labels" are different from "headers," so formatting is done in a different location.
The "Field Labels" formatting UI can be found under [Formatting]-[Field Labels].
Formatting Graph Elements
Formatting of graph elements, such as bar chart colors and borders, is done in the "Mark" card's "Color" and "Size".
Example (Table)
Based on the above information, let's set the table "Before" to the table "After".
sheet
- [Shading]-[Sheet]-[Default]-[Worksheet] sets the background color of the worksheet.
- Since we want the data portion to be striped, set the base background color for the data portion in [Shading]-[Sheet]-[Default]-[Pane].
- Since we want the data portion to be striped, go to [Shading]-[Sheet]-[Stripe (Row)]-[Pane] and set the background color of the striped portion of the data portion.
header
Set the "Sales" and "Quantity" items to be centered and the background color to be set.
- Center it by setting [Arrange]-[Columns]-[Default]-[Header] to "Center".
- Under [Shading]-[Columns]-[Default]-[Header], set the background color.
field label
Set the "Category" and "Region" items as centered and set the background color.
As mentioned above, "Category" and "Region" are not column headers, but rather "field label" formatting!
- Set [Field Labels]-[Default]-[Corner]-[Alignment] to "Center" for centering.
- Set the background color in [Field Labels]-[Default]-[Shading].
Columns/Total
From "Category" to "Total," set the L-shaped background color for the header and total values.
Bolden the "category" separator.
Make the word "total" bold, the word "data" red, and the border between the total and the data colored to make the total stand out.
- [Shading]-[Row]-[Default]-[Header] sets the header background color.
- Under [Shading]-[Rows]-[Totals]-[Header], set the background color for the "Total" header.
- Under [Shading]-[Rows]-[Totals]-[Pane], set the background color for the "Total" data portion.
- Since the header is not striped, set [Shading]-[Rows]-[Stripes (Rows)]-[Header] to "None".
- [Font]-[Row]-[Total]-[Pane] makes the text of the total data thicker and redder.
- Go to [Font]-[Row]-[Total]-[Header] and make the "Total" header text thicker.
- Set the color and thickness of the total border in [Borders]-[Rows]-[Totals]-[Panes & Headers].
- [Border]-[Row]-[Row Borders]-[Pane Header] to make the dividing line between categories thicker.
Regional" header
Set the "Region" header to a different color than the "Category" header.
- Pinpoint the "Region" background color in [Fields]-[Region]-[Header]-[Default]-[Shading].
With the above settings, the following formatting is completed.
Example (Graph)
In addition to formatting tables, graph formatting is used to format lines in a graph with "Lines" and graph objects with "Mark Cards".
- Format the outer frame of the graph in [Borders]-[Sheets]-[Defaults]-[Panes].
- [Lines]-[Sheets]-[Lines]-[Gred Lines] to format the grid in the graph.
- [Mark Cards]-[Color/Size] allows you to format the color, size, and lines of a graph object.
Tableau is not good at formatting
L-shaped and striped
You can stripe the header in the table.
However, it cannot be L-shaped and striped because the color of the subdivided header (region) and total stripes cannot be specified.
Formatting the table's outer borders
There is no formatting for the outer frame alone, so only the outer frame cannot be reformatted.
Impressions, etc.
Changing the formatting in one area may also change the formatting in other related areas. This is by kind design, but it is better to keep this in mind even in a corner of your mind, because you may get into trouble without knowing that it has changed.
Tableau formatting is less flexible than Excel, so there are certain expressions that can be done in Excel but not in Tableau.
However, since I had shied away from Tableau formatting itself in the first place, I think I will make a lot of progress if I start using it more like Excel.
