Generating dynamic displayed annotations in Tableau dashboard

1
votes

Given the impressive flexibility of the platform, I feel certain there is a way to accomplish this but I'm having trouble putting it together. I have a dashboard in Tableau that is comprised of two data visualizations. On one sheet I have a bar graph of sales by category that is filtered by Month/Year of sale, pretty straight forward. On the other sheet I have a simple line graph of totals sales over time. This gives the user context for the sales per month they see represented in the bar graph.

What I would like to achieve is this: When a user changes the Month-Year filter for the bar graph, I would like an annotation to show up on the line graph that highlights that month in the overall sales data along with some summary stats (total sales, average order price, etc.). I have been reviewing the following dynamic annotations concept http://vizpainter.com/dynamic-annotations-part-3/ but I don't think it will get me where I want to go. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Ryan

1
data-visualizationdata-annotationstableau-api

1 Answers

0
votes

There are three things you need to learn how to use in Tableau: Tooltips, Annotations and Worksheet actions.

Most data can be added to a tooltip and formatted however you want. Tooltips will appear dynamically when you hover over parts of the dataviz. If you want permanent labels then you can use Annotations (which can be attached to a data point or area and can contain dynamic data).

Worksheet Actions allow events on one sheet to trigger changes in what is shown on another. For example, a selection of worksheet A can Highlight an area on worksheet B, which is what you want.

The best way to learn how to use these is to follow the online documentation and help. But the first step is knowing what to look for. Search for Tooltips, Annotations and Actions in the online help.

As an alternative look for examples using these tools on Tableau Public. Here is a link to a dashboard that uses Actions and Dynamic Tooltips to explore the popularity of UK childrens' names: https://public.tableau.com/shared/NCJ6F59B9?:display_count=yes

Feel free to download and explore how actions and tooltips are used.