To add grid lines in Tableau, specifically for visual assistance when designing the layout of your dashboard, you can easily toggle a grid overlay. This feature helps you align and position various elements on your dashboard canvas.
Adding Grid Lines for Dashboard Layout
Tableau offers a helpful grid visibility option within the dashboard design environment. This is a temporary tool intended to aid in the precise placement and alignment of worksheets, text boxes, images, and other objects on your dashboard.
Steps to Show Dashboard Layout Grid
Adding this visual grid is a straightforward process involving just a couple of clicks:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | At the top menu bar in Tableau, click on the Dashboard option. |
| 2 | From the dropdown menu, click on Show Grid. |
Voila! A grid will become visible on your dashboard workspace, providing horizontal and vertical lines to guide your layout efforts.
Turning Off Grid Lines
If you no longer need the grid overlay, you can hide it just as easily as you showed it:
- Navigate back to the Dashboard menu at the top.
- Click Show Grid again.
This action toggles the grid visibility off, clearing your canvas view.
Important Considerations
It is essential to understand the purpose and limitation of these specific grid lines enabled via the "Show Grid" option in the Dashboard menu:
- Design Aid Only: These grid lines are strictly for use during the dashboard design process within Tableau Desktop or Tableau Cloud's editing interface.
- Not Visible in Final Output: The grid lines will not show in the final published dashboard that viewers interact with, nor will they appear in exported images or PDFs of the dashboard.
This method focuses on assisting with the overall dashboard structure layout, separate from grid lines you might configure within individual worksheets (like axis grid lines or row/column dividers).
