Tutorials from the forum #1: Sheet swap using images

As I have recently started my journey in the Tableau community forums, I have come across different questions. One of them has repeated a few times and I thought I would make a blogpost using the tutorials I’ve already wrote on the forums, so more people can find them.

The question read like this:

Not so long ago I had a similar question and I tried different approaches. However, what came closer to my answer was this tutorial made by Simon Runc https://community.tableau.com/docs/DOC-8385

One example where I used this technique was to produce this viz, where the icons at the top work as a way to swap between sheets. Keep reading if you are interested in how to build this.

Implementing this technique step by step: 

1) Create buttons. Simple calculations as shown. One for sales another for profit (the one for profit called Profit Button and has “Profit” inside).

2) Create a sheet called Sales Button which will work as the button for sales. It has the sales button calculation in detail and the marks card is formatted as shape and the shape is the picture you are using (shapes can be added to your Tableau Repository Folder in the “Shapes” folder).

3) Repeat step 2 for profit.

4) Create the “action” calculated field. One called 0zero and other 1One. Make sure they are discrete and dimension. These buttons will allow filtering later. Create calculations as following:

5) In your sales button and profit button worksheets configure the marks card as following (Shape with those three pills in detail):

6) Add your buttons and your other worksheets to the dashboard.

7) Create the selection action as following. This will make sure that when you select one of the icons it will show that. Do it for both profit and sales. Pay attention to the configuration of selected fields.

8) Create the actions that will make sure that the other worksheet doesn’t display. Again, pay attention to the configuration of selected fields.

 And now with that you should be able to swap sheets by clicking between the different images. You can download the workbook here.

The forums are a great way to learn! I definitely encourage everyone to post their doubts and answer some questions if you can!

For any comments you can find me in Twitter @DiegoTParker