How to Add Shapes to Tableau

Using custom shapes in Tableau is a simple way to transform a standard, boring chart into a clear and visually engaging dashboard. Instead of relying on default circles and squares, you can use icons, logos, or custom images to tell a more compelling story with your data. This article will walk you through exactly how to find, add, and use custom shapes in your Tableau visualizations.

Why Bother With Custom Shapes in Tableau?

You might wonder if adding custom shapes is worth the effort. The short answer is yes. Stock charts get the job done, but custom visuals can immediately elevate your dashboard's impact and usability for a few key reasons:

• Increased Clarity: An icon is often easier to interpret than a legend. For example, using social media logos to represent different marketing channels is much faster for a user to understand than reading a color-coded legend.

• Enhanced Storytelling: Shapes can add a powerful layer of context. If you’re visualizing sales performance, you could use a green up arrow for positive growth and a red down arrow for a decline. This tells the story instantly, without the user needing to analyze the numbers closely.

• Better Brand Alignment: For internal or client-facing dashboards, incorporating company or product logos creates a more polished and professional feel. It shows attention to detail and reinforces branding.

• Improved Engagement: Let’s be honest - custom visuals are simply more interesting to look at. An interactive map using airplane icons for flight paths is more engaging than one with plain dots, making your audience more likely to pay attention to the insights you're presenting.

Step 1: Find and Prepare Your Image Files

Before you can add shapes to Tableau, you need to have the image files ready. Here’s a quick guide on finding the right shapes and preparing them for use.

Where to Find Icons and Shapes

You don't need to be a graphic designer to find quality icons. There are many great resources available, including:

• Flaticon: A massive library of professional icons, many of which are available for free with attribution. You can download them in PNG format, which is ideal for Tableau.

• The Noun Project: Another excellent resource for high-quality icons covering virtually any topic you can imagine.

• Internal Company Assets: Your company’s marketing team likely has a library of product logos, brand icons, and other assets you can use.

Best Practices for Shape Files

Once you have your images, you'll want to make sure they're optimized for Tableau. Keep these tips in mind:

• Use the Right File Format: PNG files are generally the best choice because they support transparent backgrounds. This ensures your icon looks clean and doesn't have a white or colored box around it. Other formats like JPG, GIF, and BMP are also supported.

• Keep Sizing Consistent: While you can resize shapes within Tableau, it’s best to start with images that are roughly the same size to ensure consistency. A resolution of about 64x64 pixels or 100x100 pixels is often a good starting point. If they're too small, they'll look blurry when sized up.

• Organize Them into Folders: This is the most critical step. Tableau recognizes folders of shapes as "palettes." Before you start, create a folder on your computer for each category of shapes you want to add. For example, create one folder named "Social Media Logos" and another named "Performance Indicators." This organization will make it much easier to find and use your shapes later.

Step 2: Add Shapes to Your Tableau Repository

Tableau stores all custom assets in a special folder on your computer called the "My Tableau Repository." Once you've organized your shape files into named folders, it's time to add them to this repository. The process is simple.

Find Your Tableau Repository

First, you need to locate this folder. The location is slightly different depending on your operating system:

• On Windows: Navigate to C:\Users\[YourUsername]\Documents\My Tableau Repository

• On Mac: Navigate to /Users/[YourUsername]/Documents/My Tableau Repository

Inside the "My Tableau Repository" folder, you'll find several subfolders, including "Shapes."

Copy Your Custom Shape Folders

Now, follow these steps:

1. Open the Shapes folder located inside your Tableau Repository.

2. You will see several default folders that come with Tableau, such as "Arrows," "Bug Tracking," and "Weather."

3. Now, copy the entire folder (or folders) containing your custom images (e.g., "Social Media Logos") and paste it directly into this Shapes folder.

That's it for the file system part. The folder name you used will now become the name of your shape palette inside Tableau.

Step 3: Reload Shapes in Tableau

Tableau won't automatically detect the new files you've added while it's running. You need to tell it to check the repository for new assets.

1. Open Tableau (or go back to your open workbook).

2. On the Marks card, select Shape from the dropdown menu where it might say "Automatic."

3. Click the Shape button that now appears on the Marks card.

4. In the "Edit Shape" dialog box that pops up, click the Reload Shapes button.

Tableau will rescan the Shapes folder in your repository. If you click the "Select Shape Palette" dropdown, you should now see the folder you added (e.g., "Social Media Logos") listed as a new palette.

Step 4: Use Your Custom Shapes in a View

Now for the fun part: putting your new shapes to work in a visualization.

Let's use a simple example with the Sample - Superstore dataset. Imagine we want to show a simple breakdown of profit by Category and use custom icons for Furniture, Office Supplies, and Technology.

1. Create your view: Drag Category to Rows and Profit to Columns to create a simple bar chart.

2. Change the Mark Type: On the Marks card, change the dropdown menu from "Automatic" to "Shape." Your view will change from bars to default shapes (likely open circles).

3. Link Data to Shapes: Drag the Category dimension from the Data pane and drop it directly onto the Shape button on the Marks card. Tableau will assign a default shape to each category (Furniture, Office Supplies, Technology).

4. Assign Your Custom Shapes:

   • Click the Shape button on the Marks card to open the "Edit Shape" dialog box again.

   • In the Select Shape Palette dropdown, find and select your custom palette.

   • On the left side of the dialog box, you'll see the members of your dimension (Category). Click Furniture.

   • On the right, click the custom shape you want to represent furniture.

   • Repeat the process for Office Supplies and Technology, assigning a unique icon to each.

   • Click Apply, then OK.

Your visualization will now display your custom icons instead of the default shapes. You can now use the Size and Color buttons on the Marks card to further customize the appearance.

Advanced Tips and Tricks

Once you've mastered the basics, you can start using shapes in more dynamic ways.

Dynamically Assign Shapes with a Calculation

Instead of assigning shapes based on a category, you can assign them based on a condition. For example, let's use up and down arrows to indicate a positive or negative profit ratio.

First, create a calculated field. Let's call it "Profit Status."

IF SUM([Profit]) > 0 THEN "Met Goal" ELSE "Missed Goal" END

Now, drag this new "Profit Status" calculated field onto the Shape button on the Marks card. Go to the Edit Shape dialog, select a suitable palette (like arrows), and assign an up arrow to "Met Goal" and a down arrow to "Missed Goal."

Sharing Workbooks with Custom Shapes

This is a critical final checkpoint. When you save a standard Tableau Workbook (.twb), it saves the instructions for building your charts, but it does not save external files like your custom shapes. If you send this file to a colleague, they'll see default shapes instead of your custom icons because they don't have the image files in their own Tableau Repository.

To solve this, you need to save your workbook as a Packaged Tableau Workbook (.twbx). You can do this by going to File > Save As and selecting .twbx from the file type dropdown. This file format bundles all the necessary components — including the data, custom shapes, and background images — into a single, portable file that anyone can open with Tableau.

Final Thoughts

Incorporating custom shapes is a small change that can have a big impact on your Tableau dashboards. It turns a simple data visualization into a compelling, easy-to-understand narrative that captures your audience's attention and helps them derive insights more quickly. By following these steps, you can start adding this powerful feature to your repertoire.

As you've seen, building great visualizations often involves many manual steps, both in Tableau and in preparing your data. We built Graphed because we wanted to eliminate this friction. Instead of clicking through menus to assign shapes or build charts, you just connect your data sources and describe what you want in plain English. Graphed automates the busy work, building real-time, interactive dashboards in seconds so you can spend less time wrangling visuals and more time asking new questions of your data.