How to Change Graph Type in Tableau

Ever built a visualization in Tableau only to realize halfway through that a bar chart should actually be a line chart to show a trend? That moment of needing to switch graph types is something every Tableau user experiences. Thankfully, changing your chart type is one of the most fundamental and flexible features in the tool. This tutorial will walk you through the primary methods for changing graph types in Tableau, from the one-click "Show Me" panel to the more nuanced control of the Marks card.

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The "Show Me" Panel: Your Quick-Change Artist

The "Show Me" panel is the fastest and most intuitive way to swap between chart types, especially when you're just starting out or exploring your data. It acts as an intelligent guide, suggesting appropriate visualizations based on the dimensions and measures you've selected.

How the "Show Me" Panel Works

Tableau understands the components needed to build different charts. For example, it knows that a line chart typically requires a date field, and a scatter plot needs at least two measures. Located in the top-right corner of the workspace, the "Show Me" panel displays a variety of common chart types.

• Charts that are possible with your current data selection are shown in full color.
• Charts that are not possible (because you're missing a required data type, like a geographic field for a map) are grayed out.
• Tableau often highlights one chart with an orange border, indicating its recommended visualization for your data.

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Step-by-Step: Using "Show Me" to Change Graph Types

Let's walk through a common scenario. Imagine you want to see your total sales for each product category.

1. Open a Tableau workbook and connect to your data source. We'll use the sample "Superstore" dataset for this example.
2. Select your data. In the Data pane on the left, hold down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) and click on the Category dimension and the Sales measure. You've now selected the fields you want to visualize.
3. Let "Show Me" do the work. Navigate to the Show Me panel in the top-right and click it to expand the menu. You'll see several options, with the horizontal bar chart likely highlighted. Click the icon for the horizontal bar chart.
4. Tableau instantly creates the viz, placing SUM(Sales) on the Columns shelf and Category on the Rows shelf.

Now, let's change it. While this bar chart is useful, maybe you want to see these categories as parts of a whole.

• Click the Treemap icon in the "Show Me" panel. Instantly, your bar chart transforms into a treemap, where each category is represented by a rectangle sized and colored by its total sales.
• Want to try a pie chart? Click the Pie Chart icon. The view immediately changes again.

The "Show Me" panel is perfect for rapid exploration, allowing you to cycle through different views of your data with a single click to find the one that tells your story most effectively.

Using the Marks Card Dropdown: For More Precise Control

While the "Show Me" panel is great for speed, it sometimes rearranges your pills on the Columns and Rows shelves in ways you don't expect. For more direct and predictable control over your chart type, the Marks Card is your best tool. It tells Tableau how to draw the data points, or "marks," for your visualization.

Understanding the Marks Card

The Marks Card is located to the left of the worksheet, just below the Filters shelf. It contains properties like Color, Size, Label, Detail, and Tooltip, which modify the appearance of your graph. Critically, it also has a dropdown menu at the top that lets you manually set the mark type.

When you first drag fields into your view, this dropdown is usually set to Automatic. Tableau selects a mark type based on its own logic (e.g., if you have a date and a measure, it picks "Line"). By changing this setting yourself, you override Tableau's default behavior.

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Step-by-Step: Changing the Mark Type Manually

Let's build a chart showing sales over time and then change its type manually.

1. Start with a clean sheet. Drag the Order Date dimension to the Columns shelf. Right-click the pill and make sure it's set to Month (the continuous MONTH option, which is green).
2. Next, drag the Sales measure to the Rows shelf. Tableau's 'Automatic' setting will generate a line chart because it recognizes you're trying to show a continuous value over time.
3. Now, locate the Marks card. The dropdown at the top currently says 'Automatic' and shows a line icon next to it.
4. Click the dropdown menu. You'll see a list of options: Bar, Line, Area, Square, Circle, Shape, and more.
5. Select Bar. Your visualization instantly changes from a line chart to a vertical bar chart, with one bar for each month's sales total.
6. Select Circle. The line is replaced with a series of points, one for each data point (month). This is essentially a scatter plot with a time axis.

This method gives you complete control. You decide what the marks should be, and Tableau's job is simply to draw them based on the data you've provided. This is the foundational technique for building more advanced and customized chart types.

Advanced Method: Building a Dual-Axis Combination Chart

What if you want to show two different graph types in a single view? Classic business dashboards often show sales revenue as bars and profit ratio as a line on the same chart. This is called a dual-axis combination chart, and it's built by manually setting the mark type for each measure.

This approach combines multiple measures with different scales and visualizes each one in the most appropriate way, offering richer insights in a compact space.

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Step-by-Step: Creating a Combo Chart

Let's build that Sales (bars) vs. Profit Ratio (line) chart.

1. Set up your base chart. Drag Order Date to Columns (set to continuous Month). Drag Sales to Rows. You have your familiar sales line chart.
2. Add the second measure. Drag the Profit Ratio measure to the opposite side of the Rows shelf. You'll see a dashed green line appear where you can drop the pill. Now you have two separate line charts, one stacked on top of the other, each with its own y-axis.
3. Customize the Marks Cards. Notice that your Marks card has now split into three sections: All, SUM(Sales), and SUM(Profit Ratio). This allows you to control each chart layer independently.
4. Create the dual axis. Right-click the SUM(Profit Ratio) pill on the Rows shelf and select Dual Axis from the menu.
5. The two charts will now overlay each other, with the profit ratio line layered on top of the sales bars. You'll also see a second axis appear on the right side of the chart.
6. Synchronize the axes (important!). To ensure the data aligns properly and isn't misleading, right-click the right-side axis (the one for Profit Ratio) and select Synchronize Axis. This makes sure both axes start and end at values that make sense relative to each other.

You have now successfully changed graph types within a single visualization to create a sophisticated, insightful combo chart. This technique is a gateway to creating highly customized and informative dashboards.

Tips for Choosing the Right Chart Type

Knowing how to change a chart is one thing, knowing why you should is another. Here are a few quick guidelines to help you match your visualization to your analytical goal:

• To compare values across categories: Use a bar chart. They are simple, clean, and very easy to interpret. For example, comparing sales across different regions.
• To show a trend over time: A line chart is almost always the best choice. It clearly shows rises, falls, and volatility over seconds, days, months, or years.
• To understand the relationship between two variables: A scatter plot is what you need. This helps you identify correlations, like if marketing spend is related to an increase in sales.
• To show parts of a whole: A treemap or a stacked bar chart is often more effective than a pie chart, especially if you have more than a few categories. They make it easier to compare the relative sizes of each component.
• To visualize geographical data: Use a map. If your data has latitude/longitude, country, state, or postal codes, Tableau's maps are a powerful way to see spatial patterns.

Final Thoughts

Changing your graph type in Tableau is a core skill you'll use constantly. Whether you're using the fast and easy "Show Me" panel for quick exploration, the Marks card for direct control, or building sophisticated dual-axis charts, being able to pivot your visualization is key to finding and communicating insights effectively.

We built Graphed to make this entire process even simpler by translating plain English directly into finished visualizations. Rather than clicking through panels and menus, you can just ask for what you need — for example, "show me monthly sales as a bar chart and ROI as a line chart" — and the system builds it instantly with live data from your connected sources. This allows you to move straight from question to answer, focusing on strategy instead of report-building mechanics.