How to Create Tabs in Tableau Dashboard

Creating tabbed views is one of the most powerful and common ways to make your Tableau dashboards cleaner and more user-friendly. Instead of overwhelming your audience with a single, long-scrolling dashboard, you can neatly organize visualizations into thematic sections. This article walks you through the definitive method for creating interactive tabs using parameters and layout containers.

Why Use Tabs in a Tableau Dashboard?

Before we jump into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." A sprawling dashboard packed with dozens of charts is not only visually noisy, but it's also slow to load and hard to interpret. Organizing your dashboard into tabs solves several problems at once:

• Better Organization: You can group related charts. For instance, a marketing dashboard might have tabs for "Paid Ad Performance," "Website Traffic Analysis," and "Social Media Engagement."
• Improved User Experience: Tabs guide your user through the data story in a structured way. They can focus on one topic at a time without getting distracted by unrelated information.
• Enhanced Performance: While all the worksheets are technically part of the dashboard, Tableau is only forced to render the visible worksheet. This can lead to a slightly snappier experience, particularly on complex dashboards.
• Saves Space: It allows you to present a large volume of information within a consolidated, compact space.

The Core Concept: Swapping Worksheets with a Parameter

Tableau doesn’t have a built-in "Tabs" feature like a web browser. So, we have to create the functionality ourselves. The magic behind this technique lies in a process often called "sheet swapping." Here’s the game plan:

1. We'll create a parameter that stores a list of our desired tab names (e.g., "Overview," "Sales," "Marketing").
2. We'll create a calculated field that connects this parameter to our worksheets.
3. We'll use this calculated field as a filter on each worksheet, making it so that only one worksheet for the selected "tab" can appear at a time.
4. We'll stack all our worksheets inside a single layout container on the dashboard. Because of our filter, only one sheet will be visible, while the others collapse to take up no space.
5. Finally, we'll build a navigation bar with clickable "buttons" that uses a Dashboard Action to change the parameter's value.

This might sound complex, but walking through it step-by-step makes it crystal clear.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Tabbable Worksheets

Step 1: Get Your Worksheets Ready

First, you need the individual reports you want to display on each tab. For this tutorial, let’s assume we have three separate worksheets built and ready:

• Sales Overview: A line chart showing sales over time.
• Product Breakdown: A bar chart showing sales by product category.
• Regional Performance: A map displaying sales by state or region.

Having these sheets built is the necessary first step before you start assembling the tabbed interface.

Step 2: Create a Parameter for Tab Selection

The parameter will act as the "controller" for our tabs. It's the central switch that tells Tableau which view to show.

1. In the Data pane on the left, click the small dropdown arrow next to it and select Create Parameter.
2. Configure the parameter with the following settings:
3. Under the "List of values" section, click Add and type in the exact names for your tabs. It’s crucial that these names are memorable and spelled consistently. Let's add:
4. Click OK. You'll now see your new parameter listed at the bottom of the Data pane. You can right-click it and choose Show Parameter to see how it looks as a simple dropdown menu on your worksheet.

Step 3: Create a Calculated Field to Act as a Filter

Next, we need a simple calculated field that will act as the bridge between our parameter and our worksheets. This calculation's only job is to return the current value of the parameter.

1. Click the dropdown arrow in the Data pane again and choose Create Calculated Field.
2. Name the field something obvious, like "View Selector".
3. In the formula box, simply enter the name of the parameter you just created:

[Select a View]

1. Click OK. That’s it! Now we can use this calculation in our filters.

Step 4: Apply the Calculated Field as a Filter

This is where we tell each individual worksheet when it should appear. We’ll apply a filter to each of our three sheets, tying each one to a specific value in our parameter.

For the "Sales Overview" Worksheet:

1. Go to your "Sales Overview" worksheet.
2. Drag the "View Selector" calculated field from the Data pane onto the Filters shelf.
3. A dialog box will pop up. Go to the "General" tab and select "Sales Overview" from the list.
4. Click OK. Notice anything? Possibly not yet. But if you show the "Select a View" parameter control and change it to something else, this sheet's data should disappear!
5. To make this more robust, we can use the "Condition" tab instead. When you add the View "Selector" to filters, in the popup select the Condition tab. Select "By Formula".

In the box, enter a formula to check if the selection matches that of the worksheet:

[Select a View] = "Sales Overview"

This setup tells Tableau: "Only show this worksheet if the 'Select a View' parameter is set to 'Sales Overview'." This method is slightly more foolproof than simply selecting a value.

Repeat for Other Worksheets:

Now, do the same for the other two worksheets, making sure to change the value in step 3 to match the sheet you’re on.

• For "Product Breakdown": Add "View Selector" to Filters and set the custom value list to just filter to the text "Product Breakdown".
• For "Regional Performance": Add "View Selector" to Filters and set the custom value to just filter on "Regional Performance".

After this step, if you show your parameter and change its value, you’ll see the worksheets correctly appearing and disappearing one by one based on your selection.

Building the Tabbable Dashboard

Now it's time to assemble everything into a polished, interactive dashboard.

Step 1: Set Up the Dashboard and Container

1. Create a new, blank dashboard.
2. From the Objects pane on the left, drag a Vertical (or Horizontal) layout container into the empty dashboard canvas. Using a container ensures that when sheets disappear, the visible sheet correctly expands to fill the available space.

Step 2: Add and Configure the Worksheets

1. One by one, drag your three worksheets (Sales Overview, Product Breakdown, Regional Performance) into the vertical container you just created. You'll see them stack on top of each other.
2. This next part is the most critical trick: you must hide the titles of these worksheets. Click on the dropdown arrow for each worksheet within the dashboard and uncheck "Show Title."
3. If it's not already showing, go to the toolbar and choose Analysis > Parameters and then select your parameter. Use the parameter's dropdown and you'll see your dashboard change. We're almost there, now we remove that dropdown and create true tabs.

Creating Stylish Navigation Buttons

A dropdown list works, but it doesn't look like tabs. To complete the effect, we'll create a new worksheet to serve as our navigation menu, and then use a Dashboard Action to link it to our parameter.

Step 1: Create the Navigation Worksheet

1. Create a new worksheet and name it "Navigation."
2. In the data panel on the left, create three more calculated fields. These will serve as our tab options, looking like buttons without cluttering the dataset.

• Create the first named, 'Sales OV', and in the box type, 'Sales Overview'.
• Create a new calculated field called "Product Breakdown" button with the text 'Product Breakdown'.
• Repeat once more for "Regional Performance."

1. On the Mark card, set to chart type Shape, and select whatever you'd like.
2. Drag Measure Names up into your columns and move measure values over onto your work area on the rows. On the Marks Shelf under the "Measure values" table, remove all the measures except for our new button calculated fields. Now each button lives as a separate tab, so arrange, format the font, and style these buttons as you choose!

Step 2: Add the Navigation to Your Dashboard

1. Go back to your Dashboard. Now, drag your new “Navigation” Worksheet onto the top of the container that held the three Worksheets. By default, it fits best in size. Resize the height to perfect it. Fit it for the whole screen.
2. Remove the old parameter dropdown by right-clicking on it and choosing to remove it. We will use actions for changing views.

Step 3: Create the Parameter Action

1. Go to Dashboard > Actions on the top menu.
2. In the Actions dialog, click Add Action > Change Parameter.
3. Configure the action as follows:
4. Finally, test this action on your dashboard view to ensure it behaves as expected.

Final Thoughts

Combining Tableau's parameters, calculated fields, containers, and dashboard actions gives you a robust and flexible method for creating an organized, tabbed interface for your users. Though it involves a few steps, once you master this technique, you can dramatically improve the structure and professional polish of any complex dashboard.

Of course, this process highlights the level of manual configuration often required in traditional BI tools. We created Graphed to streamline this effort. Rather than methodically building containers, parameters, and actions, Graphed allows you to simply connect your data sources - like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Salesforce - and use natural language to bring your dashboards to life. You can ask, "Show me a dashboard of sales, product breakdown, and regional performance," and let AI handle the setup, giving you instantly accessible, live-updating insights without the intensive build process.