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How to Merge Two Dashboards in Tableau

Cody Schneider••7 min read

Trying to combine two different Tableau dashboards into one unified view can leave you searching for a non-existent "merge" button. While Tableau doesn't offer a one-click solution, you can absolutely achieve a consolidated report. This article will walk you through the practical methods for bringing your dashboards together, whether that means rebuilding them into a single master view or cleverly linking them for a seamless user experience.

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What 'Merging Dashboards' Actually Means in Tableau

Before diving into the steps, it’s important to clarify what "merging" means in a Tableau context. Users typically have one of two goals in mind:

  • Consolidation: This involves cherry-picking the most important visualizations (sheets) from two or more separate dashboards and arranging them onto a single, new dashboard. This creates a true "master" or "summary" view.
  • Navigation: This involves creating a user-friendly way to jump between two related dashboards. For example, a user might click on a high-level summary chart on one dashboard to navigate to a second, more detailed dashboard that is automatically filtered based on their selection.

Both outcomes are useful, but they solve different problems and require different techniques. We'll cover the most effective method for each scenario below.

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Method 1: Manually Creating a New, Combined Dashboard

This is the most common and direct method for consolidating views. It involves creating a brand new dashboard from scratch and manually adding the specific worksheets from your original dashboards. It gives you complete control over the final layout.

When should you use this method?

  • You want a permanent, single-screen overview that combines key metrics from different reports (e.g., marketing campaign data on one side, sales results on the other).
  • Your original dashboards are not overly crowded, and their combined elements can reasonably fit on one screen without becoming illegible.
  • The worksheets you're combining use the same, blended, or related data sources, which simplifies filtering.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Let's imagine we have two dashboards: an "Organic Traffic Overview" and an "Advertising Performance" report, and we want to create a single "Digital Marketing Dashboard."

  1. Create a New Dashboard: In your Tableau workbook, click the "New Dashboard" icon at the bottom, next to your existing sheets and dashboards. Give it a clear name like "Master Digital Marketing Dashboard."
  2. Set an Appropriate Size: In the left-hand "Dashboard" pane, consider the size. If your previous dashboards were fixed size (e.g., 1000px by 800px), you will likely need a wider or taller layout to fit everything. You might choose "Automatic" sizing for flexibility or a larger fixed "Desktop" size like ‘1600 x 900’.
  3. Identify and Add Your Worksheets: One by one, navigate your workbook to find the views you want to include.
  4. Repeat for All Desired Sheets: Continue this process, pulling in essential charts from both the "Organic Traffic Overview" and "Advertising Performance" dashboards until your new master view is populated.
  5. Organize with Layout Containers: This is a crucial step for a clean design. Drag Horizontal or Vertical containers onto your dashboard first, and then drag your worksheets into those containers. This helps you group related items, align them perfectly, and control how they resize. For example, you might use a Horizontal container at the top for all your key performance indicator (KPI) numbers.
  6. Configure Your Filters and Legends: When you drag worksheets onto a new dashboard, their filters and parameter controls don't automatically come with them. You MUST add them back manually.
  7. Clean Up Your Workbook (Optional): Once your new master dashboard is complete and you've confirmed it works perfectly, you can right-click the tabs of the old, now redundant dashboards and select "Hide Dashboard." This keeps your workbook tidy without deleting anything.
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Method 2: Using Dashboard Actions to Link Dashboards

This method doesn't merge dashboards onto one screen but rather connects them, allowing users to navigate between them intelligently. This is perfect for creating drill-down capabilities, where a high-level summary links to a granular detail view.

When should you use this method?

  • Your source dashboards are dense and combining them would create a cluttered, confusing interface.
  • You want to create a guided analytical story, like "View overall sales here, then click a region to see its specific performance data on a separate board."
  • The second dashboard is meant to be a secondary "deep dive" view, not a primary overview.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Let's keep our "Master Digital Marketing Dashboard" as the starting point. Now, let’s create another dashboard called "Ad Campaign Details" with a detailed table of our campaigns. Our goal is to click a high-level chart on the master dashboard and have it take us to the details dashboard, automatically filtered for what we clicked.

  1. Ensure Dashboards Are Ready: You need both your source ("Master Digital Marketing Dashboard") and destination ("Ad Campaign Details") dashboards ready in the same Tableau workbook.
  2. Create a Navigation Prompt (Optional but Recommended): On your primary dashboard, add a text box with instructions like: "Click a campaign type in the chart to the left to view detailed results." This guides your users on how to interact with the view.
  3. Set Up the Dashboard Action:
  4. Configure the Filter Action: This is where the magic happens. A configuration window will appear. Fill it out as follows:
  5. Test Your Action: Click "OK" to close both dialog boxes. Now, go to your master dashboard and click on a bar in the "Spend by Campaign Type" chart. If configured correctly, you should be instantly transported to the "Ad Campaign Details" dashboard, which now only shows data for the campaign type you just selected.

Best Practices for a Great User Experience

  • Keep Performance in Mind: Every worksheet you add to a dashboard increases load times. A consolidated dashboard with 10 worksheets will be slower than one with 4. Make sure to use Tableau's Performance Recorder if things feel slow, and always try to use data extracts over live connections for public-facing dashboards.
  • Use Descriptive Titles: In a manually merged dashboard, use Text objects to create clear sub-headings for each section (e.g., "Organic Traffic Performance" vs. "Paid Advertising Metrics"). This helps users understand the context of each visualization.
  • Add a "Back" button: If you use dashboard actions to navigate, create a return path! On your details dashboard, add a right-arrow "Shape" on a new sheet and configure a "Go to Sheet" action to take the user back to the primary dashboard. This creates an intuitive loop.
  • Maintain Consistent Design: When merging, ensure your colors, fonts, and chart styles are harmonious. A dashboard that looks like two different reports were pasted together can be jarring for the end-user.

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Final Thoughts

Merging dashboards in Tableau is less about one specific feature and more about thoughtful design and configuration. By either carefully rebuilding your views into a central hub or strategically connecting them with actions, you can create a comprehensive and easy-to-use reporting experience that brings all your important data into focus.

That manual process of rebuilding views, arranging container layouts, and configuring filter actions in tools like Tableau is exactly the kind of time-consuming work we wanted to eliminate. At Graphed, we connect directly to your data sources so you can build insightful reports in seconds. Instead of a multi-step process for combining and filtering data, you can simply ask, "Show me a dashboard of Google Analytics traffic vs. Facebook Ads spend for the last 30 days," and have a fully interactive view built for you instantly.

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