How to Remove Axis in Tableau
Removing an axis from your Tableau chart is a quick way to clean up a visualization and draw your audience's attention to the most important parts of the data. By taking away redundant information, you can make your dashboards more readable and impactful. In this guide, you’ll learn the different methods for hiding an axis in Tableau, why you might want to do it, and some best practices for making sure your charts remain clear and honest.
Why Would You Remove an Axis in Tableau?
Before jumping into the "how," it’s helpful to understand the "why." While axes provide crucial context, there are several good reasons to hide them.
1. To Reduce Visual Clutter
The simplest reason is to make your chart look cleaner. A visualization with many data points, detailed labels, and multiple lines can become busy. Removing the axis, especially when its values aren't essential for the main insight, declutters the view and helps the data itself stand out.
2. When Data Labels Are Present
If you've already placed data labels directly on your chart - like values at the top of bar charts or on points in a line chart - then the axis is redundant. It’s simply repeating numbers that are already displayed elsewhere. Hiding the axis eliminates this repetition and streamlines the visual, as your audience can get the exact values from the labels themselves.
Example: A bar chart showing sales for four regions. If you put the sales figures directly on each bar, the Y-axis showing a scale from $0 to $500,000 becomes less necessary.
3. To Emphasize Proportions and Trends
For some charts, the primary goal is to show a trend over time or the relative size of different categories, not the exact values. For instance, in a stacked bar chart showing the composition of sales, the audience is more focused on which segment makes up the biggest or smallest slice of the total. A simple sparkline showing a stock's performance isn't about the exact price on a specific day, it's about the general upward or downward trend. In these cases, the axis can be removed to put the focus squarely on the shape and flow of the data.
4. For Certain Chart Types (Like KPI Cards)
Many specialized chart types used in dashboards simply don't require an axis. The most common example is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) card, which is just a large, single number designed to be seen at a glance. Visuals like a "big number" for 'Total Revenue' or 'Active Users' communicate their message instantly, and an axis would only take up space and add no value.
Method 1: The Quickest Way to Remove an Axis ("Show Header")
Tableau’s most direct method for hiding an axis is by using the "Show Header" option. In Tableau terminology, the axis (including its labels, tick marks, and title) is referred to as a "header." This works for both quantitative axes (green pills) and qualitative headers (blue pills).
Here’s how to do it step-by-step.
Step 1: Build Your Visualization
Let's create a simple bar chart. Using the Sample - Superstore dataset, drag Category to the Columns shelf and Sales to the Rows shelf. You'll now have a vertical bar chart with Category on the X-axis and Sales on the Y-axis.
Step 2: Right-Click the Axis You Want to Hide
Move your cursor over the Y-axis (the one showing the sales figures). Right-click directly on the axis to bring up the context menu.
Step 3: Uncheck "Show Header"
In the menu that appears, you will see a checked option called Show Header. Simply click on it to uncheck it.
Instantly, the entire axis - the line, the tick marks, and the number labels - will disappear from your view. The chart will automatically resize to fill the newly available space. This is the go-to method for fully removing an axis and reclaiming screen real estate.
To bring the axis back, you can right-click the corresponding green pill on the Rows Shelf (in this case, the SUM(Sales) pill) and re-check the "Show Header" option.
Method 2: Remove Specific Parts of an Axis With Formatting
What if you want more granular control? Perhaps you only want to remove the axis title but keep the numeric labels, or you want to remove the tick marks but keep the title. In this scenario, the formatting pane is your best friend.
This method doesn't remove the axis entirely, but rather lets you "hide" it piece by piece for a more custom look.
Step 1: Open the Format Pane
Right-click the axis you want to modify and select Format... from the menu. This will open the Format pane on the left side of your workspace. Make sure the 'Axis' tab is selected at the top of this pane.
Step 2: Remove the Axis Title
To remove the axis title (e.g., "Sales"), navigate to the 'Axis Title' dropdown within the 'Scale' section. Then, select a title from the dropdown or clear the text box in the 'Edit Axis' dialog. The easiest way is to just click Edit Axis..., and in the "General" tab of the pop-up window, delete all the text from the Title text box.
Step 3: Remove the Tick Marks
In the 'Scale' section of the Format Pane, find the dropdown menu for Tick Marks. By default, it's set to "Automatic". You can click this and select None for both the Major and Minor tick marks. This will remove the small lines along your axis line, which can tidy up the view without hiding the labels.
Step 4: Remove the Axis Numbers (Labels)
To get rid of the numbers themselves while leaving everything else, stay in the 'Axis' format tab and select the "Font" dropdown for the 'Scale' section. You could manually change the font color to match your dashboard's background (e.g., white) to make the numbers invisible, but the first method (unticking "Show Header") is far more efficient for this particular task.
The formatting method is most useful when you want to achieve a minimalist look without completely erasing the context that an axis provides.
Applying This to Different Scenarios
Knowing how to remove an axis is great, but applying it correctly across different chart types is what good dashboard design is all about.
Single Value KPI (Big Number Chart)
When creating a KPI card, your goal is to show a single, important metric. To build one, drag your measure (e.g., Sales) onto the Text mark and that's it.
Tableau often adds row and column grid lines by default. These can look like faint axes. To create a truly clean KPI card:
Go to the Format menu at the top.
Select Lines...
In the Format pane, turn off the Grid Lines, Zero Lines, Axis Rulers, and Axis Ticks.
Do the same for both the 'Sheet', 'Rows', and 'Columns' tabs to make sure everything is clean.
Dual-Axis Charts (Removing Just One Axis)
Dual-axis charts are powerful for comparing two measures with different scales, like plotting bars for sales and a line for profit. However, displaying both axes can sometimes be distracting, especially if the correlation is what's important, not the exact second measure's scale.
To remove just one of the two axes:
Create your dual-axis chart. For example, Sales on one axis and Profit on a second axis. Don't forget to right-click the second pill and select "Dual Axis". Remember to Synchronize Axis by right-clicking on an axis if the scales should align.
Decide which of the two axes is less important or can be understood with labels. For instance, maybe you want to label the profit line instead of showing its axis.
Right-click ONLY the axis you wish to remove (e.g., the right axis for Profit).
Untick "Show Header" for that specific axis.
The result is a clean chart showing both data series but using only one scale for visual guidance, with the other measure explained by labels or tooltips.
Best Practices to Remember
Removing chart elements should be done thoughtfully. Keep these guidelines in mind to ensure your visualizations remain effective and honest.
Label Generously: If you remove an axis showing values, you almost always need to add data labels to the chart. Drag the same measure pill that defined the axis onto the Label shelf on the Marks card.
Don’t Be Misleading: The most common data visualization mistake is truncating an axis - especially on bar charts. Bar lengths are perceived relative to each other, and they should always start at zero. If you remove an axis that starts somewhere else, you might unintentionally mislead your audience into thinking differences are larger than they actually are.
Keep Dashboards Consistent: If you choose a minimalist style on one chart in a dashboard, it’s a good idea to apply the same logic to other charts. A consistent design language across your dashboard makes it look more professional and easier for your audience to process.
Final Thoughts
Removing an axis in Tableau is a simple skill that can have a big impact on the clarity and polish of your dashboards. Whether you use the straightforward "Show Header" option for a quick clean-up or the format pane for more detailed adjustments, you now have the tools to create more focused and user-friendly visualizations.
We designed Graphed to automate much of this manual formatting and analysis. Instead of clicking through menus to create visualizations like KPI cards or perfectly labeled bar charts, you can simply describe what you need in plain language. You can ask for "a bar chart of sales by product category with the exact sales figures shown on each bar," and we’ll instantly create an effective, ready-to-use chart, letting you focus on the insights instead of the setup.