What Are the Different Layouts Present in Tableau?

Building a dashboard in Tableau is like arranging furniture in a room until it feels just right. The way you position your charts, filters, and text boxes is your dashboard's "layout," and it can make the difference between a cluttered space and a clear, insightful report. This article will walk you through the two primary layouts in Tableau - Tiled and Floating - so you can confidently design dashboards that not only look great but are also easy to interpret.

A Quick Primer on Tableau Layouts

In Tableau, a layout refers to how objects are organized on your dashboard canvas. An "object" can be anything you add to the view: a worksheet (chart or graph), a text box, an image, a web page, or a navigation button. Mastering layouts is the first step toward building professional, user-friendly dashboards. Your choice of layout dictates how these objects are placed, sized, and how they interact with each other as the dashboard's dimensions change.

Tableau offers two fundamental approaches to positioning these objects, each with its own set of strengths and weaknesses: Tiled layouts, which create a structured grid, and Floating layouts, which give you free-form control.

The Main Event: Tiled vs. Floating Layouts

When you start a new dashboard, Tableau defaults to a "Tiled" layout. You can switch between Tiled and Floating for any new object you add by toggling a button in the Dashboard pane. Let's break down each one.

Understanding Tiled Layouts

A tiled layout arranges your dashboard objects into a single-layer grid. Imagine laying tiles on a floor - each new tile you add sits flush against the others, and there are no gaps or overlaps. When you add a new worksheet or object, it automatically slots into a designated space, causing other objects in the grid to resize to accommodate the newcomer.

Pros of Using Tiled Layouts:

• Ease of Use: This is a beginner’s best friend. You simply drag and drop objects, and Tableau handles all the alignment and sizing for you. It's nearly impossible to create a visually messy dashboard.
• Structure and Speed: Tiled layouts are fast. Since you don't need to manually adjust pixel-perfect positions, you can build a clean, organized dashboard in minutes.
• Automatic Resizing: The grid structure is inherently responsive. If you view the dashboard on a different screen size, the tiled objects automatically resize proportionally, which helps in creating mobile-friendly views.

Cons of Using Tiled Layouts:

• Limited Creativity: The primary drawback is its rigidity. You cannot overlap objects, which limits your ability to create custom, layered designs. Text callouts on top of maps or KPI cards over charts aren’t possible with a purely tiled approach.
• "Boxy" Appearance: Tiled layouts can sometimes lead to a very structured, squared-off look that can feel a bit standard. Achieving a unique, branded aesthetic can be challenging.

How to Use a Tiled Layout:

1. Open a new dashboard in Tableau. Notice the “Tiled” button is selected by default in the Dashboard pane.
2. Drag your first worksheet onto the main area called “Drop sheets here.” It will fill the entire canvas.
3. Now, drag a second worksheet. As you drag, Tableau shows you gray boxes indicating where the new sheet will be placed - to the left, right, top, or bottom of the existing sheet.
4. Release the sheet in one of the gray areas. The dashboard will automatically partition the space, making room for both sheets.

That's it. Every new object will find its own “tile” in the grid.

Understanding Floating Layouts

A floating layout works like a corkboard. It lets you place objects anywhere on the dashboard, at any size, with complete freedom. You can position objects using exact x/y coordinates and even have them overlap one another. You have total creative control.

Pros of Using Floating Layouts:

• Total Creative Control: The sky is the limit. You can overlap objects to create visually rich designs, position logos precisely, layer text on top of images, and build dashboards that look more like a custom infographic.
• Polished, Custom Designs: Floating layouts are essential for creating highly polished, pixel-perfect executive or client-facing dashboards where aesthetics matter just as much as analysis.
• Layering: Need to place a summary KPI card on top of a corner portion of a large map? Or have an image as a faint background behind all your charts? That's what floating layouts are for.

Cons of Using Floating Layouts:

• Time-Consuming: With great power comes great responsibility. Manually positioning and sizing every single object can be tedious and require a lot of tweaking to get everything aligned.
• Risk of Clutter: Without the automatic structure of a tiled grid, it's easier to create a messy or misaligned dashboard if you're not careful.
• Less Responsive by Default: Floating objects have fixed positions and sizes. If the dashboard is viewed on a smaller screen, they might get cut off or obscure each other unless you specifically configure them to resize or use Tableau’s device layout feature.

How to Use a Floating Layout:

1. In the Dashboard pane, click the “Floating” button.
2. Now, drag any object onto your canvas. Instead of docking into a grid, it will appear as a free-floating window that you can drag around.
3. You can resize it by dragging its corners and edges. For precise control, use the Layout tab (in the Dashboard pane when you have the object selected) to set the exact X/Y position and size in pixels.

The Best of Both Worlds: A Hybrid Approach

Luckily, you don't have to choose between Tiled and Floating - Tableau developers use a mix of both. This hybrid approach is often the key to creating efficient yet polished dashboards.

The most common strategy is to build the main structure of your dashboard using a tiled layout. This gives you a stable, organized foundation with your primary charts neatly arranged. Then, for specific elements like text boxes, images (like a logo), legends, or key performance indicators (KPIs), you switch to floating. You can then layer these floating objects on top of your tiled grid for that extra touch of professionalism.

Example of a Hybrid Design:

1. Start with a Tiled layout for your main visualizations - for example, a map and a bar chart side-by-side.
2. Next, select the Floating option in the Dashboard navigation.
3. Drag a Text object onto the dashboard and place it over the top-left corner of the map. In the text box, you could add a descriptive title or a key insight, like “West Region Continues to Outperform.”
4. This text box now "floats" above the map. It looks clean and doesn't disrupt the underlying grid structure.

Organize Everything with Layout Containers

To really level up your layout skills, you need to understand Layout Containers. These are dashboard objects that act as "folders" for other objects. You can have a Horizontal Container that arranges items side-by-side, or a Vertical Container that stacks them up and down. Containers are your secret weapon for dashboard management and organization.

Why Use Containers?

• Grouping: They let you group related items together. For example, you can place three KPI text cards inside a horizontal container to ensure they are always perfectly aligned with even spacing.
• Controlled Spacing: You can add borders and padding to containers to control whitespace, making your dashboard easier to read.
• Tidying Up: In complex layouts, packing related filters into a vertical container cleans up the overall look and makes your design process much smoother.

You can drag these containers onto your canvas in either Tiled or Floating mode, then drag your worksheets, text, and other objects inside them.

Don't Forget About Device Layouts

Tableau lets you design and customize layouts specifically for different device types - Desktop, Tablet, and Phone. A dashboard that looks great on a wide desktop monitor will likely be unusable on a small phone screen.

This is where Tiled layouts and Containers particularly shine. If your default master layout is well-structured in a tiled grid, creating the mobile layout is often just a matter of rearranging the containers into a single vertical stack. Tableau assists with this by allowing you to create device-specific layouts that inherit from your main design. You can then customize the arrangement for each view without affecting the master layout.

Final Thoughts

Mastering Tableau’s layouts is how you transform from a data amateur into a data storyteller. Tiled layouts offer a fast and structured way to build clear dashboards, while Floating provides the creative freedom for polished, bespoke designs. By combining both with thoughtful use of containers, you can build impactful, interactive reports that look professional and are easy for your audience to understand.

While working directly in Tableau gives you incredible control, it also comes with a real learning curve. Sometimes, you just need a straightforward answer from your marketing or sales data without spending hours arranging visual components pixel by pixel. That’s where Graphed fits in. We remove the layout struggle entirely. You can connect your data sources like Google Analytics or Salesforce and just ask for the report you want in plain English - like "create a sales pipeline report showing conversion rates by rep." We instantly build a clean, real-time dashboard for you, so you can skip the design work and get straight to the insights.