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Add images with a web URL: New in Tableau 2021.2

You can now link images by web URL in Tableau 2021.2, so when your logo changes you update it in one place and every dashboard follows.

Tim Ngwena •27 June 2021 •1 min read •7 min watch •14K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2021.2

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Tableau 2021.2 adds a 'linked image' option so you can reference an image by web URL instead of embedding a local file
Linking images from one central web location means a logo change updates automatically across every dashboard that uses it
You can set a click-through URL and alt text on image objects, the latter improving accessibility for screen readers
Animated GIFs won't play in Tableau Desktop but render correctly once the workbook is published and viewed in the browser
Web-loaded images raise security and corporate-network considerations (blocked domains, tracking-pixel potential) so test before rolling out

0:00In Tableau 2021.2 you can now use web-based

0:03images in your image objects on a dashboard

0:06.

0:06That's a bit of a tongue twister but

0:07essentially you can grab a URL of an image

0:10and use it in place

0:11of actually having an image on your

0:13dashboard. This is big because essentially

0:15how many times

0:16have we all added a logo to our dashboard

0:19and then when the logo changes we have to

0:21go out and change

0:22I don't know how many dashboards. With this

0:24feature you can put a logo in one place on

0:26the web

0:27and always be linking to it and when the

0:29logo changes you can just simply change the

0:31image in

0:31one place and every single dashboard that

0:34uses that logo will change automatically

0:36because it's

0:36loading from the web. Let's get stuck into

0:38this feature. To show you this I'm actually

0:40going to

0:40just use the superstore dashboard here the

0:43sample workbook that's already built for us

0:45in Tableau.

0:46This is actually a nice feature because for

0:48so long I feel like we've been sort of held

0:50to our

0:50held by chains with images it's been so

0:52hard to get things to work and we've had to

0:55do things like

0:55use extensions to get them to do nice

0:57things. It's not the first time we've been

0:59able to do this you

1:00have been able to bring in a web object to

1:02put an image in there but in this one this

1:05is just a much

1:06much nicer interface. So what I'm going to

1:07do I'm going to go to the customers

1:09dashboard here because

1:10I know that this is nicely set up I'll

1:11change the proportions here just to give me

1:13a little bit more

1:14space here on the right hand side and I'll

1:16just move this over to the right left hand

1:18side even

1:19a bit more just so that it's not hovering

1:21over my face. So now here we are we're

1:22pretty much good to

1:24go now in case you're wondering the image

1:26object is over here on the left hand side

1:28so we can of

1:28course grab the image object and we're just

1:31going to put it here underneath the profit

1:32ratio this is

1:33a nice easy place to do that. Now when we

1:35do that you get the new image interface and

1:38so we've got

1:38the old setup you can choose an image from

1:40your computer fill an image center an image

1:43you can

1:43also give it a url to go to when the image

1:45is clicked and you can give it some alt

1:47text. Alt text

1:48is specifically for the web this is

1:50basically good for accessibility when

1:52someone who's blind who

1:54can't see the image what the browser will

1:56do is it will read this alt text to tell

1:58the person what

1:58the image is so I'll show you how to set

2:00that up in a second. I'm actually going to

2:03go to this new

2:04option here and this is the new option

2:05linked image now what I'm going to do is I

2:07've actually

2:08got a logo from my tablet and website and

2:11it's actually held in a CDN this is

2:13basically a content

2:15distribution network so let me just grab

2:17the url it's very long and ugly but what I

2:19'll do is I'll

2:20paste it in here okay so you can see it's a

2:22very long url and it's essentially just my

2:24logo but it

2:24lives in this sort of weird place in webfl

2:26are and this is where the logo is loaded for

2:28my website so

2:29I'm going to use the exact same logo that's

2:31on my website here I'm going to set it to

2:33fit the image

2:34and center the image as much as it possibly

2:36can and you can also give it a url to go to

2:38when the

2:39image is clicked so I'll just say tablotim.

2:43com and I'll basically say this image is the

2:46tableau

2:47tim logo click to go to the website so the

2:51reason you type that is because you're

2:54trying to make it

2:55as accessibility friendly as you can so

2:57when someone hovers over the image but they

2:59're blind

3:00it sort of tells them what that image is

3:02about so let's hit apply and you'll

3:04instantly see the image

3:05loads from the website this is a really

3:07good call now what is really interesting

3:09about this is that

3:11essentially this image gets loaded from a

3:13specific place and if you're really sort of

3:15down with

3:16marketing you'll know that this is

3:18essentially how tracking pixels work okay

3:21so I'm sure there's

3:22probably a way to use this to actually

3:24track which dashboards are being opened and

3:27where without ever

3:28having to put google analytics inside of a

3:30dashboard essentially you add a one pixel

3:32by one

3:32pixel image and all the web server does is

3:34it logs where that request comes from and

3:36which dashboard

3:37it's on maybe that's possible who knows

3:39maybe it's not it's just an idea but anyway

3:41click okay and

3:43now you have this here and of course when I

3:45click on that it actually opens up a

3:46browser you can't

3:47see that it's opened up on my other screen

3:49but it has actually worked now the other

3:51thing you can

3:52do with this as well is you can of course

3:54change this image so I'm just going to go

3:56in here and

3:56edit this image and I'm just going to

3:58delete that and we're going to put another

4:00image in here all

4:01together and this time around I'm actually

4:04going to grab an image from a website

4:06called Giphy and

4:07this is essentially an image of Drake doing

4:10the dance from Hotline Bling so that's

4:13actually not

4:14the link so let's close that and right

4:16click on copy the image address here and

4:20just on Giphy so

4:21let's just put that in here and now when we

4:24paste that you'll see that this is actually

4:27a gif okay

4:28and if I hit apply you'll see that it

4:31actually loads the first image of the gif

4:34and you'll see

4:34that it's not playing at all but the thing

4:36is these dashboards are typically viewed in

4:38the

4:38browser and that's what I'm sort of banking

4:40on I'm banking on the user view in this in

4:42the browser

4:42rather than in desktop so although it's not

4:45working here if I just go ahead and then

4:47publish

4:47this workbook over to the server it should

4:50essentially work in the browser perfectly

4:53fine

4:53because the image is being loaded in a

4:55context where it's just going to work

4:57perfectly fine so

4:58let's go put it in our 2021.2 folder super

5:02store sample images and we'll just go ahead

5:05I can't

5:05type we'll just go ahead and publish this

5:08and hit publish and now once that is done

5:10we'll head over

5:11to the dashboard and see if Drake is

5:13dancing on our dashboards fingers crossed

5:15he is and we'll

5:16find out what's going on so here we go

5:18executing the query it's sort of

5:20interesting because for a

5:21while you know tablets always sometimes

5:23complain when you've loaded web resources

5:26in but again

5:26because they're pushing to the browser I

5:28think there's probably some changes going

5:29on in the

5:30back end that's making this kind of stuff

5:32easy to do and sort of more accessible now

5:35the other thing

5:36you know I'm going to briefly mention this

5:38is you know people can do all sorts of

5:40things on the

5:40internet and images are just one additional

5:43way that people can sort of try and try and

5:46do things

5:46so it's going to be interesting to see if

5:49there's any sort of security implications

5:51when you have

5:52images on your dashboards if you have to

5:54have it within a certain domain if the

5:55image gets

5:56blocked if you're in a corporate network

5:58because it's being loaded from somewhere

6:00else all of these

6:00thoughts are some things you have to sort

6:02of think about so definitely test this

6:03before you roll it

6:04out now you can see the dashboard has

6:06opened up in a new window that was on

6:08another screen and the

6:09dashboard we want to go to is the customers

6:11dashboard so you can see this one over here

6:14so now that that's finished let's click on

6:16that and go to that and if I just make this

6:18larger

6:18in fact if I just make it take up the whole

6:20screen I should see Drake dancing on the

6:22dashboard at any

6:23moment now so let's wait for this to load

6:25and something's happened here I don't think

6:28this is

6:28the right this is this is sort of loaded a

6:30a tablet design I think this is not

6:32supposed to happen so

6:33let's refresh this I think when it opened

6:35the first time it was sort of constrained

6:38and it loaded with

6:38a tablet design so let's just refresh this

6:41so it has the full extent of the screen and

6:44yes indeed

6:45Drake is over there dancing on the

6:47dashboard to the right hand side so that's

6:49pretty much it that's

6:50the feature in a nutshell it's really

6:52really cool you could actually use this for

6:54a lot of

6:55stylistic design capabilities you could

6:57have an image that's animating a logo on

7:00your dashboard

7:01it just brings another breath of fresh air

7:03to dashboards that I think is going to be

7:04really

7:05useful so that's pretty much the feature in

7:07a nutshell I'll put my face back over Drake

7:08because

7:09this is my channel so here we go and I'll

7:11catch you in the next video take it easy

Rollup

Tableau 2021.2 lets you link an image object to a web URL instead of embedding a local file, so a single image hosted online can update automatically across every dashboard that uses it.

Demonstrated on the Superstore sample workbook by adding an image object to the customers dashboard. The example links a logo hosted on a CDN and later swaps in an animated GIF.

The Breakdown

Why linked images matter 0:00

Previously, changing a logo meant updating it on every dashboard individually. Linking to a web URL means you update the image once at the source and every dashboard referencing it updates automatically.
Add an image object to your dashboard 0:41

Drag the image object onto your dashboard layout as normal. This gives you the usual options plus the new linked-image choice.
Point it at a web URL rather than a local file 2:03

Choose the 'linked image' option and paste in the image's web address (Tim uses a logo hosted on a CDN). Set it to fit and centre as needed, the same as a normal embedded image.
Add a click-through URL and alt text 2:37

You can set a URL that opens when someone clicks the image, and alt text describing it for screen readers. As a quick tip, write alt text as if telling a blind user what the image is and where clicking it leads, for accessibility.
Swap or update the image anytime 3:42

Because the image loads from its web address rather than being embedded, editing the link lets you replace the image entirely, including with an animated GIF, without touching the file itself.
GIFs need the browser, not Desktop 4:20

An animated GIF only shows its first frame in Tableau Desktop. This only works once the workbook is published to server and viewed in a browser, where it animates properly.
Consider security implications before rolling out 5:37

Loading images from external domains can hit corporate network blocks, and a small enough image could function like a tracking pixel, logging when and where a dashboard is opened. Test this behaviour in your own environment before relying on it.

Worth Knowing

Animated GIFs won't play in Tableau Desktop even though the link works — you must view the published workbook in a browser to see it animate
A linked image is essentially a tracking pixel: the web server can log requests, which could reveal when and where a dashboard is opened, intentionally or not
Corporate networks may block external image domains, so a linked image could simply fail to load for some viewers
Tableau has occasionally been fussy about loaded web resources in the past, so test linked images before depending on them in production

Use It When

Reach for this when a logo or branding image is reused across many dashboards and you want a single place to update it, or when you want dashboard visuals like animated elements that only need to render correctly in the browser.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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