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Tableau | Data visualisation | Tool strategy

Copy and Paste: New Tableau 2021.4

Copy and paste has finally landed in Tableau 21.4, but stay inside its boundaries or it'll trip you up.

Tim Ngwena •6 December 2021 •1 min read •8 min watch •14K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2021.4

Watch on YouTube

Copy and paste places items two pixels diagonally from the original when selected, or defaults to the top left when you deselect first
You can copy objects across different dashboards and between desktop and web edit, ideal for logos, text, notes and images
There's no snap-to-grid support, so floating layouts give you more control when positioning pasted items
Pasted objects don't reliably retain their original width and height, especially when moving between desktop and web edit
You can't copy sheets, sheet-dependent items like filters, parameters and legends, or any container that holds those items

0:00Hey it's Tim here in 21.4 you can now copy

0:02and paste. You can see that I'm on a

0:04dashboard and

0:05the thing I'm going to highlight here is

0:06that I'm on a floating dashboard here so I

0:08've deliberately

0:09set this up to sort of make this example

0:11easier. I've already got a text box and you

0:13can see here

0:14that if I click on this drop down option I

0:16now have the option to copy this dashboard

0:18item and

0:19if I go ahead and paste it if I don't

0:21select the canvas and I just leave

0:23everything as selected

0:24it pastes it two pixels from the left and

0:27the right of the previous item so you can

0:29see it

0:29kind of pastes this in this diagonal

0:31direction because it's essentially creating

0:33this sort of

0:34buffer all the way down. If I deselect the

0:36item and then I paste it will always

0:38default by pasting

0:39it to the top left and again if I carry on

0:41there it carries on so every time I des

0:44elect it keeps on

0:45doing that. Now one of the things you

0:47obviously might want to naturally do if you

0:49get a bit

0:49overzealous of this is sort of click and

0:51drag. You can't do that because there's

0:53never a click

0:54and drag sort of behavior in a dashboard

0:56item even if we are on floating this is not

0:59a canvas

0:59it's not a free-flowing canvas so what you

1:01can do is use the back button to undo any

1:03of those steps

1:04and you can kind of work your way back to

1:06an ideal solution. So this is a really

1:09really nice to use

1:09feature now what else can you copy and

1:12paste let me drag a vertical container onto

1:14the dashboard

1:15and one thing I'll do with this vertical

1:17container is I'll make the border bold and

1:19I'll make the

1:20background color like a nice sort of green

1:22color and what you can do here is you can

1:24just highlight

1:25the item and this time I'm going to do

1:27command c command v or control c control v

1:29on a windows

1:30and you can see the same thing works and I

1:32can keep copying these items and this is

1:33all great.

1:34Now you can understand why I think floating

1:36is going to be better in this context

1:37because of

1:38course you can kind of set these up to

1:40behave in a much much better way. We don't

1:42quite have the

1:43ability to sort of snap things to a grid

1:45that would make this a lot easier to use we

1:48do have

1:48a grid here you can show the grid and you

1:50can go to grid options but unfortunately

1:52there is no

1:53snapping capability here that would make a

1:55lot of sense I know it's in the product

1:57just just make it

1:58available already tableau please. So yes

2:00you know you're going to have to be really

2:03I guess

2:03thoughtful about this feature as you use it

2:05. So I've shown you text I've shown you

2:07containers now

2:08there is a few catches to this I'll come to

2:10those in a second I just want to show you a

2:12couple of

2:13other really cool things. Let's say that I

2:15copy this container let's copy that from

2:18this page

2:19I can actually go to another dashboard and

2:21this time around I'm going to go to this

2:22dashboard and

2:23I can actually make sure I click on this

2:25dashboard so tableau knows I'm in this

2:26version then I can

2:27just paste it and you see here it pastes it

2:29on the top left okay it kind of lets me

2:32copy it across

2:32dashboards so if you've got a logo if you

2:35've got some text if you've got some notes

2:37that you want

2:37to copy from one dashboard to another it's

2:39completely possible you just go ahead copy

2:42it

2:42go to the next dashboard and paste this is

2:44a really good workflow this also works from

2:47desktop to web

2:48edit let's go over here you can see that I

2:49have this dashboard here I'm in web edit I

2:51'm going to

2:52go in and hit edit and once I'm in the edit

2:54view here you can see everything is ready

2:56to go I can

2:57go ahead hit ctrl v and in this particular

2:59case it didn't quite like it let's just

3:01make this a

3:02little bit larger let's make sure we've

3:04clicked inside of the dashboard here and

3:06let everything

3:07sort of align itself I'm just going to

3:09double check one thing I'll open up a new

3:11dashboard and

3:12I'll hit ctrl v there and it does work

3:14there so it does actually copy the object

3:16over into web edit

3:18if I go back to my overview page which is

3:20where I was and then I just try that again

3:23you can see

3:24that it does finally work so there's a

3:25little bit of a bug there just just in

3:27terms of copying it

3:28across but it does work if you sort of go

3:30with intent and you know just persist with

3:32a feature

3:33it will work so this is really cool you can

3:35copy things from dashboards to dashboards

3:37you can copy

3:38things from dashboards to web edit and web

3:41edit back to the dashboard let's go ahead

3:43and do that

3:44let's select this container go to layout

3:46let's go make this red you can see we've

3:48changed the color

3:49now we're going to copy this item here and

3:51we're going to go back to our original

3:53dashboard

3:54click inside of this hit paste and you can

3:56see we've now got the red box now what is

3:58interesting

3:59is I did that you saw this box change sort

4:01of dimensions and that's sort of not

4:03reassuring in

4:04many ways because you know I gave it a

4:07dimension here it's 582 by 306 I go to my

4:10web edit here and

4:12I click on it and it's got a completely

4:13different sort of bunch of parameters that

4:15's exact same

4:16object but for some reason it has different

4:18parameters so for copy and paste it doesn't

4:21sort of do what you'd expect it to do out

4:23of the tin it's sort of not consistent

4:25there you'd expect

4:26these things to keep the same width and

4:27height I don't really know why that is it

4:29might just be

4:30sort of launch bugs but again something to

4:33sort of watch out for now the last thing I

4:36'm going to

4:36cover with this is that this feature I

4:39think is not intuitive I was actually

4:41really excited about

4:42this and I saw the euphoria on twitter and

4:44I thought you know what this is going to be

4:46great

4:46for Workplace but unlike normal copy and

4:48paste this this feature actually has a lot

4:51of things

4:51to watch out for a lot of quirks let me do

4:53this let me go ahead to a new sheet here

4:55let's just

4:56build a very very simple chart let's let's

4:59build a sales let's build a category here

5:02and let's

5:03actually put that out there and we'll put

5:05sales target let's just put there it's a

5:07very crap you

5:08know normal bar chart here we'll go back to

5:10my dashboard we'll go back to this layer

5:12and we'll

5:13put that sheet inside of my tiled container

5:15so we'll put it inside of this one you can

5:18see that

5:18it goes blue my circle is showing you where

5:20my mouse is if I drop it in there that's

5:22where the

5:23sheet is let's get this to fill the entire

5:25view and great so before I put something in

5:28this container

5:29you could copy and paste from it now if I

5:31double click select the container again you

5:33'll see the

5:34copy and paste options not there and that's

5:36because you can't yet copy containers that

5:39contain things and so it's kind of weird

5:41right why would you copy a container that

5:43only has text

5:45but nothing else I mean okay makes sense if

5:47you've got a sidebar menu but it's not

5:49really ideal

5:50and so what I've actually had to do for

5:52this feature is go and get the notes

5:53because essentially

5:54there's actually quite a few things you can

5:56't do so just to recap you can copy and

5:58paste objects

5:59within the current dashboard to other dash

6:01boards and so on and so forth okay that's

6:03sort of the you

6:04know the fun stuff now here's the things

6:06you can't do you can't copy sheets in a

6:08dashboard items that

6:09rely on a specific sheet such as filters

6:12parameters and legends can't be copied and

6:14pasted layout

6:15containers with something you can't copy

6:17inside of them like a sheet or a filter so

6:18if you put

6:19anything from the above into a container

6:21then it immediately makes that container un

6:23-copy pastable

6:24if that makes sense objects on a device

6:26layout can't be copy and pasted at all and

6:29dashboard

6:29titles can't be copied and pasted either

6:30but that's never really a problem that's

6:32actually

6:32quite a small thing and so where this issue

6:35really falls apart is that you see when you

6:37copy and paste

6:38in any other tool you don't have to think

6:40about it you can just go and do it and the

6:42thing here is

6:43that actually tablets sort of still leaving

6:45some boundaries here so you have to think

6:47about what

6:47you can and can't do so in essence you're

6:49going to keep this simple you're going to

6:51keep this to

6:51copying logos and text and notes

6:53essentially and images maybe on dashboards

6:55that will make it sort

6:56of nice and easy for your workflow but for

6:59everything else that's not going to quite

7:01work

7:01the other thing is it does sort of start to

7:04introduce this other language of user

7:06interface

7:07into the product copy and paste suggests

7:09that you can do this anywhere for example

7:11if i was to click

7:12on a dashboard hit ctrl z and then hit ctrl

7:14paste it doesn't quite work but if i do go

7:17to a dashboard

7:18right click and select duplicate it kind of

7:21does the same thing so i know those two

7:23aren't the same

7:23thing i was trying to copy and paste the

7:25dashboard it didn't quite work but here the

7:27problem is that

7:28i've actually now got two ways of creating

7:30duplicate items i've got the object version

7:33which is on a dashboard which only works in

7:34a specific context with a long list of

7:36things

7:36you can't do then over here i've got this

7:38other mechanism for right clicking creating

7:41duplicates

7:42for things like sheets and tabs in the view

7:44and so i think this is confusing but

7:45nonetheless copy

7:46and paste is here i think it's going to

7:48change people's workflow it will make it

7:50easier as long

7:51as you stay within the realms of the

7:52feature so check it out let me know what

7:54you think in this

7:55video and yeah i'll catch you in the next

7:58feature video for 21.4.

Rollup

Tableau 2021.4 introduces copy and paste for dashboard items, which speeds up duplicating things like text boxes and containers but comes with a tight list of restrictions you need to know before relying on it.

Tim works on a floating dashboard containing a text box and a styled container, then moves objects across dashboards and between desktop and web edit to show where the feature works and where it breaks.

The Breakdown

Basic paste behaviour on a dashboard 0:00

Select a dashboard item's dropdown to copy it, then paste: if the original stays selected, the copy lands two pixels offset diagonally; if you deselect first, it always pastes to the top left. There's no click-and-drag repositioning in a dashboard, so use undo to walk back to where you want it.
Floating layout gives you more control 1:10

Copying works the same way with standard keyboard shortcuts (Cmd/Ctrl+C, Cmd/Ctrl+V) on containers as well as text boxes. Because there's no snap-to-grid, a floating layout makes it easier to position pasted items precisely than a tiled one.
Copying across dashboards and into web edit 2:13

You can copy an object on one dashboard, click into a different dashboard to make Tableau register the context, then paste it there — useful for reusing logos, text, notes or images. The same copy-paste also works between Desktop and web edit in either direction, though it can be flaky the first time you try it, so persist and retry if a paste doesn't take.
Pasted objects can lose their exact dimensions 3:54

When copying the same object between web edit and Desktop, its width and height parameters can come out different each time rather than staying consistent, so don't assume a pasted item will retain the source's exact size — check and resize as needed.
What you can't copy 4:36

Sheets themselves can't be copied, nor can dashboard items tied to a specific sheet — filters, parameters and legends. Any container that holds one of those becomes uncopyable as a whole, even if it also contains plain text. Objects on a device layout and dashboard titles can't be copied and pasted either.
Two separate duplicate mechanisms exist 7:02

Copy and paste on a dashboard is a distinct mechanism from right-click 'Duplicate' on sheets and tabs elsewhere in the view — they look similar but don't do the same thing, and copy-paste doesn't work for duplicating a whole dashboard the way you might expect.

Worth Knowing

No snap-to-grid support means precise placement is manual, even though grid display options exist
The first paste between Desktop and web edit sometimes silently fails; retrying with intent usually gets it to work
Putting any uncopyable item (sheet, filter, parameter, legend) inside a container makes the entire container uncopyable, even if it also holds plain text
Object width and height aren't reliably preserved across a copy, particularly moving between Desktop and web edit

Use It When

Reach for this when you need to quickly duplicate simple, sheet-independent dashboard elements — logos, text boxes, notes or images — across dashboards or between Desktop and web edit, but don't expect it to substitute for building or duplicating full dashboards or anything sheet-dependent.

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.

Rights. The video and its transcript are the property of TN Media Ltd. Unauthorised use or download is prohibited. © TN Media Ltd.