0:00Hey, it's Tim here and welcome to this
0:05video on dashboard grids in Tableau Desktop
0:10.
0:10What I wanted to do is show you how to use
0:12this very simple feature to help improve
0:14your
0:14layout in Tableau dashboard design.
0:17And so to switch the grid on, just head on
0:20over to the top and it's the third option
0:22from the top.
0:24So if you select show grid, you'll see that
0:26I've got this very, very big grid enabled
0:29here.
0:30You can see it goes, I think it's about 140
0:34pixels wide.
0:35To change that size, you just go down to
0:38the fourth option here, select grid options
0:41, and
0:41you can see here that I left it set at 140.
0:45Let's just reduce that down to 17.
0:48And now you can start to see that effect a
0:50little bit better.
0:51If I just drag this up here and zoom in,
0:54you can see that as I change the grid sizes
0:56, the
0:57background grid size also changes.
0:59If I set that to 40, the spacing changes as
1:02well.
1:02So it's a very useful feature to have on
1:05your dashboard.
1:06Now, if you have a grid, what you typically
1:09want to do is align content to the grid.
1:12However, at the moment in 2019.4 of Tableau
1:15Desktop, we don't have the ability to snap
1:18to grid.
1:20So what you have to do is you have to
1:21typically think about what kind of layouts
1:24can use a
1:24grid.
1:26And the main one is a floated layout.
1:29Floated layouts allow you to basically just
1:31place content onto the canvas, and then you
1:33can just move them around freely.
1:36There's no sort of layout containers that
1:38are tiled in the layout at all.
1:40You can see here on my layout options here
1:42on the left hand side, I have no tiled
1:44containers.
1:45Now the benefit of this is that it gives
1:48you a lot of freedom as to where you place
1:49items.
1:50But then you get into this sort of weird
1:51space where you're trying to line things up
1:53and
1:53you haven't got any point of reference.
1:55And that's where grids come into play.
1:58I'm going to set the dashboard grid sizing
2:00to about 20 pixels just to make it easier
2:03to see what's going on.
2:05And as I do that, you'll see that it
2:06changes.
2:07And I'm just going to zoom into the top
2:09left hand side of this dashboard.
2:12Now one thing to note, when you move
2:14content around, you're typically trying to
2:17line it
2:18to the grid.
2:19And so I can just select the sheet here,
2:22and I'll drag it and place it there.
2:25And then you'll see that this is now
2:26overlapping with the chart on the right
2:28hand side.
2:29So then I'll place that sort of right hand
2:32side section over there.
2:34Now this very top option here is taking the
2:36whole entire width of the view, you can see
2:39.
2:39And so what I'm going to do here is I'm
2:41just going to sort of drag the size into
2:44this boundary
2:45here.
2:46Make sure it's 20 pixels from the left and
2:4820 pixels from the top.
2:49So I've now got a nice border of about 20
2:52pixels going all the way around.
2:53And as you see, what I'm doing here is I'm
2:56just slowly moving the content as to where
2:58I need it.
2:59Now if I zoom back out, and I just scroll
3:01down here, I can start to do this a little
3:04bit faster as I get a little bit more
3:05comfortable with the tool.
3:07And you'll see here that the dashboard
3:10height that I've got doesn't go equally
3:12into the
3:13total height.
3:14And so I've got an uneven sort of number of
3:17pixels at the bottom there.
3:18If I press T, this will switch the
3:21dashboard tab over here.
3:23So if I press T again, you can see these
3:25two are switching.
3:27And I'll actually go to the dashboard
3:28options here and I'll set it to 60.
3:30I just need a multiple of two so that the
3:33bottom finishes in exactly the right place.
3:37And then I can now maintain a 20 pixel
3:39width all the way around the dashboard.
3:42That's pretty much there.
3:43And when you're working with large layout
3:45containers, those work too.
3:47You can just drag them there.
3:48And I can drag this one at the top down a
3:50little bit and make sure that sits there
3:52perfectly.
3:53And now if I zoom back out and I switch off
3:55the grid, you can start to see things are
3:57starting to take shape.
3:59On the right hand side, I haven't done a
4:00great job here.
4:01So let me just bring that option in.
4:04Again, you can see the width isn't
4:05perfectly aligned, but I'm going to take a
4:07guess at
4:08the gap there.
4:09And I'm going to leave everything else
4:11pretty much as is.
4:12Just going to add a gap in here.
4:14And so I'm doing this very quickly just to
4:16show you the net effect.
4:17And the net effect should be that you have
4:20a design that's a lot more coherent and it
4:22's
4:23a lot neater.
4:24Now I have a lot of OCD.
4:26And so this is still not good enough for my
4:29standards of layout.
4:31And so what I want to show you now is how
4:34to take the usage of grids to the very next
4:37level.
4:38Before I do that, I want to show you a poll
4:41that I ran on Twitter over the last few
4:43days.
4:43I simply ask how many people have been
4:45using grids.
4:46And I've got a range of sort of responses.
4:49And one of the interesting things I called
4:51out was this.
4:52This is called the grid system.
4:54The grid system is a very coherent way of
4:57laying out content.
4:58In fact, if you look at magazines or print
5:01or websites, they all tend to use some sort
5:04of column based structure to layout content
5:07.
5:07And the grids and columns help give
5:09structure to pretty much everything and
5:12where it's placed.
5:13If you look here, you'll see that the lines
5:15here, the spacing of text even follow that
5:17grid system rule.
5:19And even this header here follows the same
5:22grid structure as the text below.
5:25And so you can actually bring this into
5:27your dashboard design and use it to amplify
5:30the
5:30layout and the structure of all your
5:32content.
5:33Now there's a lot of reasons why you'd want
5:35to use a grid design.
5:36I'm going to link to this article in the
5:39description.
5:40And it talks a bit about what grids can do
5:42for your design.
5:44Essentially structure, sort of conformity.
5:46If you're collaborating with other people,
5:48it's a much, much easier system that
5:50everyone
5:50can understand.
5:51And there's a whole host of great reasons
5:53here why you should be using grids more in
5:55your design.
5:57But it's also a very hard thing to get
5:59right.
6:00If I look at my dashboard, now the size
6:03that I chose is 1,350 pixels across by 860.
6:08In every organization, I always get
6:11slightly different dashboard sizes to use
6:13because they've
6:14all got different laptops and screens
6:16available to users.
6:18However, what's not often done is some
6:20consideration as to do these proportions
6:23actually allow
6:24us to split content in a cohesive way.
6:27And so if you go over to this tool, I'll
6:28link it in the description.
6:30There are many tools like it available on
6:32the internet.
6:33All it does is it takes the width of your
6:36content.
6:37You see I've already typed here 1,350
6:40pixels.
6:41And it distributes it evenly based on the
6:43number of columns you'd like to have.
6:45And then a ratio for the spacing on the
6:48outer sides and the insides.
6:50So if I just set this to 1, you'll see here
6:53that the spacing on this particular one is
6:56exactly the same all the way through.
6:59The spacing of the gutter is exactly the
7:01same as the spacing of the margin.
7:03So it's sort of a very coherent setup all
7:05the way through.
7:06You can actually see here there's one that
7:09uses a 20 gutter and then the column width
7:12is 170.
7:13Now 170 doesn't go into 20 equally, so our
7:16grid system that we're using doesn't quite
7:18work out.
7:20But we can take this design and this column
7:22structure to help us distribute this
7:24content
7:25in a much more coherent way.
7:29If I go back to this grid guide, one of the
7:31things it allows you to do is download an
7:33image of your grid system.
7:35And so before I do that, I'm just going to
7:37set this to 5.
7:38Looking at my dashboard, I can see I've got
7:40sort of three main bits of content.
7:43I've got the area at the top, this area in
7:45the middle, and then the controls on the
7:48right
7:48hand side.
7:49If I think a little bit more, this bottom
7:52half is split into sort of three key areas.
7:55And so it makes sense if the filters in the
7:57control have a little less priority than
8:00the
8:01two, three charts that I've got here in the
8:03middle of the dashboard.
8:05This top section is going to go all the way
8:07across regardless.
8:08So if I just focus on this part of the
8:10design here where the main content is, I
8:12need these
8:13to be the same.
8:14So if I was to sort of think in my head,
8:17how would this work?
8:18Well this map takes roughly double the
8:22amount of space as this region over here.
8:25And again these two charts in terms of
8:28width take double the amount of space as
8:30this filter
8:31menu over here.
8:32So what I'm going to do is I'm going to
8:34basically look for a column layout of about
8:36five columns
8:37because I've got one over here, two in
8:39these two charts, and another two in these
8:42maps.
8:42So if I go back to the grid system, I'll go
8:45for five and I'll set a gutter ratio that's
8:48actually twice the size of my margin.
8:52And I'm going to go for something that
8:54gives us more space.
8:55I'm really sort of generous with whitespace
8:57.
8:58I think it's a great thing to have.
8:59So I'll download this image and I'll save
9:02it into my dashboard grids folder.
9:04You'll see that I've downloaded one before.
9:07And then what I'll do is I'll bring that
9:08into my dashboard as a floated image.
9:10So let's just drag that in.
9:12And we'll choose this image very, very
9:14carefully.
9:15This is this top one over here.
9:18And when we place it, we just need to make
9:20sure it's centered, apply that change, and
9:23then now we have our image.
9:25Now for this to work, I need it to be
9:27touching the very edges of our content.
9:29So it needs to be the same size as our
9:31dashboard.
9:32So if I head over to the layout tab by
9:35hitting T, I can select this image and I'm
9:38going to
9:39give it an X position of zero.
9:41That means it's going to be touching the
9:43very left-hand side of our content.
9:45And I'm going to give it a width of 1,350.
9:49So now it's going all the way across and it
9:51's now sitting smack bang where I'd like it.
9:54I need to be careful as I resize it that I
9:56don't move it.
9:57I need it to stay exactly where it is.
9:59So I'm just going to position this so that
10:01it just covers the numbers here and I can
10:03have it on my dashboard without it sort of
10:06confusing anything else.
10:08Now that I've got this grid system on my
10:10dashboard, I can now start divvying up the
10:13content in
10:13a more meaningful way.
10:14And I'm going to bring my grid back and
10:16what I'm going to do is I'm actually going
10:18to set
10:18the grid to a very low number just as a
10:21visual cue that I can use.
10:22So I'm going to set it to five.
10:25And now if I zoom in and we move over to
10:27the left, I'm actually just going to now
10:30start
10:31bringing this over here on the left-hand
10:34side.
10:35Now if you recall, if I go back to my
10:38website, this gutter is about 20 pixels.
10:42So if I just go back in over here, I can
10:44just nudge this a little bit more, just
10:47make sure
10:47that it's perfect.
10:49And the map is taking two columns worth of
10:51content.
10:52So that means it's going to stop just below
10:55the edge of this second column.
10:58Okay.
10:59I'm going to bring this top section down.
11:01The reason being I've got this nice big g
11:03utter here on the left-hand side.
11:05So I'd like to have an equally large amount
11:07of space between the content just to make
11:09sure things are spaced out evenly.
11:12Now if I go to the bottom, I'm going to
11:14create another similar sort of area space
11:17at the
11:17bottom.
11:18And now this is starting to look a little
11:20bit better.
11:21I'm going to take this chart here on the
11:23right-hand side and I'm going to bring that
11:25in here so
11:26it meets almost like a perfect junction
11:28between these two bits of content.
11:30Now something's not quite right here
11:32because I know as I select this option, it
11:34's very
11:34difficult to see the edge.
11:37Sometimes when you're working with Tableau,
11:38because you're working with charts, your
11:40visual
11:40sort of cues aren't the same as design cues
11:43.
11:43And so you just have to sort of get used to
11:46where the charts and the objects in your
11:48visualization
11:50actually touch the margins that you're
11:52trying to sort of observe.
11:54Okay.
11:55Now I'm going to go on the right-hand side,
11:56work on that side a little bit more, bring
11:58that in.
11:59And these are very sort of minor changes
12:01here.
12:01I'm not doing anything sort of onerous at
12:05all.
12:05And if you've got a floated layout, this is
12:07really going to help make sure your content
12:09sits just the way it should.
12:11Okay.
12:12Now if I scroll into this a little bit and
12:14zoom and just take a look at this, you can
12:16see here that this isn't quite set up
12:18correctly.
12:19And I just want to make sure it's just
12:20above this little grid line.
12:21So this is not precise.
12:23We can be precise a little later on.
12:25And I'll show you how.
12:27Now if I drag the right-hand side over
12:30there and then I go to the bottom and I
12:32just bring
12:33that up a little bit.
12:34It's roughly about the same.
12:36I'm not trying to be too accurate here.
12:38I just leave that there like that.
12:40And now if I hit G, you'll see that now the
12:42spacing on this is a lot better.
12:45It's a lot more evenly spread out.
12:47This is not touching the edge like it was
12:49before.
12:49The margins around the whole thing are more
12:51consistent.
12:52And it's now starting to just carry its own
12:55in terms of its layout here.
12:57The thing that I don't quite like is that
12:58these two charts here are buffering too
13:00much
13:00against each other.
13:01So what I'm going to do is I'm just going
13:03to zoom in.
13:03I'm going to hold G again.
13:05And I want to make sure that both of these
13:07actually end up being the right size.
13:09So if I – because they're floating, I can
13:11't change like the height or use a fixed
13:14width or height.
13:15So what I have to do is I have to go back
13:17out.
13:17And if I select the top one, I'll see it's
13:19got a height of 292.
13:20And if I select the bottom one, it's got a
13:23height of 291.
13:25So they are pretty much the same.
13:26So what I'll do is I'll just set these to
13:2980 each.
13:30And that will lose 10 pixels on both pieces
13:34of content.
13:35So if I set that to 80, there you go.
13:39You can see that these two change now.
13:42And it's a little bit more sort of evenly
13:45spaced out.
13:45And now what I can do is I can continue to
13:48move this back down to sit where it should
13:51do, just there.
13:53And this top one didn't change.
13:55And so by adding – taking 10 pixels off
13:57this bottom chart and this top chart, I've
13:59now introduced the space that I need
14:02between those sheets.
14:03I can now go back to this grid option at
14:05the top.
14:06And I just need to fix this heading here.
14:09You see this title is sitting too far on
14:11the left-hand side.
14:12So what I need to do is I'm going to do
14:14something a little bit different.
14:16I'm going to make it take up the whole
14:18entire space, okay?
14:19Again, the better way to do that is not to
14:21manually try and do it.
14:22It's to select the X position zero and just
14:25set the width to 1,350 pixels, okay?
14:29And now that that's done, we know it's
14:31taking up the whole entire width.
14:33But now what I can do is I can actually add
14:36outer padding to this.
14:38Now if I add it all the way around, it
14:39starts to squash my content and it starts
14:41to look
14:42a little bit funny.
14:43So what I'm actually going to do is I'm
14:45going to untick that all sides equal option
14:47.
14:47And just on the left-hand side, I'm going
14:50to add 20 pixels.
14:51Maybe it's actually 25 if I just keep going
14:54, not 225, 25.
14:55That's a little bit better.
14:58Let's try 30.
14:59It's a bit of a guessing game until we get
15:01just the right amount of pixels.
15:03There we go.
15:04So 35 on the left.
15:06And for good measure, I'm going to say 35
15:10on the right-hand side as well.
15:13So now our content is nice and evenly
15:15distributed.
15:17It's a little bit weird because we've
15:19chosen the five-column layout.
15:20Then the top, we've got seven objects going
15:22across.
15:23But because they go evenly across the whole
15:25entire thing and they're an uneven number,
15:28it ends up still working out because I've
15:30got a layout of seven items across the top,
15:33then five across the bottom, which means
15:35this profit per order column always looks
15:37central
15:37regardless of how this layout system works.
15:41And so now if I close this option here and
15:44I hide the grid, you can see that's a much
15:47better spaced out dashboard.
15:49And so that's the real sort of advanced way
15:51of using dashboard grids.
15:52There's a lot of features we'd love to add
15:54to this like snapping to allow us to just
15:57move the content around a little bit more
15:59freely, grouping, anchoring content to each
16:02other so you can group multiple objects
16:04then move them around as a group.
16:06At the moment, the only way to do that is
16:08to use layout containers.
16:09But hopefully in the future, we'll see
16:11improvements to the system to make this
16:13much, much easier.
16:14I hope you found this video useful.
16:16If you have, drop a like.
16:18Let me know in the comments.
16:20If not, let me know what kind of videos you
16:22'd like to see and I'll try and get to those
16:23at some point.
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