# Tableau Layout Containers Explained in Under 10 mins : 2020 Updated

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2020-01-20
- **Format:** Video · 12 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (dashboards, formatting)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-layout-containers-explained-in-under-10-mins-2020-updated
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/96371LvULXM

I give an updated 2020 walkthrough of layout containers in Tableau, covering the three container types and the difference between tiled and floating behaviour. I demonstrate how containers nest, how padding and formatting work, and why where you drop items determines whether a container behaves horizontally or vertically.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau has three container types: horizontal (side by side), vertical (stacked), and tiled, plus a floating mode that lets you drop content anywhere on the canvas.
- In the item hierarchy on the Layout pane, containers are highlighted in blue and content in grey, which is the clearest way to understand a tiled dashboard's structure.
- Blank objects are useful for filling unused white space, and removing the top-level tiled container converts a dashboard into a floating one in a single step.
- Where you drop an item into a container matters: dropping to the side keeps it horizontal, dropping above or below converts it to a vertical container.
- Outer padding adds white space outside a container's border and inner padding inside it; double-clicking an object selects its parent container, and 'distribute contents evenly' spaces items out.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Intro and video resources
- 1:20 The three container types
- 2:14 Tiled versus floating behaviour
- 3:00 Reading the item hierarchy
- 4:04 Using blank objects for white space
- 4:39 Converting to a floating dashboard
- 5:40 Container formatting and padding
- 7:01 Drop position changes container behaviour
- 8:52 Distributing and nesting containers

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-layout-containers-explained-in-under-10-mins-2020-updated

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena