# Where to look when formatting gets stuck in Tableau

> 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:** 2022-06-19
- **Format:** Video · 1805 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Productivity
- **Tools:** Tableau (dashboards, default properties, formatting, tooltips)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/where-to-look-when-formatting-gets-stuck-in-tableau
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGEltrkJuq4

I tackle a subscriber suggestion about why formatting doesn't always behave as expected in Tableau. Using a deliberately messy workbook, I walk through where to look to fix axis number formats, colours, alignment, tooltips and table banding, and how to tell when you've hit an actual bug.

## Key takeaways

- Set number formats at the field's default properties (right-click field, Default Properties, Number Format) so the formatting sticks wherever you use the value, rather than fixing it on a single chart.
- Right-clicking and selecting Format doesn't reload based on what you clicked, it just reopens the formatting pane where you last left it, so always check the heading at the top says the right thing (axis, pane, rows, columns or fields).
- Formatting follows a hierarchy: edits at sheet level apply to both rows and columns, while editing rows or columns specifically overrides just that area, and you must select the field in the Fields drop-down to expose numerical formatting options.
- If a simple, straightforward formatting change won't apply, it's probably a bug; use Worksheet > Clear > Formatting to reset, then copy and paste formatting from a working sheet.
- Banding on tables is controlled separately for rows and columns with scope, colour and band-size settings, and is best reset fully to none rather than left part-applied.

## Chapters

- 0:00 The subscriber suggestion
- 1:31 Setting up the troublesome workbook
- 3:05 Number format in default properties
- 4:10 Axis versus pane confusion
- 7:47 Touring the formatting pane
- 10:48 Header colour and hierarchy
- 13:42 Fixing axis alignment
- 15:29 Formatting the tooltip values
- 18:51 Resetting formatting and spotting bugs
- 21:50 Fixing the cross-tab table
- 24:46 Removing shading and banding
- 28:31 Wrap up and suggestions

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/where-to-look-when-formatting-gets-stuck-in-tableau

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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