Create a Tableau Table of Contents (and make it Dynamic too!)

 



When COVID struck, Unemployment claims skyrocketed.  In order to get a better handle on the unemployment situations, my company asked me to build an Unemployment Dashboard.  When finished, it was 18 dashboards.  I personally thought the best way to allow it to be navigated was via a clickable table of contents.  The table of contents looked like the following.  To navigate to a dashboard, you simply clicked on the on the image.  




The community reacted very positively toward this dashboard, it currently has 130 favorites, and even Tableau shared it on Twitter and LinkedIn.  But the most positive responses were in relation to the table of contents.  Because of that, I figured I should share how I did it.  

In this video, I'll show you how to create a table of contents like I did in my Unemployment viz and I even show you how to make the charts in the table of contents completely dynamic - they'll update with your data.  Check out the video below.  





Thanks for reading and watching!  



Kevin Flerlage, September 8, 2020

Twitter | LinkedIn | Tableau Public

 


 


 




16 comments:

  1. Hi guys, great resource. How would you be able to apply this same technique but linking to dashboards in different workbooks?

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    1. Use could use images with a URL link to the other dashboard or you could use shapes with a URL action to the other dashboard. In both cases, just create a dashboard with images/shapes that link to other dashboards. I do this very often at work. Here is an example on my Tableau Public page: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/kevin.flerlage/viz/TheTableauChartCatalog/TableauChartExamples

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    2. Hi Kevin, thanks for your reply. While this is a possible solution, if I revert to using images then won't it be static again? My challenge is that I have to automate it a table of contents, since I need to account for workbooks in our portfolio getting pulled off our server from time to time as well as having different user permissions since some users don't have access to all workbooks.

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    3. I apologize, but I don't understand your question. Could you clarify for me? Thanks!

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    4. Oh wait, yes...that is true. You could try placing your dashboards into web objects then float transparent navigation buttons on top of them. Id imagine that would work.

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    5. Hi Kevin, thanks for following up on this! Do web objects allow row-level permissions since in this case different users should not be able to see all web objects, i.e. I'm restricting which workbooks they can see based on their permissions?

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    6. The plot thickens :) That is really a great question. I honestly don't know, although I doubt it. You could give it a try to find out, but ultimately I believe the Table of Contents might not be the best approach for that workbook....unfortunately :(

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  2. Thanks Kevin for all the advice and quick replies!

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    1. Hi Guys, Great idea. I do have question about the dynamic version with the transparent button. Is there a way to make it work with tooltips? I'd like to show a brief description of the view when the user hover over the tile. I'm struggling to find how to do that.

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    2. If you edit the navigation button, there is an option at the bottom to add a tooltip.

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  3. Is there a way to make this a scrolling page instead of a longer page?

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    1. I don't really understand your question. Can you clarify? Thanks :)

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