How to Add Info Buttons to Tableau Dashboards

By: Eric Parker

Eric Parker lives in Seattle and has been teaching Tableau and Alteryx since 2014. He's helped thousands of students solve their most pressing problems. If you have a question, feel free to reach out to him directly via email. You can also sign up for a Tableau Office Hour to work with him directly!

Does your dashboard feel cluttered because you're trying to communicate too much supporting information to your user? Making sure you cover everything your user needs to know can leave your output feeling more like an essay than a data-driven dashboard.

Info buttons are a staple of Tableau dashboards. They allow you to pack so much additional information to a dashboard without cluttering the view for users.

Some of my favorite elements to include in an info button are:

•Dashboard Descriptions

•Instructions

•Data Definitions

•Data Refresh Dates

•Referencing Data Sources

•Contact Info

So next the question is, how do you add an info button to a Tableau dashboard?

You could use the Image object, but you are restricted to a character limit and have no formatting options.

Instead, you should use a shape in a worksheet to create an info button! This gives you the most flexibility and control to document what you need for your users.

Check out this video to learn best practices for creating an info button for a Tableau dashboard.

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